Rage Baking: The Transformative Power of Flour, Fury, and Women’s Voices
50+ recipes, short essays, and quotes from some of the best bakers, activists, and outspoken women in our country today—this cookbook encourages women to use sugar and sass as a way to defend, resist, and protest.
Since the 2016 election, many women across the country have felt rage, fury, and frustration, wondering how we got here. Some act by calling their senators, some write checks, some join activist groups, march, paint signs, grab their daughters and sons, and raise their voices. But for so many, they also turn to their greatest comfort—their kitchen.
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Hagen’s Curse
Hagen’s Curse is on my to review list, but the description, somehow, reminds me of the bakery in Howl’s Moving Castle.
In the medieval town of Hagen, there stands the most famous bakery in all of Germany: Heckler Delights. When the reclusive beekeeper Anika Everhart becomes the first person ever to challenge the bakery, shocking the town with an extraordinary new recipe, she is arrested for suspicions of witchcraft. Hans Heckler, the wicked heir to Heckler Delights, has claimed that Anika is a servant of the devil. If she cannot overcome his scheme and prove her innocence, she will lose more than a mere recipe. She will lose her life.
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The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections by Tina Connolly
Tor dot com put out some excellent stories and novellas and this one, by Tina Connolly is no exception. Or perhaps, it should be an exception, because the story goes beyond expectation and is sublime.
A young food taster to the Traitor King must make a difficult choice in this story of pastries, magic, and revenge. The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections is a Tor.com Original from fantasy author Tina Connolly.
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Kitchen Confidential
This is also a (non-fiction) book on my TBR — whether that’ll make me hungry or not is a different matter, but it’ll be interesting to find out.
After twenty-five years of ‘sex, drugs, bad behaviour and haute cuisine’, chef and novelist Anthony Bourdain has decided to tell all. From his first oyster in the Gironde to his lowly position as a dishwasher in a honky-tonk fish restaurant in Provincetown; from the kitchen of the Rainbow Room atop the Rockefeller Center to drug dealers in the East Village, from Tokyo to Paris and back to New York again, Bourdain’s tales of the kitchen are as passionate as they are unpredictable, as shocking as they are funny.
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McGee on Food and Cooking: An Encyclopedia of Kitchen Science, History and Culture
One book that is my go to out of sheer curiosity and finding out about esoteric food items is McGee on Food and Cooking: An Encyclopedia of Kitchen Science, History and Culture, which is truly a labour of love.
McGEE ON FOOD AND COOKING is a masterpiece of gastronomic writing; a rich, addictive blend of chemistry, history and anecdote that no self-respecting foodie or cook can afford to be without.
McGEE ON FOOD AND COOKING renders the everyday miracles of the kitchen wondrous and fascinating, shedding light on questions that have puzzled generations of cooks. If you’ve ever wondered why fish goes off quicker than meat; how to tell stale eggs from fresh ones; why you’re supposed to leave pancake batter to rest; how it is that cheese can possibly have so many different permutations of flavour and texture; why chopping onions makes you cry; about the health benefits of chocolate and alcohol; why Jerusalem artichokes make you fart; or even how to avoid poisoning your guests – then this is the book for you. With the enlightenment it brings, you may find yourself emerging from the culinary dark ages.
Harold McGee’s original ON FOOD AND COOKING was acclaimed as a masterpiece on both sides of the Atlantic, and won the 1986 André Simon Food Book of the Year. Now completely rewritten for a new generation, reflecting the seismic shifts in science and upsurge in home cooking over the past two decades, this new book will amaze all those who love food.
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This post was inspired by this week’s Top Ten Tuesday – why not visit and see what other books you might discover?