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Hurrah for the James Beard Book, Broadcast and Journalism Awards Winners!

The James Beard Book Broadcast and Journalism awards were held this past Saturday night, and a whole new crop of book authors, TV and radio folks and food journalists were honored with what is still considered the food world's greatest honor -- a James Beard medal. You can see the full list of win ... More >>

IACP 2013 Food Writing Award Finalists Announced

The IACP, which would be the International Association of Culinary Professionals and not the International Association of Chiefs of Police -- yes, that's an old joke now, but you try googling IACP and see what you get -- announced their 2013 award finalists this morning for four of their prestigious ... More >>

The Magnificent Chicken Should Come With A Warning (You're Going To Want A Chicken) 5 Magnificent Chickens

Some get excited over celebrity chef sightings; for us, it's books about chickens. The Magnificent Chicken, a follow-up to Brooklyn photographer Tamara Staples' out-of-print book The Fairest Fowl (2001), truly is magnificent. Alongside the photos, Staples lists each breed's finer points (a good eg ... More >>

5 Best New Gift-Worthy Cookbooks

The beauty of cookbooks: there is truly something for everyone. Whether you've got a boss who has a thing for handmade pasta, a friend who thinks they're Gordon Ramsay (but doesn't own a pepper mill), or a cousin who's obsessed with every Michelin-starred chef, you can find a cookbook to suit their ... More >>

The Year of The Vegan Cookbook: 5 Great New Animal-Free Titles

Last year was the year of canning and preserving, this year, it's vegan cookbooks. And not just celebrity vegetable-centric dinners like we've had recently, but everyday slow cooker and sandwich fodder -- even a book dedicated to vegan "cheese." Our favorite? The gorgeous Pure Vegan book by Altade ... More >>

10 Great Cookbooks for Summer

Sure, you may have a dozen newly opened gastropubs within Yelp distance from where you live. Or food trucks. Or, arguably best of all, neighborhood taquerias. But in summer, when L.A. farmers markets are loaded with gorgeous produce, sometimes it's more fun to cook your own dinner. Just to prove you ... More >>

10 Groundbreaking Celebrity and Music Photographers

Right now, there are at least three music-themed photo exhibits going on in L.A., and a few celebrity-themed ones, too. Peter Fetterman Gallery is showing "Forever Young: The Art of Music Photography" through September 8, while Kana Manglapus Projects is exhibiting "Factory 77" through September 10, ... More >>

Book Review: Take Away, A Food Photographer's Story

On these hot, muggy nights when your ambient kitchen temperature rivals that of your oven, we highly recommend whipping up a batch of ice cream for dinner (protein, calcium, fiber if you add fruit). It's also the perfect excuse settle in with a fantastic photography-driven food book like Take Away b ... More >>

New Beer Books: Beer Awesomness The Beer Tasting Tool Kit For Summer Beer Fun

Summer beer books are a lot like summer movies. Fun, if not always a Utopias sort of memorable moment. But if you have ever done, or maybe still do, crazy things like keg stands when the summer days (and subtitles) get longer, the just-released Beer Awesomeness: A Champion's Guide to Party Skills, A ... More >>

The Official High Times Cannabis Cookbook A Pot Cocktail Recipe

Whenever another pot cookbook lands on our desk, as The Official High Official Times Cannabis Cookbook recently did, we try to look at it from an unbiased reviewer's perspective -- but usually decide the publisher was likely stoned when they accepted the book proposal. The recipes tend to be eeril ... More >>

Cookbook Of The Week: The Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream Book Is Not Your Mother's (Damn) Ice Cream Book

It's the height of summer, and publishers seem to know that we are always tempted by new frozen churnings like those in the Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream Book, written by shop owners Jake Godby and Sean Vahey and writer Paolo Lucchesi. Forewarning: This is not a general reference book (for that, we s ... More >>

James Beard 2012 Award Winners

The James Beard awards are the food equivalent of the Oscars: prestigious golden whatsits, fancy dress event, silly acceptance speeches, requisite grouching about the whole thing being rigged. Oh, yes, and lots of highly talented people getting much-deserved recognition. This year's awards ceremony ... More >>

2012 IACP Award Winners Announced

The IACP, which would be the International Association of Culinary Professionals and not the International Association of Chiefs of Police -- yes, that's an old joke now, but you try googling IACP and see what you get -- announced their 2012 award winners at their annual conference last night in Ne ... More >>

2012 James Beard Foundation Award Nominees Announced: The Mozza Edition

Yesterday the James Beard Foundation announced its 2012 nominations for book awards, journalism, design and graphics, broadcast and media, and restaurant and chefs. It is a very long list. There were also awards given for lifetime achievement (Wolfgang Puck!) and humanitarian of the year (Charlie Tr ... More >>

Games People Played

Mexican Cooking, from a Korean Point of View A Chicken Pozole Recipe

Amazon​So why is a Korean food expert writing about Mexican cooking? It makes sense when you find out that Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee's parents had a Mexican grocery in the San Fernando Valley. Working there, she learned many a dish from the women who came in to shop, and she later immersed herself ... More >>

2011 IACP Finalists Announced

​The IACP, which would be the International Association of Culinary Professionals and not the International Association of Chiefs of Police -- which comes up first on a Google search, proving maybe that cops can SEO better than writers -- yesterday announced the finalists for both the 2011 Coo ... More >>

Cook For Your Hamster: Mathijs Van Der Paauw's Happy Hamster Rodent Cookbook

​Do you love your rodent? I bet you don't love it more than Mathijs Van Der Paauw loves his hamster. Van Der Paauw (yes, that's really his name) cooks for his hamster Lucy. He makes teeny tacos for her, and itty bitty pizza, and pine seeds in a tiny bell pepper bowl, and micro-cheeseburgers, a ... More >>

Cookbook Review: Tartine Bread

Chronicle Books​The sight is familiar to anyone who has ever wandered down San Francisco's 18th Street corridor on a weekend morning. Beginning hours before the bakery actually opens, neighborhood folks--and not a few commuters--line up along the sidewalk outside of Tartine for hissing-hot lo ... More >>

LOVERS AND OTHER DAILY SHOW CORRESPONDENTS

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Now in Diary and Calendar Form

​Just a quick note to let you know that Pride and Prejudice and Zombies now comes in diary form. And, very soon, it will also come in calendar form. Many people said that the best thing about that novel--Seth Grahame-Smith's clever mashup of Jane Austen's cherished novel and the undead--was ... More >>

"Japanese Cocktails" Book Review Begets A Publishing Industry Soliloquy An Aloe Margarita Recipe

​Japanese Cocktails by Kuri Kato is a curious new cocktail book that we sort of love, and like many "sponsored" books, sort of tire of quickly. There are certainly some intriguing recipes like the Aloe Margarita (recipe after the jump) that we can't wait to shake up on one of Santa Monica's dr ... More >>

EXCLUSIVE: Legendary Rock Photographer Jim Marshall Remembered by Baron Wolman, Neal Preston, Lisa Law and Other Colleagues

[Legendary rock photographer Jim Marshall passed away last week at 74. One of our own photographers and writers, Anna Webber, wrote this personal reminiscence about Marshall and his legacy. She contacted Marshall's fellow purveyors of iconic '60s images and got their exclusive permission to reproduc ... More >>

2010 James Beard Finalists Announed: Suzanne Goin, Matt Molina, Michael Cimarusti, Jonathan Gold, Patric Kuh Nominated

James Beard​Twitter is at it again. The 2010 James Beard Award Finalists were announced this morning via the foundation's Twitter account. L.A's Suzanne Goin, of Lucques, AOC Wine Bar, Hungry Cat and Tavern was nominated for Outstanding Chef, while Matt Molina of Mozza and Michael Cimarusti of ... More >>

PEEK AT PUSSY FOR THE RIGHT PRICE

A Web site you can dig your claws into

"Stuff On My Cat" Website For Sale: Thousands Of Unpublished Cat Photos Could Be Yours

Photo courtsey of StuffOnMyCat.comThousands more like this could be yours! Attention all you who like cats, stuff, and stuff on cats: the website "Stuff On My Cat" is up for sale. Mario Garza, the website's creator, was 20 years old when he started the site. He is 24 years old now. Four years and ... More >>

Tom Petty's Los Angeles

Holiday Coffee-table Books for the Whole Damn Family

Blissfulsomeness

Inflatable Ego

A boy-meets-balloon-gets-girl story

When Pac-Man Was God

Best art bits & bytes

The Coffee Table

All things bright and beautiful

Sandow's Inferno

Birk and friends bring Dante to paper, stage and screen at the same time

Sandow's Inferno

Out of L.A. and into the fire

Seduction of the Degenerate

Rebel Visions and the underground-comics revolution

Read This

comic creators recommend their favorites

The Coffee Table

The Coffee Table

Our annual capitulation to last-minute, support-your-local-bookstore holiday commercialism

This Is Progress?

Cops, land and the legacy of the Progressive era