Now that Adam Liaw has been crowned Australia's new Masterchef, he's heading back into the heat of the kitchen to get some work experience in such restaurants as Melbourne's Flower Drum, Sydney's Tetsuya's and in Neil Perry's establishments.
While there will be a cookbook on the horizon - Two Asian Kitchens, featuring traditional and modern takes on Asian cuisine - Liaw says work experience is the priority, and it will make the cookbook better.
Ever looked at your cookbook collection and wished your could Google it in search of a recipe? Coming close to the next best thing is Eat Your Books , a place where you can catalogue your collection. More and more cookbooks are being indexed each month and as the number grows, searching your own collection is becoming a reality. Already nearly 80,000 books have been indexed.
So far I've added about 250 of my cookbooks to my personal bookshelf. While not all my cookbooks are in their indexed collection I've still been able to make good use of the search facility instead of standing vacantly in front of my library.
You can start with a free trial. After that there's an annual fee or you can become a life member for $50 which is what I've done.
Cookbooks from Australia and New Zealand were well represented among the the winners at the 2010 Le Cordon Bleu World Food Media Awards gala presentation in Adelaide recently. Those winning Golden Ladles were -
Best food and drink guide book: Marlborough on the Menu by Jan Bilton & Belinda Jackson, Published by Irvine Holt Enterprises, New Zealand
Best drink book: Andrew Jefford's Wine Course by Andrew Jefford, Published by Ryland Peters & Small, UK
Best children's cookbook: It's My Turn to Cook by Margaret Brooker, Published by New Holland Publishers, NZ
Best health and nutrition book: The Essential Diabetes Cookbook: Good Healthy Eating from Around the World by Antony Worrall Thompson, Published by Kyle Cathie, UK
Best soft cover recipe book: From Spiders to Water Lillies – Creative Cambodian Cooking with Friends by Gustav Auer, Published by Friends-International, Cambodia
Best hard cover recipe book under Euro35: CUBO Dessert by Matevž Kmet, published by Trstenjak, Slovenia
Best hard cover recipe book over Euro35: Pains by Gontran Cherrier, published by Hachette Pratique, France; MoVida Rustica: Spanish Traditions and Recipes by Frank Camorra and Richard Cornish, published by Murdoch Books, Australia
Best food book: Food Design XL by Sonja Stummerer & Martin Hablesreiter, published by Springer Wien, Austria
Baking goddess Rose Levy Beranbaum's new Rose's Heavenly Cakes was honoured as the best cookbook of the year at the International Association. of Culinary Professionals awards ceremony in Portland, Oregon. The IACP is an international group of writers, chefs, photographers, cooking teachers and other food professionals, and it has been presenting the awards for 25 years.
Beranbaum, author of The Cake Bible, The Pie and Pastry Bible, and The Bread Bible, among other books, capped the list of 18 books honoured by the organisation.
Australia was well represented at the awards. Melbourne's own Stephanie Alexander took the award for the best general cookbook with Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden Companion while Jane Lawson's Snowflake and Schnapps and David Thompson's Thai Street Food shared the design award.
New Zealander Al Brown from Wellington's Logan Brown restaurant took the single subject accolade for his Go Fish.
Here is a complete list of winning cookbooks:
General: Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden Companion
American: My New Orleans: The Cookbook by John Besh
Baking: Rose's Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum
Single Subject: Go Fish by Al Brown
Compilations: Gourmet Today by Ruth Reichl
Children, Youth and Family: Williams-Sonoma Family Meals by Maria Helm Sinskey
Health and Special Diet: The Cancer-fighting Kitchen by Rebecca Katz and Mat Edelson
International: Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo
Wine, Beer and Spirits: World Whiskey by Charles Maclean
Culinary History: Of Sugar and Snow by Jeri Quinzio
Literary Food Writing: Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal by Tristram Stuart
Food Photography and Styling: Williams-Sonoma Cooking for Friends, photographed by Petrina Tinslay and styled by Alison Attenborough and Jamie Kimm
Food and Beverage Reference/Technical: The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Pastry Arts by the French Culinary Institute
Professional Kitchens: Baking and Pastry
by the Culinary Institute of America
Chefs and Kitchens: Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller, Dave Cruz, Michael Ruhlman and Susie Heller
Design Award: Thai Street Food by David Thompson and Snowflakes and Schnapps by Jane Lawson
First Book: The New Portuguese Table by David Leite
Cookbook of the Year: Rose's Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum
