papersnack: my friend wrote a book

Most people have friends in their own profession, because you meet people at work or industry events and the like. It's not surprising that many of mes amis are writers and journalists in the food arena. To wit, here's a last-minute gift idea, special holiday shill for my friends.

Kitchen Sense is a very comprehensive book on how to cook everything, written in a very conversational and often witty tone by Mitchell Davis. I had the pleasure of attending many of Mitchell's impromptu dinner parties while he was testing the recipes, and I can attest to both due diligence and deliciousness. Mr. Snack is particularly fond of the New England clam chowder recipe, declaring chez Davis his favorite neighborhood restaurant. My waffle recipe is on page 111.

While it seems au courant for pastry chefs to go savory, Michel Richard is the original. He converted from sweet to salty with a suigeneris flair decades ago. Peter Kaminsky wrote his cookbook Happy in the Kitchen and, again, a dinner party of recipe testing yielded an engaging and satisfying soiree. It's a beautiful book, the kind with heavy paper and lustrous photography that you rarely see anymore.

Peter's been quite prolific this year and has a second book with Fabio Trabocchi, the young soignée Italian chef at Maestro in Tyson's Corner. Fabio's restaurant in the Ritz Carlton is all gastro-elegance, but his book Cucina of Le Marche is a familial voyage home. I'm desperate to make his cream fritters, but fear the fried creaminess will skew the serving size from six to a giant portion for one.

PS: If you need to make room on your bookshelf for the New Year – drop off your remainders at the James Beard House for their February cookbook and tag sale.