It's the awards season in the food world, just as it is in film and music. The International Association of Culinary Professionals, announced its 2012 finalists last week. Its winners will be announced April 2.
This year the contest added many new broadcast media categories that make for an interesting look at the food world.
Congrats to the many Minnesotans who are finalists:
Filmmakers Daniel Klein and Mirra Fine have traveled near and far to produce "The Perennial Plate" weekly documentaries on sustainable food (www.theperennialplate.com). They are finalists in the category of video series short program.
Wayne Gisslen of Medina is co-author of "Professional Garde Manger," a finalist in the Professional Kitchen category. Rick Nelson wrote earlier about Gisslen and the impact of his big (1,000-plus page) books on the culinary skills world. Find the story at startribune.com/taste.
Meredith Deeds, a Taste columnist from Edina, is in charge of content for "The Informed Chef" series of multimedia cookbook apps, which is a finalist in the Intriguing Use of Technology category. The series of cookbook apps includes one of her own, preparing 25 dishes with more than 75 short videos, and another from Raghavan Iyer, of Eden Prairie, who is featured with Indian cooking. Find out about the apps at www.theinformedchef.com.
Also a finalist in the Intriguing Use of Technology category is the new Cookbook Cafe, which is part of BakeSpace.com, and enables writers to publish their own cookbooks, including iPad apps. Still in its trial stage, the Cookbook Cafe will be officially launched soon. The Minnesota connection? Cathy Wiechert of Mound is one of the first batch of food bloggers to produce a cookbook to test the feature and app. She found out about BakeSpace.com from the Taste section. (Blush. Need info? We have it.) Wiechert was a 2010 finalist at the Pillsbury Bake-Off .
Also in this year's contest is the new category of humorous short videos. Check out my favorite, the parody of a classic Western shootout, between a corncob and a string bean. It's called "The Good, the Bad and the Leafy," by Rammy Lee Park, and found on gilttaste.com, at gi.lt/qgBb20.
COOKBOOKS
AMERICAN
•"American Flavor," by Andrew Carmellini
•"The Apple Lover's Cookbook," by Amy Traverso
•"The Homesick Texan Cookbook," by Lisa Fain
BAKING
•"Baking Style: Art Craft Recipes," by Lisa Yockelson
•"Cooking With Chocolate: Essential Recipes and Techniques," by Frédéric Bau
•"Illustrated Step-by-Step Baking," by Caroline Bretherton
CHEFS AND RESTAURANTS
•"Home Cooking With Jean Georges," by Jean-George Vongerichten
•"The Art of Living According to Joe Beef: A Cookbook of Sorts," by Frederic Morin, David McMillan and Meredith Erickson
•"The Blue Tomato: The Inspirations Behind the Cuisine of Alan Wong," by Alan Wong
CHILDREN, YOUTH AND FAMILY
•"My Family Table," John Besh
•"The Best Homemade Baby Food on the Planet," by Karin Knight and Tina Ruggiero
•"The Family Dinner," by Laurie David
COMPILATIONS
•"Fine Cooking in Season," by editors of Fine Cooking magazine
•"The Cakebread Cellars American Harvest Cookbook," by Jack and Dolores Cakebread, Brian Streeter and Janet Fletcher
•"The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook," by editors Jack Bishop, Elizabeth Carduff and Lori Galvin
CULINARY HISTORY
•"Dying on the Vine: How Phylloxera Transformed Wine," by George Gale
•"High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey From Africa to America," by Jessica B. Harris
•"Turning the Tables: Restaurants and the Rise of the American Middle Class, 1880-1920," by Andrew P. Haley
CULINARY TRAVEL
•"A Family in Paris," by Jane Paech
•"Tasting India," by Christine Manfield
•"Ultimate Food Journeys," by DK Publishing
FIRST BOOK - THE JULIA CHILD AWARD
•"Ancient Grains for Modern Meals," by Maria Speck
•"Bi-Rite Market's Eat Good Food," by Sam Mogannam and Dabney Gough
•"The Apple Lover's Cookbook," by Amy Traverso
FOOD AND BEVERAGE REFERENCE/TECHNICAL
•"Ruhlman's Twenty," by Michael Ruhlman
•"The Art of Beef Cutting," by Kari Underly
•"Whole Beast Butchery," by Ryan Farr
FOOD MATTERS
•"Good Fish: Sustainable Seafood Recipes From the Pacific Coast," by Becky Selengut
•"Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit," by Barry Estabrook
•"Wild Flavors: One Chef's Transformative Year Cooking From Eva's Farm," by Didi Emmons
FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY, STYLING
•"Cooking My Way Back Home: Recipes From San Francisco's Town Hall," by Mitchell Rosenthal and Jon Pult
•"The Art of Pasta," by Lucio Galletto; photographer/stylist Paige Green
•"The Macy's Culinary Council Thanksgiving and Holiday Cookbook," editor Steve Siegelman; photographer Maren Caruso; stylist George Dolese
GENERAL
•"All About Roasting: A New Approach to a Classic Art," by Molly Stevens.
•"Essential Pepin: More Than 700 All-Time Favorites From My Life in Food," by Jacques Pepin
•"My Family Table," by John Besh
HEALTH AND SPECIAL DIET
•"Ancient Grains for Modern Meals," by Maria Speck
•"Food Intolerance Management Plan," by Drs. Sue Shepherd and Peter Gibson
•"The Sweet Life: Diabetes Without Boundaries," by Sam Talbot
INTERNATIONAL
•"Seoultown Kitchen," by Debbie Lee
•"The Food of Spain," by Claudia Roden
•"The Country Cooking of Italy," by Colman Andrews
LITERARY FOOD WRITING
•"Season to Taste," by Molly Birnbaum
•"The Sorcerer's Apprentices: A Season in the Kitchen at Ferran Adria's El Bulli," by Lisa Abend
•"The Table Comes First," by Adam Gopnik
PROFESSIONAL KITCHENS
•"Modernist Cuisine," by Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young and Maxine Bilet
•"Professional Garde Manger," by Lou Sackett, Jaclyn Pestka and Wayne Gisslen
•"The Professional Chef, 9th Edition," by the Culinary Institute of America
SINGLE SUBJECT
•"All About Roasting: A New Approach to a Classic Art," by Molly Stevens
•"Odd Bits: How to Cook the Rest of the Animal," by Jennifer McLagan
•"Plenty," by Yotam Ottolenghi
WINE, BEER OR SPIRITS
•"Bitters: A Spirited History of a Classic Cure-All, With Cocktails, Recipes and Formulas," by Brad Thomas Parsons
•"Mastering Wine for the Asian Palate," by Jeannie Cho Lee
•"The Food Lover's Guide to Wine," by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg
NEW MEDIA AND BROADCASTCULINARY BLOG
•5 Second Rule, by Cheryl Sternman Rule
•Bona Fide Farm Food, by Tom Hirschfeld
•Pizza Quest, by Peter Reinhart
CULINARY WEBSITE
CULINARY PRODUCT OR BRAND WEBSITE
•Camp Blog Away
•The Official Homepage of the Idaho Potato
•Gilt Taste
INTRIGUING USE OF NEW TECHNOLOGY
•SFA Oral History Initiative: Stories from Southern Foodways Alliance
•The Informed Chef cookbook series
•BakeSpace.com's Cookbook Cafe
TELEVISED CULINARY SERIES
•"Essential Pepin," with host Jacques Pepin, KQED-TV
•"Simply Ming," with host Ming Tsai, WBGH-TV
•"New York Chow Report," with host Alexandra Van Buren, NY1 and chow.com
VIDEO SERIES, SHORT PROGRAM FORMAT
•Saveur's "Sandwich Stories"
•"The Perennial Plate" with Daniel Klein and Mirra Fine
AUDIO SERIES (LONG FORMAT)
•"Cooking With the Moms"
•KCRW's "Good Food" with Evan Kleiman
AUDIO SERIES (SHORT FORMAT)
•"Southern Foodways Oral History"
HUMOROUS VIDEO SHORT
•"Spaghetti With 100 Sweet Tomatoes," the Recipe Project
•"How to Peel Garlic in 10 Seconds," Saveur
•"The Good, the Bad and the Leafy," GiltTaste.com