Bea Arthur: Thank you for being a veg.

​If you always wanted to cook like a (dead) rock star, then the Dead Celebrity Cookbook is for you. 

This little tome of awesomeness is the brainchild of Frank DeCaro, who started collecting the recipes of stars gone "bye" after attending a "dead celebrity party".  DeCaro, who was a movie critic on The Jon Stewart Show, has broken up the recipes into some freaking funny chapters, like:

I Lunch Lucy, featuring Lucille Balls' Chopped Chicken Livers, Sunday Night Goulash, and Tropical Treat (a possible homage to ex-husband and fellow dead celebrity, Desi Arnaz).

Thank You For Feeding a Friend is all about the Golden Girls being healthy (before taking dirt naps).  PETA supporter Bea Arthur's Vegetarian Breakfast, Rue McClanahan's Non-Dairy Cheesecake, and Estelle Getty's Baked Chicken Fingers recipes are included. So far, Betty White, who just turned 90, isn't included since she's still above ground.










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Photo by Melissa Hamilton

We're pretty sure she didn't steal those tomatoes...

Yesterday we posted Part 1 of our chat with chef/restaurateur/author Gabrielle Hamilton, but perhaps you didn't get a feel for what a badass she really is and how she came to be that way. So today we'll just give you some good sound bites from our interview and some clips from her book, Blood, Bones & Butter.

Her first chicken-killing experience: "I was still holding its feet with one hand and trying to cut its head off with the dull hatchet with my other when both the chicken and my father became quite lucid, and not a little agitated. The chicken began to thrash about as if chastising me for my false promises of a merciful death... I kept coming down on the bird's throat -- which was now broken but still issuing terrible clucks of revolt and protest -- stroke after miserable stroke, until I finally got its head off. I was blubbering through clenched teeth."

On writing her memoir: "In hindsight, it was kind of absurd and insane. I didn't sleep more than four hours a night and probably not consecutively. I had blisters on my eyeballs from the fatigue. I was shrill and shrieky, I broke furniture."
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Photo by Matt Hulsman

​Her family motto was "Hola, y'all," and for an American girl growing up in Guatemala, Sandra Gutierrez had the best of both worlds -- hamburgers for dinner and arroz con leche for dessert. The New Southern-Latino Table (University of North Carolina Press, $30) reveals her secret desire to force together two seemingly opposite taste profiles on the food spectrum. Of course, we can only assume that when spicy meets greasy, good things happen.

This new cookbook explores the evolution of her Southern style as well as the influence of her Hispanic heritage. Like many who are good in the kitchen, she credits her grandmother who supervised all cooking activities. "Nothing left the kitchen without her approval." Gutierrez spent many years playing with ingredients and easily overcame American grocery store hurdles, replacing masa with finely ground cornmeal and fresh serranos with a tin of chilies. She did fail a few times: While attempting dulce de leche from scratch, "a few cans of condensed milk blew up." She says she "finally learned how to make it the safe way." That's good to know. More >>

Photo by Melissa Hamilton

​New Yorkers know her as the chef/owner of Prune and a prolific writer whose work has appeared in nearly every major food magazine, the New Yorker and The New York Times. Now Hamilton will most likely be known around the country as the author of Blood, Bones & Butter (Random House, $26), a presumably honest and exposing diary of her journey from her mother's kitchen to her very own, with all the embarrassing, shocking, crazy, and sometimes inspiring details included.

We'd love to tell you more about it, but Hamilton will appear at the Miami Book Fair's Presentation Pavilion this Saturday, November 19, at 11 a.m., along with chef/author Andrew Carmellini and author Jessica B. Harris, so we'll let her do that herself. Admission is free. The next night, Hamilton will cook alongside Michael Schwartz at Harry's Pizzeria, which will be renamed Prune Pizzeria Sunday in her honor. "We might try to re-create Chapter 1," she teases. The $155 tickets include four courses, beer/wine pairings, and a signed copy of her book.

In the meantime, here's a slice to enjoy while you wait:

New Times: I know you won't take offense to this question, but after reading about all of your illegal activities and such, I have to ask: What is it about becoming a cook that seems so appealing to rebels and vagabonds?
Gabrielle Hamilton: It's strange, right? I once did a very unscientific study: I always ask the front of the house how many of their parents are married. Invariably the front of the house has a more stable home life than the people who work in the kitchens. So weird. For me, I like very much putting order to chaos. To own a restaurant and make a kind of sane, consistent, functioning workplace is of great interest to me. You know, tame the flame.
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Author Jessica B. Harris

​Though Dr. Jessica Harris is well known as a tenured professor and the author of more than 10 cookbooks, including A Kwanzaa Keepsake and The Africa Cookbook, for her latest creation, High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America (Bloomsbury, $26), the culinary historian went into detailed storytelling mode. Inside the more than 300-page novel are a smattering of recipes and photos, but most people will pick it up to finally get schooled about the roots of African American cuisine and the indelible mark left by famous and obscure chefs who influenced modern American and Caribbean food.

Harris will be appearing at the Miami International Book Fair International's Presentation Pavillion this Saturday, November 19 at 11 a.m. along with chef/authors Andrew Carmellini and Gabrielle Hamilton. Admission is free. (Watch Short Order for the other author interviews, too, coming this week.) In the meantime, here's a taste of Dr. Harris' latest creation:

New Times: Is this your first Miami Book Fair?
Harris: Actually, no. It's my second, or maybe even third. I haven't been recently. I used to do Cookbook Row when they had that.
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Cookin' for Trouble makes us wanna play with our food.

​She cooks, sings, and rocks out with her comedic brethren in her rock 'n' roll comedy cooking show Bitchin' Kitchen, now in it's second season.

We had a chance to speak briefly with Nadia G. about her show, her new book and how she likes to stay bitchin'.

New Times: You have your 2008 Bitchin' Kitchen Cookbook, and now a new book called Nadia G.'s Bitchin' Kitchen: Cooking for Trouble. What inspired this second book?
Nadia G.: Well in terms of the inspiration, as the old saying goes "it takes a village," and with this new cookbook, I was inspired by the women in my family. These are the people who have been cooks all their lives and they have many recipes to share. In my own bitchin' community we held a contest to find the five most bitchin' recipes and the winners' ones are shared in the cookbook. For this new book, we had a bigger budget, so we got to do more then just Nadia G. looking hot in front of a background. (Laughs) We were actually able to flesh out the scene. It's very rich in terms of photography.

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How's your cooking game? Sure, your eating game is up to snuff, but food tastes even better when you know how it's made. The key to mastering the art of cooking at home is to become well-rounded, and that means tackling your weaknesses. In the words of Mr. Miyagi, "first learn stand, then learn fly."

With that in mind, we present some of our favorite accessible cookbooks that will fill the cracks in your cooking game. Go on Daniel-san, and become a cooking master.

​1. Cooking for Geeks by Jeff Potter ($19.30 from Amazon.com)

To truly elevate your cooking game, you need to understand how cooking works. Ugh, sounds like science class, right? Not so much. Take the section on oven-overclocking, which shows you how to achieve a temperature of 1000° F by utilizing your oven's cleaning cycle and disabling the safety lock all in order to cook the perfect pizza. Maybe they should change the name of this book to "Cooking Like MacGyver."

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​That would be Jason Sheehan, whose Dirty Cooking made Time Magazine's just-released list of ten best nonfiction books of the year: "A great tell-all by the Anthony Bourdain of greasy-spoon kitchens." Sheehan, a James Beard winner, just this week moved from being the restaurant reviewer for Westword, our sister publication in Denver, to doing the same for Seattle Weekly, another of our many relatives. Way to go Jason.

Jackie Sayet

Judge this book by its cover.

​Last night was one of many funerals for a fallen hero taken before its time, Gourmet magazine. Ruth Reichl, its jilted guardian, gave a remarkably candid and emotional eulogy for her final book tour appearance.

The remarkably (yet not surprisingly) composed former editor-in-chief addressed what she later tweeted as a "smart crowd" at the free Miami Book Fair event in downtown Miami. The profound sense of loss was palpable in the packed ballroom, as was the disbelief still lingering in her delivery. 

This was expected. Fully digesting that something so respected and loved is gone forever takes time, and the news is still so fresh, with the last vestige of the epicurean media icon -- its final issue -- still on stands.

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Charwei Tsai

Cover art meets the culinary arts

You won't find a food stylist in the credits for this cookbook.  But there is eye candy, of a different kind.

In Lovely Daze Special Edition Book: ROSE, pastry chef Angela Garcia explores the ingredient rose in dessert recipes paired with drawings and paintings by artist Cristina Rodriguez. 

The beautiful collection will be unveiled internationally this weekend at the Tokyo Art Book Fair and will be available for $15 online here in about two weeks. Both Angela and Cristina are of Colombian decent and currently based in Miami.
 
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