"Top 10 Food Blogs Good Enough To Eat: Blogs (or web logs) are an interesting phenomenon. Anyone with a computer and an opinion can start a blog, a sort of online diary, for the entire world to read. Food blogs generally relate the dining adventures or cooking experiments of the writer. Many of these blogs are very well written, extremely interesting, and can be addictive. Here are some of my favorite food blogs. Explore these and you may want to start your own. Surely someone out there cares what you had for breakfast....#6) Andrew & Karen's Web Log: Blog page of the brilliant writing team of Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page (husband and wife). Dornenburg and Page are authors of CULINARY ARTISTRY, DINING OUT, CHEF'S NIGHT OUT, THE NEW AMERICAN CHEF and BECOMING A CHEF (this book was partly responsible for my own desire to become a professional chef). As you would guess, Andrew and Karen dine out a lot. This page is a diary of their dining experiences, chats with chefs, opinions, and useful restaurant information — a pleasure to read."

— Brett Moore, GourmetFood.About.com
(a New York Times company)

Dear Friends & Colleagues,

If all the traffic generated 0n our Web site from hosting the first-ever "Live Blog" from the Press Room at the Monday, May 8th, 2006 James Beard Awards in New York City doesn't crash our server, you can check out our behind-the-scenes report and photos here.

You may have already heard that Daniel Boulud was honored with the 2006 Outstanding Restaurateur Award, and Alfred Portale with the Outstanding Chef Award. But who did 2006 Outstanding Wine & Spirits Professional Daniel Johnnes and 2006 Best Chef: Southwest Brad Thompson forget to thank in their acceptance speeches? What starry-eyed food couple got engaged at this year's Awards ceremony? How many James Beard Awards has record-tying journalist Steve Dolinsky won anyway? Which award-winning chef is opening two new places in Key West? What did always "best dressed" 2001 Outstanding Chef Patrick O'Connell wear this year? Why did 2003 Best Chef: Midwest Takashi Yagihashi claim to be "the luckiest man at the James Beard Awards" this year? How many times has Traci Des Jardins been nominated as Best Chef: California? Who was that popular guy wearing overalls and a red bow tie at this black-tie event? What was the hottest dress spotted at the reception (which we later learned was designed by computer guru Michael Dell's wife Susan Dell)? Read our Blog and find out! We'll also share a few highlights below.

The Awards reception spotlighted the cooking of dozens of New Orleans' best chefs — from Leah Chase to Emeril Lagasse to Susan Spicer — as a portion of this year's Awards proceeds will be donated to the Gulf Coast Renaissance Fund, established by the Southern Foodways Alliance to help rebuild New Orleans' restaurant community in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. You can do your own part in supporting this effort by visiting New Orleans and patronizing its restaurants, which need our support more than ever.

To that end, we'd like to invite you to join us this summer (July 19-23) in New Orleans, where we'll be featured at Tales of the Cocktail, a dining and drinking experience hosted by the New Orleans Culinary and Cultural Preservation Society that explores the history and spirit of the cocktail at various locations in the New Orleans French Quarter. You can find details at TalesoftheCocktail.com.

And, as always, we love hearing from you at Dornenburg@aol.com.

Delicious wishes,
Andrew & Karen

Karen getting a kiss backstage from 2006 James Beard Book Award winner Mario Batali HE 2006 JAMES BEARD AWARDS, always held in early May as a celebration of James Beard's birthday, took place on Monday, May 8, 2006 — which also happens to be Karen's birthday. We hate missing the pleasure of getting to see so many of our food world friends, so we put aside Karen's birthday celebration in favor of James Beard's. This year, we wanted to do something other than our usual post-Awards report on our Blog, so we came up with the idea of hosting the first-ever Live Blog from behind-the-scenes at the Marriott Marquis. It was obviously an idea whose time had come, as we learned just yesterday that fellow food writer Ed Levine (who wrote the fabulous book New York Eats) had also decided to Blog the Awards from the floor of the ceremony itself. So, if you read both of our Blogged accounts, you just might feel like you were there with us!

The title page of our book WHAT TO DRINK WITH WHAT YOU EAT N A FEW DAYS, our next book WHAT TO DRINK WITH WHAT YOU EAT: The Definitive Guide to Pairing Food with Wine, Beer, Spirits, Coffee, Tea — Even Water — Based on Expert Advice from America's Best Sommeliers (Little, Brown's Bulfinch Press) will be off to the printer just in time to hit bookstore shelves this fall. We're looking forward to criss-crossing the country to share the secrets we've learned about making food and beverage matches from more than 70 of the leading pairing experts in America, ranging from master sommelier Larry Stone, now of Rubicon Estate, to 2006 James Beard Book Award winner for CHEESE Max McCalman. We're thrilled that Robert Mondavi himself said of our book: "What a great idea! WHAT TO DRINK WITH WHAT YOU EAT is enormously educational and entertaining, and should fit with anyone's lifestyle!" Our book tour planning is already underway with visits scheduled to San Francisco, Chicago, and elsewhere, so if you would like to propose a stop we should consider in your neck of the woods, please let us know at Dornenburg@aol.com.

Gael Greene's book INSATIABLE is provocative bedside reading N THE CATEGORY OF "MUST-READ BOOKS FOR FOOD LOVERS," you can now add legendary New York magazine restaurant critic Gael Greene's brand-new tell-all INSATIABLE: Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess. This has been our bedside reading for the past few weeks, with the two of us fighting over our copy in those rare moments between deadlines. We were both honored to get a preview of this delicious read when Gael shared a few chapters with Karen early on (including some juicy bits about her passionate encounters with everyone from Elvis Presley to Clint Eastwood to Burt Reynolds; remember, she came of age during the sexual revolution), and then when Andrew tested a couple of the recipes (including ones for delicious Plum Rum Conserve, which we highly recommend for the holidays, and for Gael's Almost Like Mom's Macaroni and Cheese, which is tasty any time). You can order the book by clicking here — but do yourself a favor and order two copies, so you don't have to fight over it with anyone.

2006 Best New Restaurant THE MODERN's Arctic Char Tartare HERE'S NOW AN INDEX on our Blog, to help you more easily discover where we've been eating. Over the past few months, this has included remarkable meals at A Voce (which just won a well-deserved three-star rave from Frank Bruni in today's New York Times), Asiate (our best-ever dining experience at the Time Warner Center), Bette, ChikaLicious, DB Bistro Moderne, Dona, The Emerson, Le Bernardin, Maremma (for a taste of chef Cesare Casella's extraordinary Chianina beef), Maxie, The Modern (which we were delighted to cheer on as it won the 2006 James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant), Nobu 57, Per Se, Peter Luger, Rat's (which, despite its unappetizing name, is a not-to-be-missed New Jersey dining destination), Sahara's, San Domenico, and Solera. You can find details on our Blog here.

Chef Jeff Henderson, author of FROM COCAINE TO FOIE GRAS N OUR MARCH/APRIL 2005 e-Newsletter, we wrote of meeting Chef Jeff Henderson when we all addressed the Food Educators Network International (FENI) conference in New Orleans the prior month. Less than a year later on February 6, 2006, Jeff emailed us: "I wanted to thank you two again for your inspirational book BECOMING A CHEF that I read while incarcerated and for the opportunity to share a few words with you at the FENI Summit in New Orleans in 2005. After you wrote about me in your newsletter last year, [literary] agent Michael Psaltis...read your testimony. He contacted me in my kitchen at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas about representing me for a possible book deal. After several conversations, we put together a proposal and pitched it to some of the largest publishing houses in New York, and my God, almost everyone we sent proposals to responded with interest. The rights to my life story were sold to William Morrow/Harper Collins for a substantial six figures...I've been truly blessed by God and so many in the food world who have inspired me through their books and cuisine. Thank you, Andrew and Karen, for coming into my life through your work." Our congratulations again to Chef Jeff Henderson on his long journey to the kitchen...and now authorship!

Founder Deborah Szekely with Andrew Dornenburg at Rancho La Puerta HINGS ON THE HORIZON....Rancho La Puerta, often cited as one of the world's top spas, is scheduled to open in Spring 2007 a brand-new cooking school on its premises, which are a a one-hour drive from San Diego. After hearing raves about Rancho from food world colleagues and friends like Gael Greene and Ruth Reichl, we were delighted to be invited to pay our first visit to Rancho in December 2005. Highlights of our extraordinary week included a morning hike to Rancho's six-acre organic farm to see where many of the vegetables and herbs served at the spa are grown — and which will be the site of the new cooking school, where classes will start by picking the ingredients to be cooked. Last we heard, they're still looking for a chef couple to run the school on site, which we think would be an idyllic opportunity for the right team. For more on Rancho La Puerta, visit RanchoLaPuerta.com.

FROM OUR MEDIA ROOM:

"THE NEW AMERICAN CHEF by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page (winners of the James Beard Award for Best Writing on Food for BECOMING A CHEF) is the result of consulting with top chefs and cookbook authors, who reveal the essence of 10 popular cuisines, including Indian, Moroccan and Vietnamese. Not only a cookbook, this is a one-volume cooking school that delves into the techniques, sources, flavors and fundamentals for serious students of the philosophy of food and cooking ."
— Food Staff, Metro Times Detroit (April 19, 2006)

"BECOMING A CHEF focuses on the long journey required to become a professional chef...Even for people uninterested in the culinary arts as a career, however, this book is an amazing resource."
— Katie Harger, CareerStreet (April 17, 2006)

"But what is it that happens when peanut butter meets jelly? Why have they worked so well together for so long? They are what [Karen] Page calls 'classic flavor pals' — a theme in the couple's book CULINARY ARTISTRY, considered something of a dining bible with its listing of 'flavor matches' and input from all-star chefs such as Daniel Boulud, Rick Bayless and Alice Waters on winning flavor combinations ."
— Vikki Ortiz and Jan Uebelherr, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (March 31, 2006)

"While working as a sound engineer for recording companies in California, David Peterson never dreamed he would work in a restaurant....Peterson, 38, is now the head chef at three of the businesses operated by Bellingham restaurateur Brian Tines: Main Street Bar and Grill, Fairhaven Pub and Martini Bar, and Big Fat Fish Co. Favorite cookbook: CULINARY ARTISTRY by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page. It describes foods that pair well together."
— Ericka Pizzillo Cohen, Bellingham (WA) Herald (March 16, 2006)

"A VOCE...Early Word: Kink-Free — Blog Becoming a Chef, personal journal of food writers Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page, has the early early word on Carmellini's week-old A VOCE. While the venue hasn't gotten the attention it probably deserves here, there has been plenty of anticipation elsewhere for the return of the Cafe Boulud alum and Food & Wine Best New Chef '00 honoree. Encouragingly, the early word is quite good."
— Eater.Curbed.com (March 13, 2006)

"What's New....Restaurants: A VOCE — 41 Mad [26th], 212.545.8555, with Andrew Carmellini at the helm, finally open. Dornenburg and Page report it was 'well worth the wait.'"
— Charlie Suisman, Manhattan User's Guide (March 13, 2006)

"Local pros let you in on the cookbooks they cherish .... Everyone's got a favorite unsung cookbook. Here are some from culinarily inclined Oregonians: Kelvin Gurr, chef instructor of Western Culinary Institute's restaurant, Bleu: CULINARY ARTISTRY by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page (1996) — 'The ultimate single-dish or whole-menu-building reference. Information about seasonally available ingredients and classic combinations in food pairing. Answers what goes well with anything, from pigs' ears to pineapple. A full spectrum of pairings helps break the 'chef's block' or build a meal out of your refrigerated leftovers that don't clash.'"
— The Oregonian (February 28, 2006)

"Cooking is an art. A splash of spice is to a chef as a gentle brush stroke upon a canvas is to a painter. Those who understand this have transformed daily household cooking into the culinary arts. Garrett Benedict, 18, in his first year as a West High alumnus, has since his junior year aspired to learn to cook well. Now a pastry and frontline chef at two highly acclaimed restaurants in Anchorage — Marx Bros. Cafe and Orso — Garrett finds himself realizing his dream. Q. So, how did you start into the culinary arts? A. When I was in seventh grade, my best friend's mom gave me the book BECOMING A CHEF by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page , and I read the book in two days. I just tore through it. It was about the industry, working as a cook and working in different restaurants. I ate that book up. Ever since that point, I really started thinking about cooking."
— Becquer Medak-Seguin, Anchorage Daily News (February 24, 2006)

"Anthony Bourdain, watch your back! Jeff Henderson, executive chef at Las Vegas' Bellagio, learned how to cook while in prison for coke-dealing. Now he's written a memoir. Rights to From Cocaine to Foie Gras were snatched at auction last week by William Morrow for Henderson's tale of running a big San Diego drug operation, and then learning how to sling more than hash in jail from the how-to tome BECOMING A CHEF by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page."
— Richard Johnson, "Page Six," The New York Post (February 7, 2006)

"Food Network has changed way America thinks about chefs — and, oh yes, cooking: Karen Page, co-author with husband Andrew Dornenburg of BECOMING A CHEF, said the couple were frequent visitors to [chef Mario] Batali's first restaurant, Po, when it was a 'tiny little place.' Yet the chef 'wasn't even on our radar screen then,' as someone to feature in the book, said Page. Batali is now on the back cover of the newest edition. 'Once his show came out, there were lines around the block for the restaurant,' she said. The Food Network 'had a huge national impact'."
— Kristin Eddy, The Macon Telegraph (January 11, 2006)