Summer Foodie Book Roundup

Savoring the Hamptons, Discovering the Food and Wine of Long Island’s East End is this season’s top-selling cookbook for good reason. It’s written by none other than the Queen of East End Cuisine, Silvia Lehrer. The forward by Alan Alda sums it up, “In these pages, you’ll meet the people of this island who keep the bees, dig the clams, grow the zucchini and tend the chickens and turkeys and goats, along with gifted chefs…” It’s your handy – and beautiful – guide to bringing your meals from field to table. Lehrer is Dan’s Papers’ “Simple Art of Cooking” columnist. Each week she offers simply delicious recipes. This book is a compendium of recipes that use local ingredients to realize classic dishes.

In the Small Kitchen, 100 Recipes from Our Year of Cooking in the Real World by Cara Eisenpress and Phoebe Lapine, with an introduction by Ina Garten, is what it promises and much more. It doesn’t just demonstrate to newbie foodies how to cook in a small kitchen, it also offers detailed lists and advice on stocking your kitchen, outfitting your kitchen and how to cook with ease – and flair – for parties. This book is the perfect gift for young people sharing a house in the Hamptons. The recipes are great too – it’s worth picking it up for those – even if you’re an old hand in your small or large kitchen. I’m going to try making the Sexy-Ugly Onion Tart in my medium-size kitchen this weekend. Eisenpress and Lapine are the girl geniuses behind the popular blog www.biggirlssmallkitchen.com. [expand]

The Go Fish Benefit Cookbook is the brainchild of artist Carol Boye. She’s put together a collection of treasured recipes donated by an eclectic mix of East Enders – from locals to famous artists to celebrity chefs – to save our bays by benefiting the Peconic Baykeeper and the Southampton Town Trustees Shellfish Program. Delicious fish and seafood recipes to save our delicious fish and seafood. Does it get any better than this? Yup, this handy little cookbook also features arresting East End-inspired art by a host of area artists in various media. Richard Stable’s Bloody Mary Oysters made with a splash of LiV Vodka look promising, as does April Gornik’s Pasta with Artichokes and Shrimp.

Food plus art plus environmentalism. Think global, eat local.

It’s a very busy season in these foody Hamptons – I only just got around to reading the bestseller Blood, Bones & Butter, The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton. It’s not a cookbook, but it’s a deeply moving and entertaining memoir fed by food. Anthony Bourdain called it, “Simply the best memoir by a chef ever.” Believe it. Don’t wait for it to come out in paperback in two months. Get it, savor it. It’s a great beach or train or bedtime read – but be careful, you might not be able to put it down.

Savoring the Hamptons, Discovering the Food and Wine of Long Island’s East End by Silvia Lehrer.  Running Press, 2011. $30.

In the Small Kitchen, 100 Recipes from Our Year of Cooking in the Real World by Cara Eisenpress and Phoebe Lapine. William Morrow, 2011. $21.99.

Go Fish Benefit Cookbook. Morris Press Cookbooks, 2011. $24.95. www.gofishbenefit.com

Blood, Bones & Butter, The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton. Random House, 2011. $26.

Experience all the best food and wine the East End has to offer at Dan’s Taste of Two Forks, the summer’s premiere food event, in Bridgehampton, New York on July 16—hosted by Marcus Samuelsson. Go to www.danstasteoftwoforks.com for tickets and a complete list of participants. [/expand]