Weekend Book Giveaway: Cake Wrecks: zekks, raspberryberet, spanklin, madfishgrill, and charmon. Winners have been notified by email and also appear on our Contest Winners page. Thanks to all who entered.... More

[Image: Amazon] Is it possible for cakes to be so bad they're good? Yes, yes it is. And thanks to Jen Yates, we don't have to wait for a baby shower or bat mitzvah invitation to see them. Back in May of 2008, Yates started the blog Cake Wrecks, an online museum of badly-rendered Disney princesses, gratuitous quotation marks, carrot-riding babies, and other wrecky cake artwork by professional bakers. This week, the book version of the frosting debauchery, Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong, went on sale and it's full of 75-percent never-before-seen material. Thanks to the good folks at Andrews McMeel Publishing, we have five (5) copies of to give away. All you have to do... More

The two subtitles to American Cheeses tell us a lot: "The Best Regional, Artisan, and Farmhouse Cheeses," and "Who Makes Them and Where to Find Them." Food consultant Clark Wolf has written an interesting book for anyone remotely interested in the birth and development of the American artisanal cheese movement. And thanks to the good folks at Simon & Schuster, we have four copies of this tangy read to give away. To win a copy, just tell us what your favorite kind of American artisanal cheese is here in the comments. —Ed Levine Contest will end and comments will close at 3 p.m. ET, Monday, January 12, 2009. One entry per community member. The standard Serious Eats contest rules apply.... More

For this weekend's book giveaway we've got one of my favorite food-related books released this year, The Devil's Food Dictionary by Barry Foy. Described by Foy as "a pioneering culinary reference work consisting entirely of lies," it's a wry take on food that is equal parts pure nonsense, good clean fun, and sharp send-up of foodie pretension. I've blogged about the pizza and burger items in this gem but have enjoyed many more entries since. Example: farmers market: An open-air, producer-run food outlet whose minimal infrastructure, absence of middlemen, and other cost-cutting measures make it possible for vendors to charge higher prices than in supermarkets. Or: cake: A leavened, baked confection whose discovery made icing possible. Early cakes had a... More

Words by Ed Levine | Looking for a good post-Turkey Day laugh? Want to impress your wine geek friends at the same time? Well, do we have a book giveaway for you this holiday weekend. David Kamp (The United States of Arugula) and David Lynch (the sommelier, wine writer, and co-author of Vino Italiano: The Regional Wines of Italy) have joined forces to write The Wine Snob's Dictionary. The blurb on the cover tells all: "A nicely structured, lightly acidic (guide) to the baffling world of winespeak, from A to Z." We're giving away five (5) copies of this extremely amusing book. You won't want to be without it this holiday season. To win, tell us your favorite ridiculous winespeak... More

I don't know about you, but I'm not afraid to admit that I am befuddled by menus at certain Asian restaurants. To the rescue comes EGullet co-founder Steven A. Shaw's new book, Asian Dining Rules. I really like this book, as you can easily tell from my blurb (hey, it's my blurb, so it's not plagiarism to reprint it in its entirety): Whether you're a General Tso's chicken freak who has a hard time using chopsticks or an ultra-refined sushi aficionado looking for your next fugu fix, you're sure to find something informative, entertaining, and/or diverting in Shaw's book. Asian Dining Rules is refreshingly and suprisingly unsnobby, and a discerning must-read for any serious Asian food eater. Notice how I... More

The first lady of Italian cooking is undoubtedly Marcella Hazan. Is there any serious eater who has not made something delicious from one of her books? I doubt it. I for one am partial to the pork-cooked-in-milk recipe (sooo good). Hazan has written what is apparently quite a controversial memoir, Amarcord: Marcella Remembers. According to the New York Times, Hazan doesn't shrink from calling out certain members of the food establishment. Thanks to the good folks at Gotham Books, we've got five (5) copies of this snappish, non-warm-and-fuzzy memoir to give away. Just tell us here in the comments of this post what your favorite Marcella Hazan recipe is. Contest will end and comments will close at noon ET, Monday,... More

Gary Vaynerchuk describes himself as "the wine guy for the average Joe," and if you've ever logged on to his Wine Library TV site to watch his hugely popular wine video series, you couldn't disagree with that. His enthusiasm, energy, and unique way of describing vino are infectious—180 degrees away from what you normally think of when you think "serious wine discussion." His book, 101 Wines, which came earlier this year, is true to the personality that has turned his fans into "Vaniacs." In describing Lachini Vineyards' Estate Pinot Noir 2005 (Willamette Valley, Oregon), for instance, he references "poop" when talking about its nose. I do mean it in the best possible way. The nose of this wine is somewhat... More

Back in the prehistoric age, when I was an aspiring food writer, I had an idea for a book about New York food that was inspired by the great Patricia Wells' brilliant Food Lover's Guide to Paris. Though Wells has updated that book a few times, she has not done so for quite some time. That's why I've enjoyed reading Alexander Lobrano's Hungry for Paris. Lobrano, who is the European correspondent for Gourmet magazine, has written an intensely personal yet extremely informative guide to his 102 favorite restaurants in Paris. We're giving away three (3) copies of Hungry for Paris. All you have to do is tell us your favorite restaurant or cafe in Paris. Contest will end and comments... More

In 2001 my friends, the award-winning cookbook writers Cheryl and Bill Jamison, realized that they had racked up enough frequent-flyer miles (440,000) to take a truly special, once-in-a-lifetime trip, literally around the world in 80 dinners. Four years later, they had a three-month travel itinerary in place that would take them on the ultimate culinary odyssey—more than 50,000 miles, to ten countries, to sample more than 800 dishes. Bill and Cheryl's entertaining, thoroughly enjoyable new book, Around the World in 80 Dinners: The Ultimate Culinary Adventure, (with a few location-based recipes thrown in for good measure) is the story of that trip. I've traveled and eaten with Cheryl and Bill, and I can tell you that they have a contagious,... More