Cooking with Fernet Branca


Book Description

“A very funny sendup of Italian-cooking-holiday-romance novels” (Publishers Weekly). Gerald Samper, an effete English snob, has his own private hilltop in Tuscany where he whiles away his time working as a ghostwriter for celebrities and inventing wholly original culinary concoctions––including ice cream made with garlic and the bitter, herb-based liqueur known as Fernet Branca. But Gerald’s idyll is about to be shattered by the arrival of Marta, on the run from a crime-riddled former Soviet republic, as a series of misunderstandings brings this odd couple into ever closer and more disastrous proximity . . . “Provokes the sort of indecorous involuntary laughter that has more in common with sneezing than chuckling. Imagine a British John Waters crossed with David Sedaris.” —The New York Times




Branca


Book Description

A richly illustrated history of the world-famous Italian distillery and the country’s best-known liqueur, as seen through the brand’s legendary poster art and creative advertising campaigns. Since its founding in 1845, the Fratelli Branca Distillerie company has maintained a solid foothold in both domestic and international markets. Its unmistakable, bitter-tasting liqueur quickly became legendary with its combination of herbs and roots sourced from all over the world. The pioneering secret recipe, which is left to brew in oak barrels for more than a year, soon made history under the name Fernet-Branca. Today, the company continues to have its base in Milan, but exports its entire range worldwide thanks to a string of innovative advertising campaigns, some of which have entered design and poster history in more than a century of creative publicity. This book covers 170 years of the company’s life through a beautifully illustrated historical account that documents the continued rise of the brand, and includes many of the more successful advertising campaigns, offering a handsome collector’s album of historical coverage and archive material, with reproductions of poster art and sketches from the 1960s and 1980s.




Amazing Disgrace


Book Description

Gerald Samper is a ghost writer to the stars: rock singers, racing drivers and ski champions. And to Millie Cleat, the monstrous one-armed sailor, whose round the world voyage has made her the toast of Britain, and who has become the poster-girl for the Deep Blues, a mystical and nutty environmental group. Gerald pines for greater things, however, and would prefer to write the memoirs of Max Christ, the celebrated conductor. While he schemes to land this unattainable catch, he muses hilariously and viciously on the world of which he is such an unwilling part, looking out from his Tuscan hilltop and pining for his neighbour Marta, offspring of a crime family from Voynovia, who disappeared one day into thin air. Has she been the subject of a 'rendition'? Meanwhile, some oceanographers are planning revenge on Millie Cleat for her destruction of their greatest coup. Gerald convinces her that she has seen the face of Neptune in the depths ...




A Couple Cooks | Pretty Simple Cooking


Book Description

Popular husband-and-wife bloggers and podcasters (acouplecooks.com) offer 100 recipes with an emphasis on whole foods and getting into the kitchen together. Pretty Simple Cooking was named one of the best vegetarian cookbooks by Epicurious and best healthy cookbooks of 2018 by Mind Body Green. A love story at its finest, Alex and Sonja Overhiser first fell for each other--and then the kitchen. In a matter of months, the writer-photographer duo went from eating fast and frozen food to regularly cooking vegetarian meals from scratch. Together, the two unraveled a "pretty simple" approach to home cooking that kicks the diet in favor of long-term lifestyle changes. While cooking isn't always easy or quick, it can be pretty simple by finding love in the process. A Couple Cooks | Pretty Simple Cooking is an irresistible combination of spirited writing, nourishing recipes with a Mediterranean flair, and vibrant photography. Dubbed a "vegetarian cookbook for non-vegetarians", it's a beautiful book that's food for thought, at the same time providing real food recipes for eating around the table. The book features: 100 vegetarian recipes, with 75 vegan and 90 gluten-free options A full-color photograph for every recipe Recipes arranged from quickest to more time-consuming 10 life lessons for a sustainably healthy approach to cooking, artfully illustrated with a custom watercolor




Hot Chocolate


Book Description

Featuring 60 luxurious hot chocolate concoctions and pairings, ranging from ancient Latin American originals and European café classics to comforting childhood treats. No longer just a simple, syrupy sweet drink, today's hot chocolates are brimming with extraordinary flavors like cayenne, vanilla beans, Nutella, buttered rum, pistachios, wasabi, peanut butter, and malted milk balls. Featuring white chocolate foam, marshmallow cream, and frozen and fondue versions, the 60 recipes presented in Hot Chocolate are setting trends in haute chocolate consumption. Contributed by the world's preeminent chocolatiers, including Vosges Haut-Chocolat, Serendipity 3, Citizen Cake, Fran's Chocolates, Scharffen Berger Chocolate, and many more, these imaginative modern variations are for the hip chocoholic of any age. A cup of hot chocolate is twice as rich in antioxidants as a glass of red wine. And, some would say, is just as intoxicating.




Taste


Book Description

"From award-winning actor and food obsessive Stanley Tucci comes an intimate ... memoir of life in and out of the kitchen"--




Bitter


Book Description

The champion of uncelebrated foods including fat, offal, and bones, Jennifer McLagan turns her attention to a fascinating, underappreciated, and trending topic: bitterness. What do coffee, IPA beer, dark chocolate, and radicchio all have in common? They’re bitter. While some culinary cultures, such as in Italy and parts of Asia, have an inherent appreciation for bitter flavors (think Campari and Chinese bitter melon), little attention has been given to bitterness in North America: we’re much more likely to reach for salty or sweet. However, with a surge in the popularity of craft beers; dark chocolate; coffee; greens like arugula, dandelion, radicchio, and frisée; high-quality olive oil; and cocktails made with Campari and absinthe—all foods and drinks with elements of bitterness—bitter is finally getting its due. In this deep and fascinating exploration of bitter through science, culture, history, and 100 deliciously idiosyncratic recipes—like Cardoon Beef Tagine, White Asparagus with Blood Orange Sauce, and Campari Granita—award-winning author Jennifer McLagan makes a case for this misunderstood flavor and explains how adding a touch of bitter to a dish creates an exciting taste dimension that will bring your cooking to life.




The Great Deep


Book Description

Discusses the islands, coasts, reefs, abyssal depths, and ways the oceans work in people's imagination.




Gerontius


Book Description

Nearing the end of his career, Sir Edward Elgar impulsively decides to travel by ship to Brazil, where he encounters a woman from his past. Set in 1923 and based on true events, Gernontius is a modern classic, and takes the great composer out of his depths in this beautiful, episodic, mysterious novel set in 1923.




Restaurant Man


Book Description

The New York Times Bestselling Book--Great gift for Foodies “The best, funniest, most revealing inside look at the restaurant biz since Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential.” —Jay McInerney With a foreword by Mario Batali Joe Bastianich is unquestionably one of the most successful restaurateurs in America—if not the world. So how did a nice Italian boy from Queens turn his passion for food and wine into an empire? In Restaurant Man, Joe charts a remarkable journey that first began in his parents’ neighborhood eatery. Along the way, he shares fascinating stories about his establishments and his superstar chef partners—his mother, Lidia Bastianich, and Mario Batali. Ever since Anthony Bourdain whet literary palates with Kitchen Confidential, restaurant memoirs have been mainstays of the bestseller lists. Serving up equal parts rock ’n’ roll and hard-ass business reality, Restaurant Man is a compelling ragu-to-riches chronicle that foodies and aspiring restauranteurs alike will be hankering to read.