MEDIA CORNER
With Joyce Appelman
WHAT WE’RE WATCHING:
BOOKS, TV, FILM, AND PODCASTS
WHAT WE’RE READING:
WHAT WE’RE LISTENING TO: Falkner, Edward Lee, Jose Garces, and Dan Kluger. But just as impressive, and in some ways more relevant for aspiring professionals, is Laroche’s contact with and inclusion of working chefs and other food service figures who are making a local impact and drawing inspiration from a wide range of personal experience and interests. Within a paragraph he can cite a chef with multiple Michelin stars and the proprietor of a food truck. Laroche is just as interested in a remarkable pie shop as he is in fine dining. Conversations Behind the Kitchen Door provides real service to anyone interested in or building a culinary career.
Batali: The Fall of a Superstar Chef A new documentary about the controversial career of Mario Batali, Batali: The Fall of a Superstar Chef, premiered on Discovery+. The documentary chronicles accusations of sexual misconduct that date back over two decades, which came to light in 2017, leading Batali to divest from his restaurants and pay a settlement of $600,000 to former employees. Batali also settled two additional sexual misconduct lawsuits, related to alleged incidents in Boston, after a Boston judge found Batali not guilty of indecent assault and battery. The documentary includes new testimony from a former Babbo employee, who previously remained anonymous, asserting that she was allegedly sexually assaulted by Batali.
Chef’s Table: Pizza Chef’s Table, the multi-documentary series has become more specific, dedicating full seasons to barbecue, pastry, and France. The latest season focuses on pizza from around the world, with six featured pizzaiolos, prepared by renowned chefs who bake passion creativity and hard work into every slice including American pizza legend Chris Bianco, Rome’s pizza al taglio pioneer Gabriele Bonci, and James Beard Award-winning Ann Kimm, of Minneapolis’s Young Joni. Expect tons of wood-firing and ingredient foraging, plus lots of talk about dough and flour. Matt Sartwell, Managing Partner, Kitchen Arts & Letters Bookstore in New York City shares his book reviews...
28 • November 2022 • Total Food Service • www.totalfood.com
Conversations Behind the Kitchen Door: 50 American Chefs Chart Today’s Food Culture By Emmanuel Laroche Drawing on insights gleaned from his restaurant-industry focused podcast Flavors Unknown, Emmanuel Laroche explores the future of culinary creativity and the hospitality business. Dedicated podcast listeners will notice quickly that Laroche is not simply rehashing episodes he has shared. He includes private conversations with the chefs, beverage specialists, and entrepreneurs, and makes connections informed by his years of professional engagement as an executive with a leading food industry supplier Among the chefs with whom Laroche has spoken and gleaned insight are many nationally known names, including Gabriel Kreuther, Antiono Bachour, Johnny Spero, Elizabeth
A History of Cookbooks: From Kitchen to Page Over Seven Centuries By Henry Notaker Now available in paperback for the first time since its original publication in 2017, A History of Cookbooks examines works from Europe and Western civilization. Henry Notaker, a Norwegian literary historian, credits his pursuit of the subject matter to conversations with the late Alan Davidson and Rudolf Grewe, who encouraged an approach similar to the techniques used to examine traditional literature. As a result, Notaker’s work is not a chronology—although a chronology is easily discerned—but an examination of elements such as the effect of printing on the diffusion of cookbooks and the development of the idea of
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