First Catch Your Groundhog

It's hard to imagine any groundhog staying underground this winter, and all this beautiful weather has us pruning and planting earlier than ever. We were so successful last year in Tomales with our first vegetable box, I can't wait to get back at it. I've just placed an order for more vegetable and herb seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, which were a big hit here at Omnivore last year, so expect to see some new varieties soon.

It's a sleepy time here at the shop, which has left me time for some great writing assignments. One of my favorites was for Food52's The Piglet. Their tournament of cookbooks is now legendary, and if you enjoy great food writing, you'll likely love all this year's entries so far. No punches are pulled, and no holds are barred. I was also honored to be asked by Gabriele Corcos to write regular columns on new and old cookbooks for his website, Under the Tuscan Gun. My first entry was about the 1928 book, Roadside Marketing - a charming guide for farmers at America's first roadside stands.

I'm heading to New York in early February to attend the Roger Smith Cookbook Conference. A panoply of great cookbook authors, publishers, designers, will all be there, speaking on panels (I'm on two of them), dispensing with ideas and advice, and hopefully knocking back a few in the hotel bar. Several of my compatriots in the cookbook store world will also attend, and I can't wait to compare notes with them long into the night.

You'll see we have a good line-up of author events coming up in February, including a special dinner at Oakland's Camino with Colman Andrews (call them quickly to reserve!). We also have our first cooking contest of 2012, and the starring item will be CUPCAKES. So put on your aprons and get ready to rumble! Looking forward to seeing you here - come on out, the weather's fine!

Celia Sack, Owner
Omnivore Books on Food
Follow us on Twitter

Upcoming Events at Omnivore Books

Thurs. Jan. 26 • Erica Peters • Appetites and Aspirations in Vietnam: Food and Drink in the Long Nineteenth Century • 6-7 p.m. • FREE

In Vietnam during the long nineteenth century from the Tây Son rebellion to the 1920s, individuals negotiated changing interpretations of their culinary choices by their families, neighbors, and governments. What people ate reflected not just who they were, but also who they wanted to be.

Add this event to your calendar.

Sat. Jan. 28 • Anissa Helou • Offal: The Fifth Quarter • 3-4 p.m. • FREE

Lebanese cookbook author Anissa Helou turns her expertise to innards. Here is offal in all its many and surprising forms; a wonderful array of recipes ranging from the sensual appeal of foie gras and cod's roe, to the more challenging demands of testicles and intestines. Drawing on recipes and traditions from all over the world, Helou invites readers to embrace a whole range of unusual and exciting tastes and textures; lamb's tongue and sweetbreads, pig's trotters and sheep's brains, chicken livers and ox hearts—all find a place in this wonderfully uncompromising book, alongside calf's trotters and tripe, fish heads, and sheep's lungs.

Add this event to your calendar.

Sun. Feb. 5 • Shannon O'Malley • Apocalypse Cakes: Recipes for the End • 3-4 p.m. FREE

We are besieged with talk of crisis, meltdown, earthquakes, sink holes, global warming, bailouts, and more. Once you realize there's not a whole lot of time left, grab a Bundt pan and whip up your own scrumptious Fallen Angel Food Cake--or one of the other 29 apocalyptic cakes in this irreverent cookbook--and indulge in your final days. Each full-color dessert photograph is accompanied by a short hilarious description, and there will be samples, of course!

Add this event to your calendar.

Thurs. Feb. 9 • Pam Pierce • Golden Gate Gardening • 6-7 p.m. • FREE

Pam’s book is a classic guide for those who want to grow food in San Francisco and nearby. She will speak of learning to garden in a new climate, in the history of California and in current San Francisco gardens, including stories from her personal gardening journey from the temperate to the Mediterranean climate. Climate and culture determine what we want to grow for our table, and Pam teaches us how to find the crops and schedule that work in our lives. Time for gardening questions will follow her talk.

Add this event to your calendar.

Sat. Feb. 18 • Cupcake Contest! • 3-4 p.m. • FREE to entrants; $5 for eaters-only

Yes indeed, it's time for another cooking contest, the first of 2012. This contest challenges you to throw down your best cupcakes, of any flavor. The rules are simple: Bake as many cupcakes as you can (either minis or regular size cut into smaller slices so as many judges can try them as possible). Bring them over between 2:30 and 3:00, and then we'll let the public taste them all and decide their favorite. Non-bakers pay $5 to taste, and the winner splits the door money with us. Come hungry!

Add this event to your calendar.

Thurs. Feb. 23. Nina Simonds • Simple Asian Meals: Irresistibly Satisfying and Healthy Dishes for the Busy Cook • 6-7 p.m. • FREE

Nina came last year to give a talk, and trust me, she is a dynamic & wonderful speaker worth spending the evening with! Using only commonly available ingredients, award-winning cookbook author and Asian-food guru Nina Simonds creates easy, soothing, healthful meals that are masterpieces of simplicity. In Simple Asian Meals, Simonds presents over 100 recipes for accessible Chinese, Japanese, Thai, and Vietnamese specialties—packed with fresh, seasonal ingredients and health-giving benefits from immune support to ease of digestion to cholesterol reduction.

Add this event to your calendar.

Sun. Feb. 26 • Colman Andrews • The Country Cooking of Italy • 2 events!

Russ will create a special 3-course dinner inspired from the book. $85 per person including wine, gratuity and tax. Cocktails and cookbooks available for purchase. Call 510-547-5035 to reserve. Colman Andrews and Christopher Hirsheimer achieve the formidable feat of illuminating the world's most beloved cuisine in an entirely new light in this beautiful book. Drawing on more than 40 years of experience traveling and eating in Italy, Andrews explores every region, from Piedmont to Puglia, and provides the fascinating origins of dishes both familiar and unexpected.

Add this event to your calendar.

Wed. Feb. 29 • Gerald Asher • A Carafe of Red • 6-7 p.m. • FREE

Every wine has a story. In this collection of elegantly written essays from the past thirty years, updated with a new introduction and endnotes, renowned author Gerald Asher informs wine enthusiasts with insightful, engrossing accounts of wines from Europe and America that offer just as much for those who simply enjoy vivid evocations of people and places. Asher puts wine in its context by taking the reader on a series of discursive journeys that start with the carafe at his elbow.

Add this event to your calendar.