KCBS San Francisco :: Oaxaca al Gusto

Oaxaca al Gusto:
An Infinite Gastronomy

By Diana Kennedy
Buy It Now

[review] Oaxaca al Gusto, An Infinite Gastronomy
May 31, 2011 10:37 AM

(KCBS) – KCBS Food and Wine Editor Narsai David reviews the latest book on Mexican cuisine by Diana Kennedy.

Diana Kennedy has produced so many books on Mexican cooking. This is really the bible of basic Mexican cooking because she makes it so understandable and straight forward. It’s also different from all the others – it’s huge, a real coffee table book with lots of pictures, and it concentrates on the city of Oaxaca. There’s a section called the “Pillars of Oaxaca Cuisine: Chocolate, Corn, the Chiles of Oaxaca.” I remember a conference years ago that was titled “From Chiles to Chocolates: Food the Americas Gave the World.” Well, corn is one of those as well. This cookbook is really a winner!

Narsai David is the KCBS Food and Wine Editor. He has been a successful restaurateur, chef, TV host, and columnist in the Bay Area spanning four decades.

Read more and listen to complete audio review »

Columbus Dispatch :: Trillin on Texas

Trillin on Texas

by Calvin Trillin

Buy It Now

Book Review
Trillin on Texas: Lone Star State gets pointed look by opinionated observer
Sunday, May 29, 2011
By Scott Gold, Los Angeles Times

Calvin Trillin is a man of principle.

He can't stand, for instance, people who talk about themselves in the third person, which made things difficult back in the days of Dole and Dukakis.

He once declared that people caught trying to sell macrame should be "dyed a natural color."

And of writers, he once said: "There is no progress" - no corporate world to fall back on, no middle management. Writers are as good as the last thing they wrote, and sometimes not even that.

Atop that bedrock of curious dogma, Trillin, 75, has built an itinerant and confounding career.

He is viewed as a consummate New York writer, although he grew up in the sturdy Midwest. He was a big wheel in the Ivy League, although he relishes kicking the pedestals beneath those who were big wheels in the Ivy League. He became an early and influential guru of regional cuisine, although he professed to know next to nothing about the subject.  Read More »

Austin American-Statesman :: Hard Ground

Hard Ground

Photographs by Michael O’Brien

Poems by Tom Waits

Buy It Now

Photographer puts a face on Austin's homeless
by Andrea Ball


Stephen Blair stands on the corner of North Lamar Boulevard and Fifth Street, holding a large book against his chest and tapping his own image on the cover.


"That's me," he tells passing motorists, holding out his empty Starbucks cup and silently begging for spare change.


Blair, 55, is the face of "Hard Ground," a new coffee-table book filled with photographs of Austin's homeless. The black-and-white images were taken by Austin photographer Michael O'Brien, whose work has appeared in publications including National Geographic, Texas Monthly and The New York Times Magazine. The photos are accompanied by poems by O'Brien's longtime friend, musician Tom Waits.

Blair's portrait — a tight shot highlighting his dark eyes, tousled hair and full beard — is the cover shot.

"It was timeless," O'Brien says of the photo. "There was sort of an innocence, a fragility and vulnerability."

"Hard Ground" was inspired in 2006 when O'Brien, 60, saw a lull in his freelance business. To stay busy, he volunteered to take photographs for Mobile Loaves & Fishes, a local nonprofit that bring meals to homeless people in parks and other public areas. But when the volunteer job was done, O'Brien kept taking photos.  Read More »

Saveur :: Texas BBQ

Texas BBQ
Wyatt McSpadden
Buy It Now

Barbeque Bookshelf
... No title better captures that than Republic of Barbecue (University of Texas Press, 2009). Compiled by University of Texas professor Elizabeth S. D. Englehardt and a team of graduate students, the book documents what barbecue means to Texans via vivid oral histories from pitmasters, sausage makers, operators of cattle feed yards, and others. Photographer Wyatt McSpadden's Texas BBQ (University of Texas Press, 2009) takes a different tack, allowing its deeply affecting images to speak for themselves ...

Read more at saveur.com »
Download the article in .pdf format »

Saveur :: Republic of BBQ

Republic of Barbeque

by Elizabeth S. D. Engelhardt

Buy It Now

Barbeque Bookshelf
 ... No title better captures that than Republic of Barbecue (University of Texas Press, 2009). Compiled by University of Texas professor Elizabeth S. D. Englehardt and a team of graduate students, the book documents what barbecue means to Texans via vivid oral histories from pitmasters, sausage makers, operators of cattle feed yards, and others. Photographer Wyatt McSpadden's Texas BBQ (University of Texas Press, 2009) takes a different tack, allowing its deeply affecting images to speak for themselves ... 

Read more at saveur.com »
Download the article in .pdf format »

Gourmet Live :: Oaxaca al Gusto

Oaxaca al Gusto:
An Infinite Gastronomy

By Diana Kennedy
Buy It Now

KEMP’S KITCHEN: MEET DIANA KENNEDY

The full-length feature version of Meet Diana Kennedy by Kemp Minifie appears in the current issue of Gourmet Live. Download the free Gourmet Live app for this story and more.

Water is a precious commodity in Michoacán. Kennedy collects rainwater in a large tank during the rainy season; this water is first used for the kitchen, wash basins, and showers, then filtered and recycled for the lavatories. Showers are no more than two minutes long (turn off while soaping, turn on briefly to rinse); dishwashing water is put in a zinc tub and heated by the sun, and any student found holding plates under a running tap gets an immediate scolding. Kennedy hoped to fuel the kitchen stoves with methane from the cow shed, but, sadly, that didn’t work out.
Gourmet Live‘s Kemp Minifie takes us to Mexico for an in-depth profile of culinary visionary Diana Kennedy, who is responsible for putting authentic Mexican food on the map. From crafting an eco-friendly kitchen to what ingredients she always has in her fridge, get to know the woman that Mexico has named a national treasure.

Read more »

Libraries and the Cultural Record :: The State Library and Archives of Texas

The State Library and
Archives of Texas
by David B. Gracy II
Buy It Now

review of The State Library and Archives of Texas: A History, 1835-1962
by David B. Gracy II
which appeared in Libraries & the Cultural Record

We owe a debt of thanks to David Gracy for his history of the Texas State Library and Archives. This was one of the early state archival agencies that emerged in Southern states around the turn of the twentieth century, providing a focus for improving programs for government records and manuscripts. The publication of Gracy’s book is important in itself. The scholarly literature about American archives includes too few works on the profession’s history. We need more studies on U.S. archives’ social, intellectual, and institutional foundations, and the developments in all these aspects, to help us understand today’s archival conditions.

Read the entire review (.pdf) »

Huffington Post :: Deception and Abuse at the Fed

Deception and Abuse
at the Fed
by Robert Auerbach
Buy It Now

My response to the Federal Reserve's IG request:
by Robert Auerbach

Jina Hwang, Senior Attorney
May 19, 2011
Office of Inspector General
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Regarding: Your email request sent to me at 4:02 PM Friday, May 13, 2011 for my assistance on what you call "allegations made by Congressman Ron Paul during the February 24, 2010 Humphrey Hawkins Hearing" in questions to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Dear Senior Attorney Jina Hwang:

You state: "Congressman Ron Paul, who advised us that these allegations, concerning Watergate and Iraq weapons purchases were derived from a book that you authored related to these matters." The name of my book is Deception and Abuse at the Fed: Henry B. Gonzalez Battles Alan Greenspan's Bank (University of Texas Press, 2008). Much of my book is based on Congressional investigations in which I assisted Financial Services Committee (its newer name) Chairmen Henry Reuss and Henry B. Gonzalez and other Democratic members on the assigned oversight of the Federal Reserve functions of that committee.

Of course, I want to assist in bringing forward the problems I found in Federal Reserve operations that are deceptive, abusive and corrupt. I spent a number of years at the LBJ School of Public Affairs carefully documenting the record in my book that includes some of my experiences with the Fed's IG office.

Since you have given me short notice to return my reply, until this Friday, May 20, 2011, I believe that the most helpful document other than my book would be the note I sent to Congressman Paul immediately after the February 24, 2010 Financial Services Committee hearing. He placed my note shown below in the Congressional Record.

Read more at HuffPost Politics »

Journal of the History of Sexuality :: With Her Machete in Her Hand

With Her Machete in Her Hand
by Catrióna Rueda Esquibel
Buy It Now  

With Her Machete in Her Hand
reviewed in Journal of the History of Sexuality
Volume 20, Number 2, May 2011
Reviewed by Rita E. Urquijo-Ruiz

Arriving at the University of California, Riverside, the first member of my extended family to go to college, I read everything my professors recommended. Such experts, however, did not assign any texts that spoke directly to me and my experiences as a young woman of working-class Mexican descent who had begun to question her sexuality. Always the precocious and studious type, I associated with mostly senior activist Chicana/o students who educated me outside the classroom by suggesting reading materials. I could hardly wait to begin reading three books on Chicana/Latina sexuality that a friend had recommended: The Sexuality of Latinas (1989), edited by Norma Alarcón, Cherríe Moraga, and Ana Castillo; The Mixquiahuala Letters (1986), A. Castillo's first novel; and the foundational text This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (1981), edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa. I devoured such texts because they validated my experiences and empowered me as a Chicana lesbian. As a professor and specialist in queer Chicana/o literature and culture, I continue to search the field for texts to offer to my students and incorporate into my work.

In With Her Machete in Her Hand: Reading Chicana Lesbians, part of the Chicana Matters series, Catrióna Rueda Esquibel has done the arduous and necessary research to bring it all together. This text will be essential in the field of Chicana/o studies in general and Chicana/o feminist and queer literature in particular. Scholars in fields like gender studies and English literature would also benefit from incorporating this book into their literary canons.

• Read the entire review (.pdf)

Los Angeles Audubon :: Texas Wildflowers: A Field Guide

Texas Wildflowers: A Field Guide
by Campbell & Lynne Loughmiller
Buy It Now

Welcome to the revised edition of Texas Wildflowers: A Field Guide, by Campbell and Lynn Loughmiller. A lot can change in 22 years, not the least of which are the names we associate with the wildflowers in the first edition but we will come to that shortly.

Since the Loughmillers' guide was first published in 1984, more than 155,000 copies of Texas Wildflowers have been sold, placing it among the top three bestsellers for the University of Texas Press. Those who subscribe to the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy might question the reasons for a new edition, especially one that departs so radically in appearance from the first. Let's start by judging the book by its cover, literally. The cover stock is made of a much more durable material to ensure longer life in the field, and the book is a bit narrower, to facilitate carrying it in a pack or pocket. These physical changes are all part of the University of Texas Press plan to develop a complete series of natural history field guides, covering everything that creeps, crawls, runs, swims, flies, or grows in our fair state. Texas Wildflowers is the second book published in this University of Texas Press natural history series.

Within the pages of this edition, great care was taken to preserve the spirit of the original text, including the original foreword written by Lady Bird Johnson. In it, she refers to the National Wildflower Research Center founded in 1982 on a farm-to-market road near Austin. In 1995, the National Wildflower Research Center moved to a 43-acre site off Loop 1 (MoPac) in south Austin. Shortly thereafter, the name was changed to honor the center's co-founder and chairperson. Today, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center's 279-acre site serves as a model native plant botanic garden with programs that protect, conserve, and restore our natural plant heritage. It is a must-see if you are ever in the Austin area.

read more »

The Guardian :: Damselflies of Texas

Damselflies of Texas
by John C. Abbott

Buy It Now

Birdbooker Report 171
Compiled by an ardent bibliophile, this is a weekly report about nature, science and history books that have been newly published in North America and the UK.

On any warm summer day, you can easily observe damselflies around a vegetated pond or the rocks along the banks of a stream. Like the more familiar dragonfly, damselflies are among the most remarkably distinctive insects in their appearance and biology, and they have become one of the most popular creatures sought by avocational naturalists.

Damselflies of Texas is the first field guide dedicated specifically to the species found in Texas.

Read more »

The Austin Chronicle :: Uchi: The Cookbook

Uchi: The Cookbook
by Tyson Cole
and Jessica Dupuy
Buy It Now

The Recipes Behind the Restaurants
Some favorite cookbooks from some favorite local eateries
By Claudia Alarcón, 5/20/2011

I fell in love with Tyson Cole's cuisine just months after Uchi opened. I've been a devoted customer since, and I have followed the making of this cookbook with great interest. Turns out it has exceeded every expectation. Thanks to Jessica Dupuy, who guided and polished the text while allowing Cole's voice to come through, reading the book is like talking to Cole in person. Dupuy truly brings the Uchi and Uchiko experience to life in these pages, and just like the food at both restaurants, the book is visually stunning, with impressive images by local photographer Rebecca Fondren.

Read more »

Art Knowledge News :: The Edge of Time

The Edge of Time
Mariana Yampolsky
Buy It Now

San Marcos, TX

"The Edge of Time: Photographs of Mexico by Mariana Yampolsky" marks the beginning of the Wittliff Collections twenty-fifth anniversary exhibition schedule at Texas State University-San Marcos. This show featuring works from the permanent holdings runs from May 16th through December 11th, with other celebratory exhibitions to be added in August. "The Edge of Time" exhibition honors Mariana Yampolsky’s role in the Wittliff Collections’ history with nearly 60 silver-gelatin photographs of Mexico she created during the 30-year span of 1964 to 1994. “Reflecting moments,” as she said, “in the lives of people that others perhaps don’t see or don’t value,”

Yampolsky’s images capture rural Mexico with infinite respect and care, the situations, traditions, customs, and rituals of those who live there, and the weight of religion and the creativity in daily life. "The Edge of Time: Photographs of Mexico" was originally organized by the Wittliff Collections in 1996 and toured with Exhibits USA from 1996 through 1999. It is also the title of the second volume, published in 1998, in the Wittliff’s award-winning book series with the University of Texas Press. Still in print, it is available for purchase through the Wittliff’s online gift shop. Read more »

La Lettre de la Photographie :: Hard Ground

Hard Ground

Photographs by Michael O’Brien
Poems by Tom Waits

Buy It Now

Michael O'Brien Hard Ground

Michael O’Brien took pictures on Tuesdays at a Catholic ministry that feeds and houses the homeless. He spent two years doing it in Austin, Texas, starting in 2006. Eighty-eight of his photographs alternate with brief sections of poetry by singer-songwriter Tom Waits in O’Brien’s book Hard Ground, published March 1st by the University of Texas Press.

Other collections of lost souls (Richard Avedon’s In the American West comes to mind) are different. We meet O’Brien’s people one on one. Their “otherness” is removed. The photographs engender compassion and empathy. If that sounds simple, it is because it is simple. And, as anyone knows, being simple is very, very difficult. Hard Ground is a rare and powerful book.

“After thirty-five years working as a photographer for magazines such as Life, National Geographic, Texas Monthly and others," O’Brien points out that by 2006 “the business had changed. Newspapers were dying, magazines struggling in earnest. My career was changing; I was looking for a way to stay busy … These gentle, worn, and vulnerable souls sat quietly across from me and looked directly into the lens … I wasn’t close to living on the street. But I was uprooted by the industry’s change; I too was unsettled, floundering, often unemployed, trying to regain my balance and place. This project, and these subjects, gave me back my anchor.”

 Read more »

New York Times Style Magazine :: Cuban Artists Across the Diaspora

Cuban Artists Across the Diaspora

By Andrea O'Reilly Herrera
Buy It Now

Andrea O’Reilly Herrera’s “Cuban Artists Across the Diaspora” (University of Texas Press, $25) measures the pull of home and history on artists like José Bedia and María Brito.

• read more at nytimes.com »
• download .pdf version of the article »  

The Big Bend Sentinel :: Gray Ghosts and Red Rangers

Gray Ghosts and Red Rangers
by Thad Sitton
Buy It Now

the rambling boy – hunting the gray ghost and the red ranger
By LONN TAYLOR, May 19th, 2011

When I lived in Fayette County in the 1970s I knew several men whose passion was wolf hunting. This did not mean that they went out with guns to kill wolves. It meant that they kept packs of hound dogs and one or two nights a week they would take the dogs out and stay up all night listening to the dogs chase a wolf through the woods, following the chase in pickup trucks on back roads or, sometimes, sitting around a camp fire while the dogs circled around them through the woods.

The wolves that they hunted were actually coyotes, as wolves had been extirpated in that part of Texas since the 1930s, but the terminology had clung to the sport long after the wolves had gone. The quarry was not as important as the chase, because the point of the sport was to listen to the music of the dogs baying. An experienced wolf hunter could not only tell which dog was which by the sounds they made, he could tell where the dogs were and how close they were to the coyote, and he could relate that to his fellow-hunters in vivid terms. A wolf hunt was an exercise in translating an auditory experience into a visual one. One of my wolf-hunting friends, Paul Jaster, had a party piece that involved imitating the sounds of a wolf hunt on a harmonica, supplementing the chords of the harmonica with yips and yelps he made with his own mouth and interspersing them with comments like, “now here comes Old Rattler,” and “Little Bill’s almost got him.” He could be persuaded to perform this at barbecues and other outdoor occasions. Hearing him was almost as good as being there by the campfire.

Texas wolf-hunting had its origin in Southern fox chasing, or “hilltopping,” as some of its practitioners call it, a sport that was followed all over the South for two centuries but is now almost extinct. Thad Sitton, a Texas historian who has written several good books about backwoods life in East Texas, has recently published a book about hilltopping, called Gray Ghosts and Red Rangers: American Hilltop Fox Chasing (University of Texas Press, 2010). Reading it has enlightened me considerably about some of the things that I encountered in Fayette County and on forays into East Texas in the 1970s.

Gourmet Live :: Diana Kennedy

Oaxaca al Gusto:
An Infinite Gastronomy

By Diana Kennedy
Buy It Now

50 Most Influential Women:

Men have the big toques, but when you think about it, it’s women who may have exerted the most influence over our foodways—especially since there’s been mass media to record their feats.

So here’s our top 50 countdown of the most important women in food. Period. It’s the view from the United States, but with key players from other cultures. Agree? Disagree? Let us know what you think.

1. Julia Child
The great Julia needs no introduction. Especially not after the great Meryl played her in the movie.

2. Alice Waters
The great Alice needs no introduction. OK, just this: Chez Panisse, farmers’ markets, locavore movement, Edible Schoolyard. As yet, they’ve only made documentary movies about her life.

3. Fannie Farmer
If it weren’t for her we’d still be cooking with “handfuls” and “pinches.” Farmer’s 1896 Boston Cooking–School Cook Book introduced standardized measurements. She also explained the chemical stuff a century before Harold McGee.

...

47. Diana Kennedy
The uncompromising, adventurous Mexican culinary authority ... Get the full list from live.gourmet.com »

Chicago Sun Times :: Oaxaca al Gusto

Oaxaca al Gusto:
An Infinite Gastronomy

By Diana Kennedy
Buy It Now

A lot of cookbooks are eye candy.

But there are those that manage both to look good and to help cooks, whether it’s to understand a cuisine, learn techniques or adapt to a healthier cooking style. Every year, the New York-based James Beard Foundation recognizes the latter crop of books.

This year’s Beard winners (announced earlier this month) include a 459-page tome by Mexican food authority Diana Kennedy on the flavors of Oaxaca, and an enlightening, approachable look at wok cooking by Grace Young, a storyteller as much as a cook and teacher.

Read more »

The Sacramento Bee :: Oaxaca al Gusto

Oaxaca al Gusto:
An Infinite Gastronomy

By Diana Kennedy
Buy It Now

Jose Andres names top chef by Beard Foundation
By Russ Parsons, Los Angeles Times
Monday, May 16, 2011

Jose Andres of minibar in Washington was named the outstanding chef of the year at the James Beard Foundation's annual award ceremony last week at Lincoln Center in New York. Danny Meyer's Eleven Madison Park in New York was named the outstanding restaurant in the country. The best chef in the Pacific region went to San Francisco's Michael Tusk of Quince and Cotogna, ahead of a crowd that included Los Angeles' Michael Cimarusti of Providence.

In the media awards presented earlier, Diana Kennedy's Oaxaca al Gusto was the best cookbook of the year and "Top Chef" was the best food television show. Patric Kuh of Los Angeles magazine won the Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Review Award and Jonathan Gold of L.A. Weekly won the M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award.

Read more »

Publishers Weekly :: Oaxaca al Gusto

Oaxaca al Gusto:
An Infinite Gastronomy

By Diana Kennedy
Buy It Now

McGee, Kennedy, Hesser, Hamilton Win at Beard Awards
Foundation honors cookbook authors, chefs
By Lynn Andriani


On May 6, the James Beard Foundation announced the winners of its annual book awards at a ceremony in New York City, and this year, the Foundation seemed to favor some of the country’s most well-established cookbook authors. Science of cooking expert Harold McGee was inducted into the JBF’s Cookbook Hall of Fame for his On Food and Cooking: The Science & Lore of the Kitchen. Meanwhile, Mexican cooking authority Diana Kennedy took the cookbook of the year prize for her Oaxaca al Gusto: An Infinite Gastronomy (Univ. of Texas).
read more »

AARP Vivo :: Oaxaca al Gusto Video

Oaxaca al Gusto:
An Infinite Gastronomy

By Diana Kennedy
Buy It Now

by: Denisse Oller
AARP VIVA
May 12, 2011

The Julia Child of Mexican Cuisine
For over 50 years, chef Diana Kennedy has traveled throughout Mexico researching its gastronomy

Our Hispanic cooking and nutrition expert, Denisse Oller, journeyed to Zitacuaro, Michoacan, to interview Diana Kennedy, who has spent over 50 years researching Mexican gastronomy and collecting ancestral recipes. The 88-year-old British-born chef talks about her early years in Mexico, her most recent book, Oaxaca al Gusto, and much more.

Read more and watch video »

My West Texas News :: The Austin Chronicle Music Anthology

Austin Chronicle Music Anthology
Edited by Austin Powell
and Doug Freeman
Buy It Now

Chronicle's music anthology covers Austin's icons and unknowns
by John Boyd, Thursday, May 12, 2011
Midland Reporter-Telegram

Just as the flats of West Texas are known for their oil, Texas' capital city has become known for its own natural resource.

And while the superficial may say that resource -- live music -- has its own petro-like cycle of boom-and-bust in Austin, UT Press's new Austin Chronicle Music Anthology proves even in the seemingly lean years another generation of Texas talent pools just below the surface waiting to be tapped.

Spanning the early '80s through the summer of 2010,  Anthology crosses a variety of genres with a collection of archival pieces from the Chronicle's heralded writing staff.

Anthology smartly focuses on the staff's artist profiles (rather than reviews), allowing the individual style and contributions of each act to seep upward from beneath. Separated, the pieces pop from the page with the stylized prose that has made the Chronicle a must-read in Austin for more than three decades. Together, they create a sort-of photo album in words, telling the history of an entire scene (and in many cases, city) in a succession of brief glimpses.

Read more »

The Washington Post :: Oaxaca al Gusto

Oaxaca al Gusto:
An Infinite Gastronomy

By Diana Kennedy
Buy It Now

2011 Beard Award winners
Published: May 10

Washington chef-restaurateur Jose Andres was the only local culinary star to come home with a medal at the 2011 James Beard Foundation Awards for restaurants and chefs, held Monday night at Lincoln Center.

Andres was honored as outstanding chef, for a career that “has set national industry standards” and has inspired other food professionals. The owner of Jaleo, Cafe Atlantico, Oyamel, Minibar, Zaytina, China Poblano and the Bazaar was also the subject of a “60 Minutes” profile that won for best television segment in Friday night’s book, broadcast and journalism awards ceremony, held at Espace in New York.

Eleven Madison Park in New York was named outstanding restaurant, and ABC Kitchen in New York was named best new restaurant.

Michael Solomonov of Zahav in Philadelphia was named best chef in the mid-Atlantic.

At the event Friday, Tim Carman, now a Washington Post Food section writer, received a medal for his food-related columns and commentary in the Washington City Paper.

Other major awards presented that evening included:

Cookbook of the year: “Oaxaca al Gusto: An Infinite Gastronomy,” by Diana Kennedy (University of Texas Press). Read more »

La Bloga :: Our Lady of Controversy

Our Lady of Controversy

Edited by Alicia Gaspar de Alba

 and Alma López

Buy It Now

Review: Alicia Gaspar de Alba and Alma López, eds.
Our Lady of Controversy

by Michael Sedano

The first time I saw Alma López’s take on la Virgen de Guadalupe I laughed at the audacity of the finely crafted photograph. The artist has the goddess proclaim “when all your hieratic stuff is said and done, and you’ve prayed to and idolized me, remember this: I am a woman.”

The woman in López’s photograph poses arms akimbo, head tilted. Her face stares straightforwardly out, unsmiling lips expressing ‘what are you looking at?’ confidence.

Some viewers were looking outragedly at the figure’s floral bikini. Then the naked breasts of the putto at la Virgen’s feet. All Hell broke loose, propelling López to well-earned prominence among American artists, as well as enduring scorn from nattering whatevers.

At the time, López likened the scourging to a 21st century inquisition, cites Alicia Gaspar de Alba, in her introduction to her co-edited collection Our Lady of Controversy: Alma López’s Irreverent Apparition.

The eleven chapters include essays by López and Gaspar de Alba, as well as Tey Marianna Nunn, Kathleen Fitzcallaghan Jones, Deena J. González, Luz Calvo, Clara Román-Odio, Emma Pérez, Cristina Serna, Catrióna Rueda Esquibel.  Read more »

Orlando Sentinel :: Oaxaca al Gusto

Oaxaca al Gusto:
An Infinite Gastronomy

By Diana Kennedy
Buy It Now

2011 James Beard Award winners announced
posted by hmcpherson on May, 10 2011

Winners were announced last night, Monday, May 9, 2011, at the annual 2011 James Beard Foundation Awards, the nation’s most prestigious recognition program honoring professionals in the food and beverage industries. During a ceremony hosted by Tom Colicchio, Traci Des Jardins and Ming Tsai at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, awards in the Restaurant and Chef and the Design and Graphics categories were presented, as well as a number of special achievement awards including Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America, America’s Classics, Lifetime Achievement, and Humanitarian of the Year. Winners of the Foundation’s annual Book, Broadcast and Journalism Awards were presented on May 6, 2011, at the ceremony and dinner at Espace in New York City, hosted by Ted Allen of Food Network’s Chopped and The Best Thing I Ever Ate and Gail Simmons of Bravo’s Top Chef. A complete list of all award-winners follows. read more »

CultureMap Houston :: Trillin on Texas

Trillin on Texas

by Calvin Trillin

Buy It Now

10 books you have to read this summer: From Moonwalking memory to art world felonies

BY Elizabeth Bennett | 05.10.11

excerpt
" ... Trillin on Texas is by the wonderfully amusing Calvin Trillin, a writer for The New Yorker who has, surprisingly, a Texas connection. His family immigrated to the United States through the port of Galveston, and he seems to love writing about Texas. Included in this collection are previously published articles and poems in various publications about everything from Houston’s colorful immigration lawyers and scouting for books with Larry McMurtry to his sardonic take on the Bush dynasty and their tendency toward fractured syntax."

Read more »

LA Weekly :: Oaxaca al Gusto

Oaxaca al Gusto:
An Infinite Gastronomy

By Diana Kennedy
Buy It Now

2011 James Beard Media Award Winners
By Elina Shatkin, Mon., May 9 2011

It's a case of local boy makes good -- make that two local boys -- at this year's James Beard Media Awards. Our own Jonathan Gold won the MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award while Patrick Kuh of Los Angeles magazine won the Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Review Award. In the first ever Humor category, odds-on favorite Ruth Bourdain won. (She did not publicly accept her award.)
Other noteworthy awards went to Diana Kennedy, who won best cookbook of the year for Oaxaca al Gusto, which our cookbook reviewer described as "her best cookbook to date." Top Chef won best TV show while Politics Of The Plate won Best Individual Food Blog. Pig: King of the Southern Table by James Villas won American Cooking, and Good to the Grain: Baking with Whole-Grain Flours by former Los Angeles pastry chef Kim Boyce and Squid Ink editor Amy Scattergood won in the Baking and Dessert category.

The chef and restaurant winners will be announced tonight in New York.

Winners of the 2011 James Beard Media Awards

COOKBOOKS
-- Cookbook Hall of Fame: On Food and Cooking: The Science & Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee
-- Cookbook of the Year: Oaxaca al Gusto: An Infinite Gastronomy by Diana Kennedy
Read more »

The Independent :: Oaxaca al Gusto

Oaxaca al Gusto:
An Infinite Gastronomy

By Diana Kennedy
Buy It Now

Winners of James Beard journalism awards includes controversial fictitious persona

It's perhaps one of the sexiest, most controversial wins the James Beard Foundation Awards has hosted in a while.

The winner of the first ever humor category at this year's James Beard Foundation Book, Broadcast & Journalism Awards Dinner on Friday went to Ruth Bourdain, the snarky, fictitious mash-up and Twitter avatar of Ruth Reichl and Anthony Bourdain.

After more than a year of tweeting expletive-laced, pithy, 140-character laugh-out-loud tweets, the identity of this culinary anti-hero still remains shrouded in mystery - a formidable feat in a foodie world where gossip runs wild. Read more »

Dallas Morning News :: Oaxaca al Gusto

Oaxaca al Gusto:
An Infinite Gastronomy

By Diana Kennedy
Buy It Now

2011 James Beard Foundation Book Awards and Journalism Awards
By Leslie Brenner, Restaurant Critic

I'm playing catch-up here, but on Friday night the Beard Foundation had a dinner announcing its 2011 Book Awards, Journalism Awards, Broadcast Media Awards and Design Awards.

Kim Pierce already mentioned that Edible Communities was honored as Publication of the Year. Bravo to Kim for her contributions to Edible Dallas & Fort Worth!

In other highlights, Diana Kennedy's Oaxaca al Gusto: An Infinite Gastronomy, published by the University of Texas Press, won Cookbook of the Year.  Read more »   

Utne Reader :: Trillin on Texas

Trillin on Texas
by Calvin Trillin
Buy It Now

The Difference Between You and a Journalist

May 9, 2011
by David Doody

Calvin Trillin, the long-time New Yorker writer, recently released Trillin on Texas (University of Texas Press), a collection of his writing on that state. Many of the pieces come from Trillin’s “U.S. Journal” series from The New Yorker, where he traveled to different parts of the country and submitted short articles about those places. In this interview with Michael Meyer of Columbia Journalism Review, Meyer wonders if Trillin considers himself an expert on the state of the country, a writer with a unique finger on the pulse, due to his reporting from different places. read more »

Huffington Post :: Oaxaca al Gusto

Oaxaca al Gusto:
An Infinite Gastronomy

By Diana Kennedy
Buy It Now

2011 James Beard Book, Broadcast & Journalism Awards Announced
First Posted: 05/ 7/11

The 2011 book, broadcast and journalism James Beard awards were announced Friday night at a dinner in New York City hosted by Gail Simmons and Ted Allen. The winners, selected from the final nominees announced in March, include the LA Weekly's Jonathan Gold, Amanda Hesser's Essential New York Times Cook Book, Top Chef: Season 7, Alton Brown, and Twitter mashup Ruth Bourdain, who did not show up to accept the award and remains anonymous. Other winners include Benjamin Wallace, who won for his New York magazine profile of Keith McNally, Barry Estabrook's Politics of the Plate blog, New York magazine's group food blog Grub Street New York, the San Francisco Chronicle's food section, and 60 Minutes' José Andrés segment with Anderson Cooper. The full list of winners for the 2011 James Beard book, broadcast and journalism awards are below.

2011 James Beard Foundation Book Awards

Cookbook Hall of Fame
On Food and Cooking: The Science & Lore of the Kitchen
by Harold McGee

Cookbook of the Year
Oaxaca al Gusto: An Infinite Gastronomy
by Diana Kennedy
(University of Texas Press)
Read more »

British Photographic History :: The Gernsheim Collection

The Gernsheim Collection
by Roy Flukinger
Buy It Now

Gernsheim Collection wins Award
by Michael Wong on May 6, 2011

The Gernsheim Collection, published by the University of Texas Press, written by Roy Flukinger and designed by Pentagram, won the Fred Whitehead Award for Best Book Design at the Texas Institute of Letters 75th anniversary awards ceremony last Saturday.

The Gernsheim Collection housed at the Harry Ransom Center on the campus of the University of Texas in Austin, is one of the most important photography collections in the world. Amassed by the renowned husband-and-wife team of Helmut and Alison Gernsheim between 1945 and 1963, it contains an unparalleled range of images, including the world’s earliest-known photograph, made by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826. Its encyclopedic scope—as well as the expertise and taste with which the Gernsheims built the collection—makes the Gernsheim Collection one of the world’s premier resources for the study and appreciation of the development of photography.

Read more »

Los Angeles Times :: Oaxaca al Gusto

Oaxaca al Gusto:
An Infinite Gastronomy

By Diana Kennedy
Buy It Now

Diana Kennedy, "Top Chef" top James Beard awards

May 6, 2011

Diana Kennedy’s “Oaxaca al Gusto” was the best cookbook of the year according to the James Beard Foundation, at “Top Chef” was the best food television show. The awards were announced Friday night at Espace in New York. The restaurant awards will be announced Monday night. Harold McGee’s “On Food and Cooking” was placed in the Cookbook Hall of Fame.  Read more »

The OC Weekly :: Our Lady of Controversy

Our Lady of Controversy

Edited by Alicia Gaspar de Alba

 and Alma López

Buy It Now

Can a Gabacho Be More Mexican Than a Mexican?
[¡Ask a Mexican!] And why would an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe cause so much controversy?
By GUSTAVO ARELLANO

GOOD MEXICAN OF THE WEEK! A decade ago, Chicana artist Alma Lopez released Our Lady, a digital collage that depicted the Virgin of Guadalupe as a living, breathing woman wearing Her trademark green shawl, as well as a bikini made of flowers. It proved one of the most momentous artworks of this millennium, provoking equal parts praise and outrage by tapados. Its influence is recounted in the recently released Our Lady of Controversy, Alma López's Irreverent Apparition, a collection of essays from Chicana scholars on the subject complete with the chingona DVD, I Love Lupe, a short documentary on Chicana art's constant tweaks of the iconic Guadalupe image. Essential reading for art and Chicana/o Studies freaks alike! Read More »

Santa Fe New Mexican :: Our Lady of Controversy

Our Lady of Controversy

Edited by Alicia Gaspar de Alba
 and Alma López

Buy It Now

War of the Roses: 'Our Lady' 10 years on Casey Sanchez | The New MexicanThursday, May 05, 2011

Anybody living in Santa Fe in the spring of 2001 could scarcely forget her. She was called Our Lady, and she was clad in roses. Not enough of them, apparently.

She stood with arms akimbo, her face cocked defiantly, her back cloaked in an Aztec cloth, her chest and waist wreathed in a garland of roses that gloriously framed her toned midriff. A butterfly-winged, bare-breasted angel held her aloft.

She was artist Alma López's highly personal vision of the Virgen de Guadalupe, steeped in the urban spirituality of Mexican-immigrant Los Angeles, where La Virgencita may have been glimpsed outside of churches more often than inside — dangling as an air freshener from a rearview mirror, held aloft by civil rights activists at marches and protests, or adorning a mural on a street corner, where she terrified the daylights out of graffiti sprayers.  Read more »

UT News :: Field Guide for Texas Damselflies

Damselflies of Texas
by John C. Abbott

Buy It Now

Field Guide for Texas Damselflies Highlights Diversity of Fascinating Insects

May 3, 2011

AUSTIN, Texas — A new field guide for damselflies by University of Texas at Austin entomologist John Abbott is the most comprehensive guide for identifying the colorful insects that flit about streams and ponds around the state.
read more at utexas.edu/news »

myScience :: Damselflies of Texas

Damselflies of Texas
by John C. Abbott

Buy It Now

Field Guide for Texas Damselflies Highlights Diversity of Fascinating Insects
May 3, 2011

AUSTIN, Texas — A new field guide for damselflies by University of Texas at Austin entomologist John Abbott is the most comprehensive guide for identifying the colorful insects that flit about streams and ponds around the state.

‘Damselflies of Texas’ covers the 77 species of damselflies in Texas. Because more than half of the 138 North American species of damselflies occur in the state, the guide can be considered very useful for the entire United States.

‘Damselflies are the generally smaller and daintier counterparts to dragonflies with which most people will be more familiar,’ says Abbott, curator of entomology at the Texas Natural Science Center and the Brackenridge Field Lab. ’Despite their smaller size, they are actually often easier to see and study because they are not as strong a flier as dragonflies. The two largest groups of damselflies in North America are very similar and field observers often get frustrated trying to identify them. This book provides ample illustrations and descriptions, along with comparative figures to help separate and identify these similar species.’ Read more »