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Late May 2015   

Newsletter

mise-en-place; the art of preparing to cook...

In This Issue
Elizabeth David Dinner
Website Update
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Union Dining
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It's been a few weeks since our last newsletter....and for good reason!

We have big news to tell you about a new home for Books for Cooks

Yes the rumours are true - we are leaving Gertrude St on our 15th birthday (ie by July).

We're bursting with the news & putting the final touches to our new home but we can't say too much for now other than to say that  from late June we'll have a new & bigger home in the Melbourne CBD.

Watch out for our next newsletter!

Because we've been distracted we don't have much else to tell you this newsletter - except - that in partnership with Union Dining, Harper & Blohm & International Fine Wine we've finally started our long dreamt of series of Culinary Icon dinners - more below.


Enjoy!
Elizabeth David Dinner - tonight 22 May
at Union Dining
Elizabeth David

Today is the anniversary of Elizabeth David's passing away in 1992.

For many years we have wanted to celebrate on a regular basis the  writings and contribution to food literature of our culinary icons and heros over a series of meals with fellow cooks, readers, customers and friends.

In any list of culinary icons, Elizabeth David's name looms large; and her books have a special place in our library and at our table.

And so any series of dinners would have to start, in our view with a nod to Elizabeth David.

Our dear friends Nicky & Adam at Union Dining took up the challenge and have put together (with the help of our equally delightful friends at Harper & Blohm & International Fine Wines) a beautiful menu for an intimate dinner tonight.

We'll be punctuating the meal with selected readings from her books

The menu is:

First course

Red mullet & fennel

Elizabeth's shellfish rago?t

2013 Girlan Alto Adige Pinot Bianco

 

Second course

Pissaladiere

Rabbit Rillettes

2014 Mac Forbes Yarra Valley Pinot Noir

 

Main course

Cassoulet de Toulouse - "A family dish"

Beans braised with duck, pork & sausages

Cos lettuce, orange vinaigrette, almonds

2012 Domaine de Courbissac Minervois Rouge

 

Cheese selected by Harper & Blohm

Fleur du Maquis fresh ewes milk, Corsica

Casa Madaio - Il Cinerino di Fossa, hard ewes milk, Campania

2012 Il Cerchio Ansonica Costa Dell'Argentario

There are still a few seats left for tonight's dinner if you are free this evening.  Please join us!

Friday 22 May 7pm

$89 per person

Call Union Dining 9428 2988 for reservations

A selection of Elizabeth David cookbooks will be available for purchase during the evening

 

If you can't make it, please put the date in your diary for next year as we will be again celebrating her words in food, wine & conversation.

 

Future celebrations will include Richard Olney, Jane Grigson, Alice Waters, Marcel Boulestin, Flora Pell, Edward Abbott, Claudia Roden & others. 

Website Update
'a dark tale of woe and despair'

Taking My Medicine
...taking our medicine...
Last month we told you about our website woes....

The new site is well underway but not quite finished - so if you are looking for a book - please call  or email us - the website is not much help at the moment for buying books but we are continuing to post reviews and updates so check back regularly as it is a 'work in progress'

Here's what we said last newsletter:

"If you tried to send us an  email in early March or  have tried to shop online with us recently you'll have realised something was wrong.

On 3rd March the hardware supporting our website (and about 80 others) had a catastrophic failure and we lost our website, online store, and all the backups simultaneously; sort of like winning the 'lotto' apparently!

If you have sent an email recently and didn't get a reply or have an outstanding online store order please contact us. 

The good news is that our plans to refresh our online store have been bought forward (by a year or two) and we already have a replacement website (that still needs some tweaking) but is responsive and far more flexible and hopefully more useful to you as we add more content.

The online store will still take some weeks to sew back together so if you are interested in any of the books we mention...we still do mail order the old-fashioned way with a phone call and a brown paper parcel...  We can even wrap them with string!"

 
Which brings us to a close for this Newsletter. 


 
Happy Cooking, Reading & Eating!

 


Tim & Amanda

Books for Cooks