This Spring, everything is coming up foodie! On Friday April 10 and Saturday April 11, The New School hosted the Gotham on a Plate: Food in New York City conference, with Mimi Sheraton, former food critic for the New York Times, as keynote speaker, and author of 1000 Foods to Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List. The Gotham on a Plate conference targeted the scholarly, historical, and business aspects of foodways in NYC. I attended the session on Writing About Gotham's Plate, moderated by Andrew F. Smith, author of New York City: A Food Biography and professor at the New School, and featured authors William Grimes (Appetite City: A Culinary History of New York), Molly O'Neill (New York Cookbook) , Jonathan Deutsch (Gastropolis: Food and New York City), and Gabrielle Langholtz, editor of Edible magazine and author of The New Greenmarket Cookbook. They encouraged aspiring authors to immerse themselves in the subject , be exacting in their research, and to spend time learning their craft or subject firsthand (if you want to write about cheese, learn to make it!). They also urged food bloggers eager to make the jump from blog to book and magazine writing never to forget: spelling and grammar counts.

Concurrently, the Food Book Fair took place from April 10-12 at the Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where you could rub aprons with celebri-chefs-cum-authors such as April Bloomfield and Martha Rose Shulman, attend the Foodie-odical magazine fair, meet food book publishers and authors, all the while sipping on a Death & Company mixologist's concoction. As a volunteer, I mostly checked wrist bands at the door, but I did get to sit in on a tempting talk called Sugar and Sweets, featuring Nicholas Morgenstern of Morgenstern's Ice Cream, pastry chef Brooks Headley, and Joanne Chang, owner of the Boston-based bakery Flour.

Memoirs

Sous Chef by Michael Gibney
What a natural writing talent Gibney has! He brings you behind the scenes into the fast-paced world of a NYC fine dining kitchen in incisive detail, without the hubris present in so many chef's memoirs. Gibney's recollection respects the food, the preparers, and brings the reader closer to the Zen of the Sous Chef.

Restaurant Man by Joe Bastianich
From page one, Bastianich, the son of Italian culinary legend Lidia Bastianich, gives you the low-down on restaurant math—the price of wine by the glass is marked up four times, steak might cost you 50% of the price on the menu, desserts are pure profit. Much of the tone of the book presents the hard-hitting, number-crunching reality of managing a top restaurant in NYC (Babbo and Del Posto are some of the author's flagship restaurants), also utilizing his Wall Street smarts to run a successful business. But the story isn't just told in numbers, but in fond recollections of Bastianich's childhood in Queens, helping out at the family restaurant, and his indoctrination in the joys of Italian cooking with his mother Lidia Bastianich and through extensive travel to Italy.

Cookbooks

Essential Pépin: More than 700 All-Time Favorites From My Life in Food by Jacques Pépin
I only had time to make two of his 700 all-time favorites, compiled by the esteemed French chef over a lifetime of cooking both professionally and writing for the home cook. Growing up during WWII, Pépin was influenced by the thriftiness of his mother and aunt, where you don't throw anything away. Pépin strives for simplicity, taste, and fresh ingredients over presentation and originality in his cuisine. Enjoy classics such as Pains au Chocolat, Vichssoise, Rilletes, crepes with jam and a ton of other fruit-oriented desserts ( Pistachio Floating Island with Strawberry-Black Currant Sauce, Braised Pears in Caramel Sauce). Comes with an instructional DVD on cooking techniques enacted by Pépin himself.

Simply Delicious Amish Cooking: Recipes and Stories From the Amish of Sarasota, Florida by Sherry Gore
Amish and Mennonite communities settled in Sarasota, Florida beginning in the 1920s, and with it evolved their unique blend of Penn Dutch and Florida Strip Mall cuisine. Enjoy such treasures as Florida Salad (featuring miniature marshmallows , bananas and canned pineapple), Yumesetti ( a noodle dish tumbled with ground pork, canned mushrooms and tomato soup), Underground Ham Casserole (?), Pineapple Cheese Salad (??), Ginger Ale Salad (!!!). Where this book really excels is in the cookie, cake and pie repertoire. There are Chocolate Whoopie pies to die for, Shoofly Pie, Key Lime Pie of course, but I'm afraid I'll have to overlook the Chocolate Mayonaise Cake...

Grains + Greens: Recipes for Deliciously Healthful Cooking by Molly Watson
Grains, greens, yes, I should really be eating more of these things... This book makes you want to do that. With a very helpful forward to the book that gives a thorough anatomy of a variety of greens and greens, and how they should best be treated with regards to selecting, washing, stemming, and cooking time. Watson presents a lovely variety of salads, soups, breads, and mains such as Wild Rice Salad with Kale, Pecans, and Blueberries ( a fiesta of flavor!), Chilled Watercress Yogurt Soup with Wheat Berries that glows a sublime green, or try the Polenta with Dandelion Relish and Soft-Boiled Eggs for a whole new take on comfort food.

The I Hate Kale Cookbook: 35 Recipes to Change Your Mind by Tucker Shaw
I don't exactly hate kale, but it's just become this pithy "it" vegetable in recent years. See them all dressed up as kale chips, like it just threw on a casual jean jacket made of spices and crunch, or see it wearing black tie as a lacinato kale 'Caesar' salad. Let's face it—kale is the Brooklyn of vegetables. Tucker Shaw's cookbook draws from the same fountain of snark that oft informs kale hating, with cleverly drawn illustrations reminiscent of Lucy Knisley. Try the Kale Smoothies for breakfast, Penne with Kale, Bacon, & Goat Cheese (mmmm), or a Kale, Chicken, and Chorizo Shepherd's Pie. Lighter fare/ "on the side" sides shine with lemon-roasted Kale, or Kale Slaw. Kale: Relationship Status—"it's complicated."

Staten Italy: Nothin' but the Best Italian-American Classics, From Our Block to Yours by Francis Garcia and Sal Basille
Cousins and best friends Fran Garcia and Sal Basille left their family restaurant business in Staten Island to start pizzaria Artichoke Basille in Manhattan in 2008, but they didn't leave their Staten Island pride behind the wake of the ferry ride...Garcia and Basille share family stories and pictures, and tips on how to stock an Italian pantry (though I raised an eyebrow at Ronzoni being their go-to pasta brand). Try some Mortadella and Eggs for breakfast, the eggplant caponata, or Scungilli Salad with Kalamata Olives for Lunch. The Sicilian Pizza is the star, and the cousins will walk you through the dough, the pizza sauce, and wash it all down with some homemade wine...

Queens, A Culinary Passport: Exploring Ethnic Cuisine in New York City's Most Diverse Borough by Andrea Lynn (e-book)
Queens is my favorite foodie borough due to the myriad diversity of ethnic cuisines, and Andrea Lynn has written a personable guide to some of the most notable restaurants, groceries, food carts, and fish markets the borough has to offer. Let your mouth travel to Greece, China, Peru, or Afghanistan with just the cost of a subway ride.

Afro-Vegan: Farm Fresh African, Caribbean & Southern Flavors Remixed by Bryant Terry
Bryant Terry is a national leader in healthy, delicious and soulful vegan and vegetarian cuisine, and his latest cookbook goes way beyond most in that he adds music and even literary suggestions to go along with the meals. Try a little Erykah Badu while whipping up a batch of Chipotle-Banana Pepper Sauce, or contemplate Songs in the Key of My Life: A Memoir by Ferentz Lafargue while nibbling on Strawberry-Watermelon Salad with Basil-Cayenne Syrup. One of Terry's motivators for writing the book was to bring foods of the African-American diaspora closer to a greater culinary consciousness. Artfully photographed and thoughtfully articulated, this book is a true pleasure to leaf and eat through.

Genius Recipes: 100 Recipes that will Change the Way You Cook by Kristin Miglore
The editor of the popular Food52 website compiled this chef's "best of" cookbook that will improve your culinary acuity with a number of both classic and innovative recipes. Perfect your Crispy-Skinned Fish straight from the technique used by the chef's at Le Bernadin, get perfect Grilled Cheese sandwiches every time courtesy of Prune's Gabrielle Hamilton, or flip a flawless crepe according to the dictates of legendary NYC restaurateur Kenny Shopsin. Truly drool-worthy.

Beverages

The Complete Wine Course by Tom Forrest
This is a thorough, comprehensive, and handy (as in—it's a handful of information in a petite package) introduction to wines of the world. The introduction cuts to the nitty gritty of wine production in accessible language, and offers tips on how to taste (yes you really SHOULD swirl that glass around to release the volatile elements). There are over 100 pages of text on the main grape varieties, and the author gives special attention to the Holy Grail styles such as Bordeaux, Port, and Champagne that are emulated by winemakers throughout the world. The bulk of the book however gives an intimate portrait of the best wines by geographic region of the best wines each part of the world has to offer. This kind of a book is a great reference work for the home library—a real keeper.