Food52’s Piglet Tournament of Cookbooks is sort of like March Madness for food nerds. It pits the 16 most notable cookbooks of the year against each other in a face-off judged by some of the biggest names in the food world. Over the last three weeks, The Hot Bread Kitchen Cookbook has been climbing the ranks, even beating out our hero, Gourmet guru Ruth Reichl’s glorious My Kitchen Year. Last night at the Piglet Awards Party, it was announced the winner!
Judges for each round included chef Yotam Ottolenghi (“I’ll be pressing The Hot Bread Kitchen Cookbook into the hands of many”), NY Times bestselling novelists Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman(“The breads we baked out of Hot Bread Kitchen tasted amazing. People actually said things like, ‘This is the best pita I’ve ever eaten in my life'”), culinary historian Michael Twitty (“The real life narratives in Hot Bread Kitchen are critical”) and TV personality Andrew Zimmern (“In a world that always separates us by our differences—our skin color, our sexuality, our spiritual belief system, and our culture—this book celebrates them, puts them on a plate, together, and allows us to eat our way to a better future.”).
At last night’s award ceremony, there were dishes based on all 16 nominated cookbooks, prepared by one of our wholesale customers Poppy’s Catering, and piles of assorted Hot Bread Kitchen bread. There were live piglets in Rizzoli bookstore. There was Adam Sachs, editor in chief of Saveur, announcing a winner. And then there was Jessamyn, standing on a table full of tacos to accept a trophy on behalf of all of the women of Hot Bread Kitchen whose blood, sweat and love went into contributing recipes and stories, and all the talented folks who put a lot of elbow grease into the making of The Hot Bread Kitchen Cookbook. Thanks to writer Julia Turshen, photographer Jennifer May, food stylist Erin McDowell, editor Rica Allannic, and the whole team at Clarkson Potter for bringing this book to life.
Celebrate this win with us by baking the book, and share the results using hashtag #HBKCookbook. Purchasing a signed copy of The Hot Bread Kitchen Cookbook for yourself or a friend is a direct way to support our programs and help women launch new careers. For the next week, shipping is free using coupon code PIGLET at checkout.
