Welcome to a two-part review of the year’s best cookbooks. In part one, I’ll list five new books that inspired me in the kitchen in 2007…part 2 will include five rediscoveries that you might want to add to your shelf. Chocolate & Zucchini: Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen by Clotilde Dusoulier A cookbook by a blogger! (with another book in press!) Inspired by a two-year stay in San Francisco, Dusoulier developed the blog......

Last night's free Zocalo program at the Central Library featured L.A. Weekly food writer Jonathan Gold in conversation with Variety's Monica Corcoran. Her first question: Did winning the Pulitzer Prize (for criticism, this year) blow your cover as an anonymous food critic? And if so, this evening won't help, will it? Gold sheepishly admitted that he can no longer be quite so anonymous. He went on to talk about topics ranging from the opening......

We were delighted to find out that one of our favorite folks who talks about food was named this weekend as the recipient of the LA Press Club Award for Best Individual Blog. Congrats to Pat Saperstein and Eating LA! According to Saperstein, the judges summed up her site as follows: Writer does a great job of merging personality and topic, producing an engaging voice. Well-informed without coming across as elitist. Great showcasing of......

One of our favorite local food blogs is Eating LA, which is helmed by Pat Saperstein, a senior editor at Variety. LAist asked her to put together her own Best of 2006, which she has so kindly shared with us; we can't help but notice that she likes pork and--if we may interpret--dislikes the deluge of Pinkberry frozen yogurt shops. Is it coincidence, we wonder, that she, too links the year to the pig, like......

Because drinking and driving is beyond passé: This week, local bartenders strutted their best Tom Cruise-in-Cocktail skills, but without any "proof" in their puddings. It was the annual Mocktail contest held at Universal CityWalk, where ten expert mixologists threw their best non-alcoholic mixes into...well, the mix at the annual "Battle of the Bartenders". The event was designed to promote awareness of the dangers of DUIs. Your turn to be the designated driver? Try one......

Our foodbloogers were called away this week so we're late to the table of the ruckus that's been caused by an article in the March issue of Food & Wine. Columnist Pete Wells looks into food blogs and finds, more often than not, "tiny empires of boredom." And what happens? The emperors get pissed! Responding to Wells' accusation that "eating a cheese sandwich qualifies as a hot scoop for legions of bloggers," they declared......

We proudly count ourselves among the ranks of hard core epicureans and “nerds in pajamas” who Laurie Winer describes in today’s LA Times. LAist cheers the exposure given to some choice food blogs (forgive us for perpetuating the obsessive and cliquish blogger stereotype), despite the author’s limited tolerance for a significant amount of musings found within the blogosphere. The article highlights a rundown of select culinary/gastronomy/cooking sites that range from the overly solipsistic to......