Many of Rose's customers come in and "want the next 'Kitchen Confidential,' " she says. And by that they don't mean another chef's variation on Upton Sinclair's expose "The Jungle," but simply a good read that teaches them something about an activity every human engages in, and not just for mere sustenance. No wonder publishers admit they are also looking for another Bourdain, or another Reichl, whose three memoirs have sold like Big Macs.
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The hungry mind
With memoirs from food celebs selling like Big Macs, we've worked up a voracious appetite for the Next Big Thing: serious -- and seriously readable -- food literature.
MEDIA DISH
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday May 13, 2005 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 52 words Type of Material: Correction
Book title -- In Wednesday's Food section, an article on recent books about food said Michael Ruhlman's book "The Soul of a Chef" was about his experiences at the Culinary Institute of America. "The Soul of a Chef" profiles three chefs. Ruhlman's book "The Making of a Chef" is about culinary education.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday May 18, 2005 Home Edition Food Part F Page 3 Features Desk 1 inches; 52 words Type of Material: Correction
Book title -- In last week's section, an article on recent books about food said Michael Ruhlman's book, "The Soul of a Chef," was about his experiences at the Culinary Institute of America. "The Soul of a Chef" profiles three chefs. Ruhlman's book "The Making of a Chef" is about culinary education.
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Both those authors have acquired larger-than-mortal personas, but no longer is that a requirement. Kurlansky's first book, "Cod," has sold 200,000 copies, which would be impressive for a name chef's cookbook.
Some food books include recipes, but most don't, which gives them broader interest, thereby yielding them better positioning in bookstores -- out of the cookbook cul-de-sac -- and potentially more lucrative sales.
Food's inner world
Beyond the memoir and the expose, there are many ways serious writers are tackling food, including single-subject histories ("Spice," "Vanilla"), biographies ("Cooking for Kings," on Antonin Careme; "The Perfectionist," on Bernard Loiseau, the French chef who killed himself after losing his third Michelin star), overviews of popular phenomena ("Finding Betty Crocker," "Cookoff: Recipe Fever in America") and, most surprisingly, popular science.
Anyone who wrote off food books as the equivalent of romance novels, with recipes to be read in bed or travel via armchair, should be amazed to see how much interest there is not just in food but in how food works.
Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking" was first issued in 1984 and sold so steadily that Scribner published an updated version late last year. Beth Wareham, vice president and director of lifestyle publishing at Scribner, says 100,000 copies are in print after four months. The book has done so well, she says, "We raised the price. By $5."
McGee's gift is to make the chemistry, history and context of food so clear and compelling that his chapters can be read as easily as a novel. But Cook's Library's Rose said he was also capturing a new and growing audience of young cooks who want not just recipes but real understanding of how cooking works. "It's really caught on with the young Hollywood actor set," she says. "A whole slew of twentysomethings want to learn how to cook, and they buy that book."
