Holiday Gift Guide: Best Food Writing 2011 edited by Holly Hughes

Best of compilations tend to make super gifts for people who you’re not sure what they have or need, but you know what they like. Because it’s the best, right? And in this case, the best of everything on topic, but it pretty digestible chunks. Who wouldn’t like that?

The Best Food Writing 2011 (Da Capo) is the 11th edition that Holly Hughes has edited so, clearly, she knows this beat pretty well. She is also the former executive editor of Fodor’s Travel Publications and the author of Frommer’s 500 Places for Food and Wine Lovers. In the introduction, Hughes sets up what readers can anticipate:

Food writing nowadays isn’t all about trophy dining or over-the-top culinary extravagances -- it’s just as often about food deserts and struggling small producers, about cooking for charity and scrambling to get dinner on the table after a hard working day.

Contributors include Brett Anderson, Colman Andrews, Sophie Brickman, Ann Hood, Eric LeMay, Deborah Madison, Floyd Skloot, Katy Vine and others, writing on topics as varied as a deep-fry champion from Texas and a bread baker in LA and from Financial Times contributor Bryce Elder (writing in Fire & Knives) an engaging piece called “In Defence of Shite Food.” (You just have to love a title like that. A great compilation on an entirely tasty topic… an a terrific gift. ◊

Aaron Blanton is a contributing editor to January Magazine. He’s currently working on a book based on his experiences as an American living abroad.