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May 29, 2012 2 min read

Bay Area Appearances with Some Fantastic Authors

Bay Area Appearances with Some Fantastic Authors
Table of Contents

Wow, with so many fantastic authors gracing our fair Bay Area bookstores, it’s hard to know which book events to attend. Why dontcha use this handy list to cross-reference with your reading-and-eating calendar?

Anne Willan, founder of LaVarenne Cooking School, will be in town June 2nd-4th for her new book, The Cookbook Library: Four Centuries of the Cooks, Writers, and Recipes That Made the Modern Cookbook. Willan explores the origin of the modern cookbook since the invention of printing, including a look at religious, economic, and political influences in the kitchen across 400 years of European and early American cuisine. Willan’s own collection of antiquarian cookbooks contains more than 400 volumes, some dating back to 1491, so you can imagine how her newest work is a deeply personal labor of love. Here are your chances to meet the author: ~OMNIVORE BOOKS~ on Saturday June 2nd, 3pm-4:30pm, free; Heritage Culinary Artifacts (610 1st St., Stall 14 in the Oxbow Public Market, Napa, 707-363-4052) on Sunday June 3rd, 11am-2pm, free; and at The Commonwealth Club (595 Market St., 2nd Floor, at 2nd St., 415-597-6700) on Monday June 4th, 12pm-2pm, $20, $7 students, members free.

Come down to The Commonwealth Club again on Thursday June 21st to meet Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, author of A Tiger in the Kitchen: A Memoir of Food and Family. Tan’s book is a study of Singaporean culinary anthropology, a family history complete with secret gambling dens, opium addictions, and family schisms, and a story of reconnecting with food and family. The Singapore Consulate-General is providing a lunch of nasi lemak, coconut-flavored rice served with fried chicken wing, egg, fried peanuts, and ikan with sambal chile on the side and wrapped in banana leaves. 12pm. $20, $8 members, $7 students.

Ruta Kahate, author and 20-year Bay Area resident, is visiting from Goa to talk about her new book, Quick-Fix Indian: Easy, Exotic Dishes in 30 Minutes or Less. Since 2009, Kahate has been in Goa building a culinary destination that will include an organic farm, restaurant, market, and cooking school. Catch her stateside at these locales: Ferry Plaza Farmers Market on Saturday June 9th at 11:45am, ~OMNIVORE BOOKS~ on Thursday June 14th at 6pm, Cavallo Point for a cooking class on Saturday July 14th at 1pm, Purcell Murray on Thursday July 19th at 11am, and The Pasta Shop (Oakland) on Friday July 20th from 4pm-6pm.

You’ll find chef Erik Cosselmon of SF’s Kokkari in the East Bay on Saturday June 9th signing his new book, Kokkari: Contemporary Greek Flavors: he’ll be at the The Pasta Shop for a talk and taste from 12pm-2pm. Renditions of his recipes will also be available for purchase throughout the weekend (including tzatziki and kotopoulo souvlas, lemon and oregano rotisserie chicken). 5655 College Ave. at Shafter, Oakland, 510-250-6005.

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