Blockbuster season of summertime book releases
By Doug Mosley
doug_mosley@hotmail.com
There’s no doubt that April, May, and June always seems to feature the best new book releases in barbecue, grilling and outdoor cooking. It only makes sense, what with the warmer weather all around the country, the soon-to-come major summertime holidays (Memorial Day and 4th of July) and, of course, Fathers’ Day, this is the time of year where these sort of books fly off the bookshelves. After enjoying the privilege of writing this column for the last nine years, I feel I have enough of a perspective to say that some years have been blockbusters and others have been flops. This year? By the looks of the authors with new releases on tap, I think this one will be a blockbuster!
Let’s lead off with a book for which I’ve been waiting years to see. Even with all that pent-up anticipation, this book is better than I could have imagined. I know it’s only June, but this book is going to set the bar pretty high for the competition in this year’s NBBQN “Barbecue Book of the Year” award.
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Big Bob Gibson’s BBQ Book: Recipes and Secrets from a Legendary Barbecue Joint by Chris Lilly ($24.99, Clarkson Potter, 256 pp.) is an absolute must-buy for your bookshelf. First-time author Lilly got it near perfect right out of the box. Not only is the book well-written, but he scored a big commitment from his publisher to release a richly illustrated book that is well laid out and jam packed with full-color pictures that tell compliment the story well. The pictures aren’t just of finished dishes, but also of people, and places that tell the story beyond the words.
As much as how I like how the book looks, I love how the book reads. Into the collection of recipes, Lilly weaves in the story of Big Bob Gibson’s, from its humble beginnings to its world-championship status it now enjoys.. Plus, the story he tells isn’t just a polished-up tale but rather a bared recounting of the hard-scrabble years, battles and sacrifices that made Big Bob Gibson’s what it is today.
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In any other month, I would have led off raving about Barbecue Secrets DELUXE! by Ron Shewchuk ($29.95, Whitecap Books, 394 pp.). I loved Shewchuk’s previous books (Barbecue Secrets and Planking Secrets). He’s continued that string of great books with his latest release. Checking in at nearly 400 pages, it’s massive in size and content, bordering on practically being an encyclopedia of sorts. Some material is pulled from his previous books, but there’s plenty of new stuff to make this a worthwhile buy even if you have the other two. Plus, Shewchuk and Ted Reader are my favorite Canadian authors and I highly recommend Shewchuk’s podcasts.
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Richard McPeake is another author I like a lot and I have further respect for him knowing that he has gone the self-publishing route in the four books he has written. I’ve really enjoyed each one and McPeake has recently released Simply Backyard Barbecuing: From Grilling to Smoking ($17.95, www.ribstarsbbq.com, 296 pp.).
McPeake, who bills himself as the Educator of Que, has an impressive cooking pedigree. He was graduated from the Culinary Institute of America (yep, the CIA), was awarded the 2009 Presidents’ Award from the American Culinary Federation and has been a professional chef for 30 years. Over the past eight years, he’s been teaching barbecue cooking classes in the Kansas City area and its from these classes that he’s developed this book. As you would expect of someone from McPeake’s educational background, the book covers the subject material thoroughly, practically like a text book.. He provides a wealth of tips, techniques and information even before he gets into the recipes. The recipes show a high level of creativity and I will guarantee you there are plenty that will challenge you. But not in a way that will have you scrambling for obscure ingredients; rather, McPeake will guide you through flavor combinations a bit out of the norm but sure to result in impressive dishes.
On McPeake’s web site, he directly quotes from my review on his book Backyard BBQ: The Art of Smokology: “…somewhere there’s a publisher who is desperately seeking Richard W. McPeake...”. With his latest excellent book, McPeake is making it difficult for publishers to overlook him much longer.
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Finally, with Fathers’ Day coming up soon, let me suggest a pair of titles that will be hit gifts on Dad’s special day. First, there’s Dad’s Awesome Grilling Book, by Bob Sloan ($24.95, Chronicle Books, 224 pp.). Sloan’s The Tailgating Cookbook was previously approvingly reviewed in this column. I loved his sense of humor in that book and his new book is just as witty. And for someone like me who has some little ones at home, you’ll especially enjoy his comments and tales about grilling around, for and with his kids.
The book’s layout is much in the standard form (chapters on appetizers, beef, pork, lamb, etc…), although I did really appreciate the chapter on 10 Super-Fast, Foolproof Grilling Recipes, geared toward those sort of instances when you have to pull off a weeknight dinner in a limited amount of time. Another bonus is the center section of full-color pictures of finished dishes.
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The other book to recommend as a unique Fathers’ Day gift is Barbecue: Over 80 Delicious Recipes by Thomas Feller ($24.95, Hamlyn, 160 pp.). With a ho-hum title like that, you know there has to be a hook for this book to garner high praise and there is: it’s packaged in a box that looks like one wooden matches come in and the book’s cover is literally a picture of wooden matches!
Beyond the pretty packaging, the book does offer enough in content to make this a good buy. There are full-color pictures of nearly every completed dish. But even beyond that is the perspective of the book. It was originally released in France two years ago and now is being made available in an English version by British publisher Hamlyn (thus, you may need to resort to online sellers to find it). Don’t worry, it’s not like you won’t recognize the foodstuffs in French barbecue. But it is certainly different from what you’ll normally see (Beef Kefta Kebabs, Grilled Sardines, Tomatoes Provencal Style).
Whichever book you buy for Dad (or what the heck, buy them both!), I know he’ll enjoy them.
Back in the early 90s, Harvey Penick gained his 15 minutes of fame when he penned a book called, Harvey Penick’s Little Red Golf Book, a collection of anecdotes about golf and life that became the highest selling golf book ever. Although Penick wasn’t a household name before authoring the book, he was a well-respected golf pro who was the head coach at the University of Texas and also coached golfing greats Tom Kite, Ben Crenshaw and others. But once his book hit the market, it was immediately on the desk of every golfer, from the hacker to the shark, as their statement book (You know what that is, right? Those books people set on the corner of their desk that they think makes a statement about them, regardless of whether they’ve actually read them or not). Except for mine. That’s not to say I hate golf or anything like that, it just wasn’t my thing so much that this would be the book to define me. But now that book has arrived.
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The best way I can describe Bixology: Cocktails Culture and a Guide to the Good Life by Eve O’Neill and Doug ‘Bix’ Biederbeck ($16.95, Chronicle Books, 160 pp.) is that it is the drinking man’s equivalent to Harvey Penick’s book. It’s little, it’s brown and it’s chock-full of anecdotes about drinking and life. Since I first picked it up a few days ago, I can’t seem to put it down for long. And I can’t decide what I enjoy the most: perusing the cocktail recipes, reading various historical tidbits and factoids or enjoying the philosophical jaunts that O’Neill and Biederbeck offer up. Whichever it is, Bixology lives up to its claim as the guide to the good life. Now I’ve just got to find some room on my desk for it.
Author Ray Foley is back again with another book. And that’s a good thing, because I’ve always enjoyed each one I’ve had the privilege to read. Foley is the founder and publisher of Bartender Magazine. Previously in this space, several of his books have been positively reviewed and now his latest, The Best Summer Drinks: 500 Incredible Cocktail and Appetizer Recipes ($4.99, Sourcebooks, 226 pp.), joins that list. This pocket-sized book is crammed full of creative cocktail recipes and then you get a section on appetizers at the end as a sort of bonus. There’s no glossy pics in this book, but at five bucks you’re not paying for that either. It’s pretty basic, just the recipes laid out one after the other in alphabetical order. There are plenty of ideas to keep your party rolling all summer long.
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Now if you’d rather shell out the extra bucks for those full-color pictures, let me recommend another book that you’ll enjoy as well. Sips & Apps: Classic and Contemporary Recipes for Cocktails and Appetizers by Kathy Casey ($19.95, Chronicle Books, 204 pp.) in many ways brings the same level of creativity to the topic as the The Best Summer Drinks, and then supplements that with those pics. And kudos to the photographer, food stylists and art director as well – if you first “drink and eat” with your eyes, you’re sure to enjoy this book.
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