Some favourites from the 2005 World Food Media nominees
Just taking a look at the World Food Media awards website and some of my favourite food writers appear on their list of nominees.
No Nigel Slater, alas, but Stephanie Alexander, Dean Brettschneider and Lauraine Jacobs, Nigella Lawson, Anthony Bourdain and Cuisine magazine are among those nominated for the biennial awards which, apparently, are known as the food and drink industry’s equivalent to the Oscars.
Stephanie Alexander’s The Cook’s Companion has been nominated in the category of Publications: Best Food Book and I really think that she deserves to take the Golden Ladle here. From my perusal of the book, I would consider The Cook’s Companion to be a near-invaluable kitchen necessity. I often, now I am without it, find myself wondering, “how would Stephanie prepare this?” and trying to remember the useful list of ingredients that, for instance, silverbeet or lamb goes well with. Another book in that category, Last Chance to Eat by Gina Mallett, is currently sitting by my bedside at the moment – the story of my life! – and I hope to get around to reading it soon.
Taste: Baking with Flavour by Dean Brettschneider and Lauraine Jacobs is in competition for the Best Soft Cover Recipe Book (Under US$25) along with Dear Francesca by Mary Contini, partner in Edinburgh’s famous Italian delicatessen Valvona and Crolla. While I do love Taste, the blend of evoctive family memoir and Italian food in Dear Francesca just might see me leaning in that direction.
Anthony Bourdain has been nominated for the Best Food Journalist alongside Alastair Hendy – the most nominated person in the list – Rob McKeown, Fuchsia Dunlop, John Newton and Helen Greenwood.Alastair Hendy also crops up in the Best Hard Cover Recipe Book (Over US$25) with his book, Home Cook. A book I’ve heard a lot about – Tessa Kiros’ Falling Cloudberries: A World of Family Recipes – also crops up in this category as does Casa Moro by Samuel and Samantha Clark. I recently spent some very pleasureable time browsing through their first book, The Moro Cookbook.In the New Zealand end of things, there were a total of eight nominations for Cuisine magazine and its contributors. It deservedly got a nomination in the Best Food Magazine category, alongside BBC Good Food, Gourmet Traveller, Vogue Entertaining + Travel, Gastronomica and Der Feinschmecker.In 2003 Cuisine won the award for Best Food and/or Drink Web Site. The Cuisine site is a mine of decent recipes and information on ingredients and it has been nominated again. The other nominees in this category were:BBC FoodJacques Pepin: Fast Food My WayLeite’s CulinariaGastronomic MeditationsAwards in 25 categories will be presented at a ceremony on Saturday 29 October during the Tasting Australia festival in Adelaide. A festival which, incidentally, looks very tempting…
Interesting list. I wonder how they are compiled. I own three of the books in Best Food Book list – Stephanie Alexander, Neil Perry and Gay Bilson. They are three entirely different styles. Plenty by Gay Bilson is beautifully and brilliantly written, the Neil Perry book is badly written (and the way the photos are presented I find jarring) but has great cooking tips that only a chef would know, and I keep Stephanie’s book in the kitchen for reference but never use her recipes because I’ve had a couple of disasters when I have. I’m picking Plenty by Gay Bilson to be the winner.
That’s funny Barbara – I’ve had problems with one or two of Stephanie’s recipes too. I thought it was just me! She’s undoubtedly brilliant as a reference but I’m treating her recipes a bit warily now.