Cookbooks on the Hot Seat

Posted on by Cynthia Bertelsen

If you’re the type who loves the Oscars and Emmys, you might be interested to know that in the world of cookbooks there are awards every bit as important as those.

Drumroll … and the winner is …

You know the drill.

And now the suspense is over, the losers licking their egos, and everyone wondering what were they thinking????

How the judges judge, and why, remains a mystery to me. One of these days I should go over the lists of the judges and the books judged and discern a pattern, methinks!

Until that day, here are the winners for 2010 awards. Happily no diet books held sway. ;-)

JAMES BEARD FOUNDATION AWARDS:

Cookbooks to Drool For are HERE and the best cookbook of the year is The Country Cooking of Ireland, by Colman Andrews (2009), former editor of Saveur magazine.

THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CULINARY PROFESSIONALS AWARDS:

International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) nominees HERE. Lots of New Orleans books … and international books, too, with the usual Eurocentric focus for the most part (Portugal, etc.). Winners HERE.