The Piglet is almost here...
Starting on Wednesday, January 18, join us every weekday morning for a new matchup, judged by some of the biggest names in the food world and beyond!
Not familiar with the Piglet? It's our NCAA-style competition in which we seed the 16 best cookbooks from the past year into brackets and face them off. We pass each pair of books to our expert judges, they cook from the books and write up their decisions, and you get to weigh in with your yay or nay on each day's outcome until only one remains -- the 2012 Piglet winner. (Here's what the trophy looks like.)
And save the date: Monday, February 6 is the date for the Piglet Party at our fabulous offices in New York City, where we'll announce the final winner of the Tournament the night before the results are updated on our website. Tickets are $15 and you can buy them here.
Here's our fantastic panel of judges, who hail from all corners of food and media:
Roz Chast, staff cartoonist for The New Yorker
Caitlin Freeman, pastry chef for Blue Bottle Coffee, and James Freeman, founder and owner of Blue Bottle Coffee
Ina Garten, cookbook author and host of Food Network's Barefoot Contessa
Dorie Greenspan and Josh Greenspan, co-owners of Cookie Bar
Carla Hall, a host on ABC's The Chew and owner of Alchemy by Carla Hall in Washington, D.C.
Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer, founders of The Canal House
Sara Jenkins, owner of Porchetta and Porsena in New York City
Nigella Lawson, cookbook author and host of Food Network's Nigella Feasts
Hunter Lewis, food editor at Bon Appetit
Anita Lo, chef and owner of Annisa in New York City
Celia Sack, owner of Omnivore Books in San Francisco
Kim Severson, Atlanta Bureau Chief for The New York Times
David Tanis, cookbook author, New York Times columnist, and chef at Chez Panisse in Berkeley
Alice Waters, owner of Chez Panisse in Berkeley
Jacob Weisberg, editor-in-chief of Slate
Now what you've all been waiting for, the official list of contenders for the 2012 Piglet. Our official brackets are here -- you can download and print them out, fill in your predictions, and follow along with the competition!
Alice's Cookbook
Alice Hart
American Flavor
Andrew Carmellini
The Art of Living According to Joe Beef: A Cookbook of Sorts
David McMillan, Frederic Morin, & Meredith Erickson
Cook This Now: 120 Easy and Delectable Dishes You Can't Wait to Make
Melissa Clark
Cooking in the Moment: A Year of Seasonal Recipes
Andrea Reusing
The Family Meal: Home Cooking with Ferran Adrià
Ferran Adrià
Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work
Aki Kamozawa & H. Alexander Talbot
Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home
Jeni Britton Bauer
Momofuku Milk Bar
Christina Tosi
Mourad: New Moroccan
Mourad Lahlou
The Mozza Cookbook: Recipes from Los Angeles's Favorite Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria
Nancy Silverton
Neue Cuisine: The Elegant Tastes of Vienna: Recipes from Cafe Sabarsky, Wallse, and Blaue Gans
Kurt Gutenbrunner
The Perfect Bite Cookbook
Jennifer Jasinski
Super Natural Every Day: Well-loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen
Heidi Swanson
Tender: A Cook and His Vegetable Patch
Nigel Slater
Truly Mexican: Essential Recipes and Techniques for Authentic Mexican Cooking
Roberto Santibanez
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Food52
We love cooking, and we hope you'll hang out with us at food52!
Some past articles from this author you'll love:
Winner of Your Best Mangoes
Community Picks --Mangoes
A Bowl of Mango Sunshine
30 Comments on The 2012 Piglet Tournament of Cookbooks!:
I like lots of the books that you mention,but have to throw in props for Rustic Italian Food,by Mark Vetri...Great recipes and good articulation about what good food is about.
oh my ... and my work schedule has changed so i can get to a monday night event... maybe...
Yay! It's the PIGLET! and thanks to the last two contests, my cookbook shelves are so much better as is my cooking. I see a big Amazon order in my future.
What better way than to learn from others. I would think knowing the top 3 books, not just the top book, would be valuable. Your Food52 team is so amazing. I'll be reading your email updates.
Fantastic Fun! Also spied some cookbooks that might just be my Valentine's present(s) to myself!
I swore to myself I would not buy any more cookbooks. So much for that, I have my eye on a couple on the list.
Same here. I own 5 of those, have already considered and rejected some, but there are more still I have not seen. Yikes.
what a great line-up of books and judges. Wow. The Piglet rocks! I only have a couple of the books and I want about 8 of them so I look forward to what you think of them.
My bookshelves are overflowing and I have promised my husband that if I buy any more cookbooks, they will REPLACE not ADD TO the current stash. Nonetheless, I have been eyeing several of the books in this line up! I am really looking forward to reading the testers' feedback. I love the piglet.
wow! great lineup and fantastic judges! i won;t be able to resist buying at least four of these books (in addition to the terrific one i already own, Melissa Clark's)
wow! great lineup and fantastic judges! i won;t be able to resist buying at least four of these books (in addition to the terrific one i already own, Melissa Clark's)
This is such a cool idea! It will be my first year following the piglet. super excited!
I'm squealing with excitement! Great choices.
I am currently smitten with Melissa Clark's "Cook This Now". I've made about half the January recipes and they are keepers!
Did not know that Mozza had put out a cookbok. Really squealing about that one!
Always love the Piglet! Know you can't include your book in the competition, but still think it's the BEST!
Amazing judges and books. . . . . .awesome! Let the judging begin.
LOVE the Piglet! And what a great line up this year.
Fantastic array of books and what a judging panel. Woohoo! Let the games begin.
One of my favorite events of the FOOD 52 year! And what a stellar lineup of books AND judges you have gathered. Honestly, the Piglet gets better every year. Can't wait for the fun to begin!
Really looking forward to this! Great link up of judges and books. I needed something right about now to brighten up January!
Fantastic idea -this is WAY better than the NCAA tournament (IMHO)! And an awesome line-up of books and judges - can't wait to see the winner
YES. Go Heidi!
So I guess you had a hard time lining up impressive names for the judges' panel, huh? (I kid...majorly.) Have to admit, I'm most excited to see Roz Chast's write-up...guessing - hoping - it will be illustrated.
Oh happy day! The Piglet is BACK! Fantastic lineup of writers and cookbooks, too.
Hooray!
Hootie-hoo!
Really great roundup of books and judges. Well done, piglets. Looking forward to the smackdown.
Kick-ass judges and spectacular books. Should be a knock-down, drag-out competition. Oink, oink!
I have no interest in the super bowl and it is here in Indianapolis. The piglet however looks so much more interesting and look at that line-up of judges, holy cow, did you all take this one over the top.
Pardon my ignorance.. Is there a story behind the title term piglet?? It sounds soo cute!
Yayyyy!!!!! Sorry if I'm a little over-excited about this, but I truly love the piglet. Truly. It may kind of weird, but there you have it.
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