Why do some book covers instantly grab your attention, while others never get a second glance? Fusing word and image, as well as design thinking and literary criticism, this captivating investigation goes behind the scenes of the cover design process to answer this question and more.

As the outward face of the text, the book cover makes an all-important first impression. The Look of the Book examines art at the edges of literature through notable covers and the stories behind them, galleries of the many different jackets of bestselling books, an overview of book cover trends throughout history, and insights from dozens of literary and design luminaries. Co-authored by celebrated designer and creative director Peter Mendelsund and scholar David Alworth, this fascinating collaboration, featuring hundreds of covers, challenges our notions of what a book cover can and should be

This work presents a fantastic collection of sizzling recipes for grilling, griddling and barbecueing - how to prepare, cook and serve over 180 surefire recipes for perfect outdoor or indoor entertaining. Make the most of the versatility of the barbecue, from quickly-seared skewered prawns, a gently-marinated herby leg of lamb, a classic barbecued roast beef, or an aubergine and butternut salad with crumbled feta. Add zest to your grilling with all kinds of tasty dressings, salsas and sauces, marinades and relishes - try chilli and raspberry dip, fresh mint chutney, hot cashew nut sambal, or spicy Cuban mojo sauce. It provides practical guidance on choosing and setting up a barbecue, grill or griddle, and expert advice on fuels, lighting a fire and safety, and cooking times and testing. A barbecue is more than a meal, it is an event, with aromatic, gently-smoking or hot-seared coals providing the perfect platform for a memorable lunchtime or evening gathering of family and friends. It conjures up heavenly-herbed or sizzlingly spiced tastes and textures wafting across the garden or patio.Everything you need to know about the practicalities of barbecuing is contained here, including how to choose a barbecue, hibachi or grill and all the related cooking accessories and utensils. There is detailed guidance on how to use your grill and grilling equipment safely and for maximum results, and where best to site it, along with fuel and fire tips and at-a-glance timing guides. Each recipe is accompanied by illustrated step-by-step instructions and more than 750 colour photographs to ensure that barbecueing has never been easier. With something for everyone who loves to grill, this is the indispensable one-stop barbecue cookbook.

A sweet tooth is a powerful thing. Babies everywhere seem to smile when tasting sweetness for the first time, a trait inherited, perhaps, from our ancestors who foraged for sweet foods that were generally safer to eat than their bitter counterparts. But the "science of sweet" is only the beginning of a fascinating story, because it is not basic human need or simple biological impulse that prompts us to decorate elaborate wedding cakes, scoop ice cream into a cone, or drop sugar cubes into coffee. These are matters of culture and aesthetics, of history and society, and we might ask many other questions. Why do sweets feature so prominently in children's literature? When was sugar called a spice? And how did chocolate evolve from an ancient drink to a modern candy bar? The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets explores these questions and more through the collective knowledge of 265 expert contributors, from food historians to chemists, restaurateurs to cookbook writers, neuroscientists to pastry chefs. The Companion takes readers around the globe and throughout time, affording glimpses deep into the brain as well as stratospheric flights into the world of sugar-crafted fantasies. More than just a compendium of pastries, candies, ices, preserves, and confections, this reference work reveals how the human proclivity for sweet has brought richness to our language, our art, and, of course, our gastronomy. In nearly 600 entries, beginning with "a la mode" and ending with the Italian trifle known as "zuppa inglese," the Companion traces sugar's journey from a rare luxury to a ubiquitous commodity. In between, readers will learn about numerous sweeteners (as well-known as agave nectar and as obscure as castoreum, or beaver extract), the evolution of the dessert course, the production of chocolate, and the neurological, psychological, and cultural responses to sweetness. The Companion also delves into the darker side of sugar, from its ties to colonialism and slavery to its addictive qualities. Celebrating sugar while acknowledging its complex history, The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets is the definitive guide to one of humankind's greatest sources of pleasure. Like kids in a candy shop, fans of sugar (and aren't we all?) will enjoy perusing the wondrous variety to be found in this volume.

In Intimate Eating Anita Mannur examines how notions of the culinary can create new forms of kinship, intimacy, and social and political belonging. Drawing on critical ethnic studies and queer studies, Mannur traces the ways in which people of color, queer people, and other marginalized subjects create and sustain this belonging through the formation of "intimate eating publics." These spaces-whether established in online communities or through eating along in a restaurant-blur the line between public and private. In analyses of Julie Powell's Julie and Julia, Nani Power's Ginger and Ganesh, Ritesh Batra's film The Lunchbox, Michael Rakowitz's performance art installation Enemy Kitchen, and The Great British Bake Off, Mannur focuses on how racialized South Asian and Arab brown bodies become visible in various intimate eating publics. In this way, the culinary becomes central to discourses of race and other social categories of difference. By illuminating how cooking, eating, and distributing food shapes and sustains social worlds, Mannur reconfigures how we think about networks of intimacy beyond the family, heteronormativity, and nation.

Two is a prime number that has now become a fast-growing market widely known as empty nesters. There is so very little designed especially for just two people. Here, a stylish foodie who lives in the real world has focused on the needs of two. Throughout fifteen years, Isabel has produced many hundreds of great romantic dinners for two. For any occasion, there is a collection: quick and easy; a little more time; and to indulge. When it's just for two and you want something new, recipes for four aren't too helpful. How do you halve an egg for instance? Here, Isabel has produced a stylish collection of recipes for two. Be it for intimate dinner or not, you'll find everything here. Isabel has an international background and takes enthusiastic delight in her wonderful food. Here, she has created real temptation for all the senses and every recipe has been properly tested, so that even inexperienced cooks are guaranteed success. This is an eclectic mix for two that is sensitive to the different time frames that can apply in a busy lifestyle. It is seasonally aware and produces great eating, rich in flavours and textures.

Award-winning food critic Steven A. Shaw (a.k.a. "The Fat Guy") can get a last-minute dinner reservation at the most popular hot spot in town. He knows how that flawless piece of fish reached your plate. He can read between the lines of a restaurant review, and he knows the secrets of why some restaurants succeed and others fail. Now he shares his insider's expertise with food lovers everywhere.

But Turning the Tables is much more than an invaluable how-to guide to eating out. Written with style and humor, it's an in-depth exploration of the restaurant world -- a celebration of the incredibly intricate workings of professional kitchens and dining rooms. It is a delectable feast from a uniquely down-to-earth gourmet who has crisscrossed North America in search of culinary knowledge at every level of the food chain -- from five-star temples of haute cuisine to barbecue joints and hot dog stands -- and who has never been afraid to get his hands greasy on the other side of the swinging kitchen door.

In this delightful sequel to her bestseller Tender at the Bone, Ruth Reichl returns with more tales of love, life, and marvelous meals. Comfort Me with Apples picks up Reichl's story in 1978, when she puts down her chef's toque and embarks on a career as a restaurant critic. Her pursuit of good food and good company leads her to New York and China, France and Los Angeles, and her stories of cooking and dining with world-famous chefs range from the madcap to the sublime. Through it all, Reichl makes each and every course a hilarious and instructive occasion for novices and experts alike. She shares some of her favorite recipes while also sharing the intimacies of her personal life in a style so honest and warm that readers will feel they are enjoying a conversation over a meal with a friend.

The debut cookbook from cult favorite Austin bakery and beer garden Easy Tiger, featuring recipes from author David Norman's time spent exploring bread traditions throughout Europe and North America, plus menu ideas for incorporating homemade bread into everyday meals.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

In this highly anticipated cookbook, culinary instructor and baker David Norman explores the European breadmaking traditions that inspire him most--from the rye breads of France to the saltless ciabattas of Italy to the traditional Christmas loaves of Scandinavia. Norman also offers recipes for traditional foods to accompany these regional specialties, so home bakers can showcase their freshly made breads alongside a traditional Swedish breakfast spread, oysters with mignonette, or country pâté, to name a few examples. With rigorous, detailed instructions plus showstopping photography, this book will surprise and delight bakers of all stripes.

Best Food Book of 2014 by The Atlantic Looking at the historic Italian American community of East Harlem in the 1920s and 30s, Simone Cinotto recreates the bustling world of Italian life in New York City and demonstrates how food was at the center of the lives of immigrants and their children. From generational conflicts resolved around the family table to a vibrant food-based economy of ethnic producers, importers, and restaurateurs, food was essential to the creation of an Italian American identity. Italian American foods offered not only sustenance but also powerful narratives of community and difference, tradition and innovation as immigrants made their way through a city divided by class conflict, ethnic hostility, and racialized inequalities. Drawing on a vast array of resources including fascinating, rarely explored primary documents and fresh approaches in the study of consumer culture, Cinotto argues that Italian immigrants created a distinctive culture of food as a symbolic response to the needs of immigrant life, from the struggle for personal and group identity to the pursuit of social and economic power. Adding a transnational dimension to the study of Italian American foodways, Cinotto recasts Italian American food culture as an American "invention" resonant with traces of tradition.

"Honey" as a word may sound singular though it actually encompasses several products with similar properties as well as subtle differences. This book brings out the various aspects and types of honeys and enlightens the readers on the classification of this wonderful natural product. This book should serve as a useful handbook on Honey as virtually every aspect of this product has been covered exhaustively in brief and lucid language. As someone working with food for several decades, I enjoyed the recipes and would have enjoyed reading and trying out more of them. However, good cooks can always make use of the information contained in this book, to innovate and produce more recipes with honey -- in particular, by using the variations in flavours of the different types of Honey to obtain the taste and aroma they desire in the end product.

The ultimate gift for the food lover. In the same way that 1,000 Places to See Before You Die reinvented the travel book, 1,000 Foods to Eat Before You Die is a joyous, informative, dazzling, mouthwatering life list of the world s best food. The long-awaited new book in the phenomenal 1,000 . . . Before You Die series, it s the marriage of an irresistible subject with the perfect writer, Mimi Sheraton award-winning cookbook author, grande dame of food journalism, and former restaurant critic for The New York Times. 1,000 Foods fully delivers on the promise of its title, selecting from the best cuisines around the world (French, Italian, Chinese, of course, but also Senegalese, Lebanese, Mongolian, Peruvian, and many more) the tastes, ingredients, dishes, and restaurants that every reader should experience and dream about, whether it s dinner at Chicago s Alinea or the perfect empanada. In more than 1,000 pages and over 550 full-color photographs, it celebrates haute and snack, comforting and exotic, hyper-local and the universally enjoyed: a Tuscan plate of Fritto Misto. Saffron Buns for breakfast in downtown Stockholm. Bird s Nest Soup. A frozen Milky Way. Black truffles from Le Perigord. Mimi Sheraton is highly opinionated, and has a gift for supporting her recommendations with smart, sensuous descriptions you can almost taste what she s tasted. You ll want to eat your way through the book (after searching first for what you have already tried, and comparing notes). Then, following the romance, the practical: where to taste the dish or find the ingredient, and where to go for the best recipes, websites included."

Vegetables are more than just food for humans: they've been characters, companions, and even protagonists throughout history. "How Carrots Won the Trojan War" is a delightful collection of little-known stories about the origins, legends, and historical significance of 23 of the world's most popular vegetables. Curious cooks, devoted gardeners, and casual readers alike will be fascinated by the far-fetched tales of their favourite foods' pasts. Readers will discover why Roman gladiators were massaged with onion juice before battle, how celery contributed to Casanova's conquests, how peas almost poisoned General Washington, why some seventeenth-century turnips were considered degenerate, and, of course, how carrots helped the Greeks win the Trojan War (hint: carrots enabled the soldiers to stay inside the Trojan horse without a break).