April 2003 Gourmet Guess Contest Prize

The Essential Mediterranean
How Regional Cooks Transform Key Ingredients into the World's Favorite Cuisines
by Nancy Harmon Jenkins

In The Essential Mediterranean, Nancy Harmon Jenkins explores the culinary life of the Mediterranean, offering recipes and cultural history from North Africa, Turkey, Lebanon, Italy, France, Greece, and Spain. Chapters serve as extended introductions for 130 recipes that best make use of staple ingredients shared across all Mediterranean cuisines: salt, olives/olive oil, wine (including vinegar), beans/legumes, tomatoes/peppers, aromatics (garlic, onions, herbs, and spices), pork products, seafood, cheese/dairy products, and grains. The book is filled with folklore, anecdotes, interviews with Mediterranean experts, chefs, artisans, and home cooks, and imparts a deep understanding of the fundamentals of Mediterranean cooking and culture.

Retail value: $29.95

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From the Cook's Garden
Recipes for Cooks Who Like to Garden, Gardeners Who Like to Cook, and Everyone Who Wishes They Had a Garden to Cook From
by Ellen Ecker Ogden

Ellen Ecker Ogden is co-owner of The Cook's Garden in Vermont, America's premiere organic seed company (1 million catalogs are shipped each year.) and no one knows what to do with the cornucopia of a home-grown garden or produce purchased at farmer's markets and roadside stands better than Ellen.

In her first cookbook, Ogden shares timeless recipes that have been inspired by her family's own seasonal gardening. It offers a season-by-season guide to breads, soups, side dishes, desserts, and more. Each chapter features a basic recipe that can spin off into variations depending on the season--take a common puréed vegetable soup and turn it into Curried Summer Squash Soup or Pumpkin Soup, perfect for fall. Also included are excerpts from Ellen's letters about the garden: trials, weather, discoveries, as well as harvest and preparation information for the best tasting vegetables.

Retail value: $29.95

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Visit cooksgarden.com

French Food at Home
by Laura Calder

When most people think of French food, they anticipate "complicated to make," "hard-to-find ingredients" or "too fancy." In French Food at Home, Laura Calder shows that great French food doesn't have to be any of that. The French cooking of everyday life is lighthearted, accessible, and suited to modern tastes. It's about creating a meal using easy-to-find local ingredients. And, above all, it's about slowing down and savoring the pleasures of good food, wherever you live.

Retail value: $24.95

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The Cornbread Book
A Love Story with Recipes
by Jeremy Jackson

An obsessive cornbread baker and eater, Jeremy has created 50 original recipes for everything from Carrotbread, Griddlecakes, and Indian Pudding to Curly Churros, Persimmon Coffee Cake, and Sour Cream Pie Crust. Jeremy offers tips on choosing the right pan, as well as descriptions of various kinds of cornmeal and their origins. From the ubiquitous yellow to the unusual varieties of blue, red, and white, Jeremy recommends the best ways to store and use these grains. Such useful information, coupled with Jeremy's sense of humor and writing style makes this not only a good cookbook, but also a fun read.

Retail value: $14.95

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Also visit www.cornbreadbook.com

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