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Rating: 
Summary: A "Best" Title Well Deserved
Review: From straight forward food writing, to stories that food plays a award winning supporting role; this is a delightful collection of stories that will keep you engrossed from begininning to end. Some surprising, some informative, a few heartfelt, and some down right funny!
Rating:
Summary: Throw away your magazines
Review: If you're like me, you have stashed away in every conceivable corner, closet, and bathroom enough cooking and food magazines to stock a public library in Lubbock Texas. In the back of your mind you remember that somewhere in that pile of pulp is the article on the foraging of truffles that you were meaning to read, the pullout explaining the proper way to stuff a Christmas goose, and the latest column from that delightfully obsessive-compulsive curmudgeon, Jeffery Steingarten. The only problem is you can't remember exactly where. So it's either sitting down in front of the Television Food Network and flipping through enough pages until your thumb turns black or picking up BEST FOOD WRITING 2000. All the articles that you remembered reminding yourself to read (and plenty others of equal quality) are all there. Let's hope they keep this up every year; my apartment is closing in on me.
Rating:
Summary: Throw away your magazines
Review: If you're like me, you have stashed away in every conceivable corner, closet, and bathroom enough cooking and food magazines to stock a public library in Lubbock, Texas. And in that pile of pulp is the article on the foraging of truffles that you were meaning to read, the pullout explaining the proper way to stuff a Christmas goose, and the latest column from the ever laconic curmudgeon Jeffery Steingarten. The only problem is you can't remember exactly where. So it's either flipping through enough pages to turn thumb turns black with ink or picking up BEST FOOD WRITING 2000. All the articles you remembered reminding yourself to read (and plenty others of equal quality) are all there. Let's hope they keep this up every year; my apartment is closing in on me.
Rating: 
Summary: Let's hope this series continues in future
Review: The first in what I can only hope will be an annually released collection of articles culled from various food magazines, newsletters, newspapers and web sites. The book is set up in five sections: Stocking the Larder, Home Cooking, Someone's in the Kitchen, Dining Around and Personal Tastes. This works nicely as you get various views and ideas regarding similar topics. You also get the various topics listed as sections: a full section of articles on choosing foods, one on cooking at home, etc. There are articles by such food luminaries as Ruth Reichl, Calvin Trillin, Phyllis Richman, John Thorpe, and Micheal Ruhlman among others. The book serves as a good introduction for those interested in food and like topics. If you like the article "Natural Born Keller" by Michael Ruhlman, you'll probably enjoy his full length book "The Soul of a Chef." Enjoying Anthony Bourdain's humorous excerpt from his "Kitchen Confidential" will suggest you go find a copy of that to get the rest of his story. I enjoyed John Thorpe's article enough to visit his website, and plan on purchasing at least one of his 3 or 4 books of article collections. The other above mentioned food luminaries have full length books, or collections, in print that you can decide to try or plan on avoiding based on the 5 to 10 page selections by Ms. Hughes. The other introduction you are given is to the various magazines that are out there: Gourmet, Wine Spectator, etc. are represented here. Again, by reading articles that are representative of these magazines, you get a feel for your tastes in writing. If you have any interest in food, restaurants, chefs, etc., you need to check this book out.
Rating:
Summary: The Best of the Best of Food Writing Series (So Far)
Review: This is my favorite volume of the Best of Food Writing series so far (late 2003). It introduced me to Ruth Reichl and Anthony Bourdain, whose books I might not have discovered if I had not read their excerpts here first. By collecting material from a variety of sources (books, magazines, webzines, newspapers), Hughes has given us access to more, and better, food writing than we would have hunted down ourselves. The result is fabulous. I was so impressed with Laura Fraser's piece on why she stopped being a vegetarian, reprinted from Salon.com. The topic is unexpected, the writing seems effortless, and she really made me think about the subject in a different way. Then I had to find what else she had written and was captivated by An Italian Affair. I also started reading Salon.com. Read all the Best of Food Writing series, but be sure to read this one first!
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