Top chefs take literary awards
American writer and chef Anthony Bourdain and London's Gordon Ramsay have both gained recognition for their food writing at the annual Guild of Food Writers Awards.
New York-based Bourdain, author of the notorious Kitchen Confidential, has walked off with the Food Book of the Year award for his latest tome, A Cook's Tour, while Ramsay was recognised for his recently published Gordon Ramsay's Just Desserts, written in tandem with co-author and food writer Roz Denny, who shared the award of Best Cookbook of the Year with him.
Referring to Ramsay's book, judges commented on the accessibility to home cooks of the featured recipes and remarked on its inspiring text and photos. A Cook's Tour, meanwhile, won points for its entertaining account of Bourdain's international search for unusual food experiences.
Those experiences, which included eating the still beating heart of a freshly killed cobra and watching Portuguese pig slaughter rituals, will be related to delegates at next Monday's Caterer & Hotelkeeper Chef Conference, at which the chef-proprietor of New York's Les Halles restaurant will be headlining.
Caterer contributor Fiona Beckett was also recognised by the guild for the passion and enthusiasm of her food journalism across a number of publications on subjects as diverse as amateur bread making and Portuguese food.
