Great Chefs of Virginia Cookbook or Chocolate Strawberry and Vanilla

Great Chefs of Virginia Cookbook

Author: Marcel Desaulniers

As demonstrated herein, Virginians throughout their history have a special knack for things culinary. The recipes in this book, all from contemporary Virginia chefs, reflect a similar eclecticism. As before, the chefs are characterized by a notable diversity of backgrounds, both cultural and professional. The chefs are bound by a passion for cooking. The Virginia Chefs Association felt compelled by the continually increasing interest of Virginians in the chefs' work to produce a volume of recipes embodying that passion. Included in this text is the most exciting fare from their restaurants' kitchens as well as some of the chefs' favoritesÑhome cooking in a truly Virginian sense. A technologically advanced world allows greater access to a plethora of possible ingredients. The essential tastes of Virginia and her rich culinary heritage, however, are still of primary importance.

Interesting book: Guilty Comfort Foods or Yours in Food

Chocolate, Strawberry, and Vanilla: A History of American Ice Cream

Author: Anne Cooper Funderburg

Chocolate, Strawberry, and Vanilla traces the evolution of ice cream from a rarity to an everyday indulgence. It covers the genesis of ice cream in America, the invention of the hand-cranked ice cream freezer, the natural ice industry, the beginnings of wholesale ice cream manufacturing, and the origins of the ice cream soda, sundae, cone, sandwich, and bar. It also recounts the histories of many brands, including Dairy Queen, Good Humor, Eskimo Pie, Ben and Jerry's, Baskin-Robbins, and Haagen-Dazs. In short, this history of ice cream describes how a borrowed European elite consumable evolved through entrepreneurialism and demand in America into a democratized treat for all classes. It simultaneously reflects and reveals changes in social customs, diet and nutrition, class distinctions, leisure activities, and everyday life.

Booknews

Perhaps the history of ice cream isn't crucial to the advancement of civilization, but it's one of humanity's sweeter inventions and that may make its study more significant than one would think at first glance. This is the "elite treat" of Europe that underwent an American transformation as stunning as Norma Jean to Marilyn Monroe. From hand cranked machines to Baked Alaska, Dairy Queen to Ben and Jerry's, the history of ice cream also becomes a history of American culture and tastes. Paper edition (unseen), $18.95. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)