Fred Plotkin’s The Authentic Pasta Book is mentioned on March 6, 2009.

Simon Hopkinson’s books are discussed on February 21, 2008.

The Norman Table is reviewed on December 3, 2007.

The Books of Elizabeth Schneider   I first met Elizabeth Schneider in Nach Waxman’s Kitchen Arts & Letters when I was apprenticing under him to learn how to become a bookseller. Or maybe I met her there before I worked for him. I honestly don’t remember. It’s been over 20 years ago. I was familiar with her early work, from her columns in The International Review of Food & Wine, to her clever,...

When I lived in Charleston in the 80s and 90s, finding a decent loaf of bread was nearly impossible, so I often made my own, following the simple recipe that Mary Randolph gave in The Virginia House-Wife in 1824: the only ingredients were flour, yeast, water, salt, time, and a classic falling oven. (Here’s the recipe). I was helped along in technique by Karen Hess, who had written the historical notes and commentaries for the...

August 21, 2007: I sketched the logo for Hoppin’ John’s back in 1985, a full year before I opened my culinary bookstore in Charleston. I originally planned to call it “The Educated Palate,” but no one but me liked the idea. On January 1, 1986, I arrived at my friend Kelly’s New York City apartment for a traditional southern New Year’s Day feast, saying, “I’m here with the hoppin’...