 Book cover | |
| Author | Jayne Rockmill |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Ben Fink |
| Cover artist | Ben Fink |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Bacon |
| Genre | Cookbook |
| Publisher | Andrews McMeel Publishing |
Publication date | October 2010 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Hardback |
| Pages | 144 |
| ISBN | 978-0-7407-9766-8 |
| LC Class | 2010927149 |
I Love Bacon! is acookbook with over fifty recipes devoted tobacon and bacon dishes, many of them fromcelebrity chefs. The book was written by Jayne Rockmill and photography was provided by Ben Fink. Broken down into eight sections, the book covered how to make homemade bacon and moves onto "brunch" and "small bites" before covering soups, salads and sides, pasta, fish, meat, and desserts.I Love Bacon! was published in October 2010 byAndrews McMeel Publishing and met with favorable reviews for its unique dishes and helpful culinary tips for novices.
The book's author, Jayne Rockmill, is aliterary agent based in New York City whose clients includeTony Caputo,[1]François Halard,[2] and the professional photographer andstorm chaser,Jim Reed.[3] Rockmill had also become involved in producing charity food and wine events, and is a longtime supporter of the New York CityFood Bank andShare Our Strength, which focuses on ending childhood hunger.[4] She conceived the book as a way to help raise money for their work, and a portion of the proceeds fromI Love Bacon will be donated to the two charities.[4][5] Rockmill began by asking chefs she knew personally to donate bacon recipes, and then contacted others across the United States. In some cases, she adapted the original recipes in collaboration with the chefs.[4]
The book's illustrator is the well-known food photographer, Ben Fink, whose photographs appear inFood & Wine,Bon Appétit,Saveur and publications of theCulinary Institute of America. A native ofMemphis, Tennessee now based in New York, Fink illustratedJacques Pépin's,Fast Food My Way (2004) andMaggie Glezer'sArtisan Baking Across America (2000) for which he won aJames Beard Foundation Award in 2001.[6] Some of Fink's more unusual food photographs are those for Martha Hopkins and Randall Lockridge's 1997InterCourses: An Aphrodisiac Cookbook, where the food is photographed against the background of a naked human body.[7]
I Love Bacon! contains over 50 recipes from celebrity chefs includingCat Cora,John Besh,Ming Tsai, andChris Cosentino, as well as brief biographies of the chefs themselves.[4] It presents basic bacon recipes as well as dishes with bacon as one of the chief ingredients.[8][9] The recipes are grouped into eight sections beginning withMake Your Own Bacon which has recipes for "Classic Cured Bacon", "Spicy Braised Bacon", "Soy-Ginger Braised Bacon", "Crispy Pork Belly", and "Chinese Style Pork Belly". The remaining seven sections (Brunch;Small Bites;Soups, Salads and Sides,Pasta,Fish, Meat andDesserts) contain recipes for dishes using bacon as one of the main ingredients.
TheBrunch section begins with a recipe fromSeattle-based Black Rock Spirits for "Bakon Bloody Mary", a variant on the traditionalBloody Marycocktail usingbacon infused vodka with the glass rim dipped in lime juice and finely crumbled grilled bacon. Although the majority of recipes in this section feature bacon with its traditional brunch partner, eggs, there is also a recipe for "Mediterranean BLTs". This version of the classicBLT sandwich pairs the bacon, lettuce and tomato with toastedfocaccia bread and red-pepperaioli in place of mayonnaise. Another version of the BLT using toastedbrioche andsun-dried tomatoes cut into mini-sandwiches appears in theSmall Bites section which is devoted to bacon-basedhors d'oeuvres.
Among the recipes inSoups, Salads and Sides are "EggChowder with Bacon and New Potatoes", "Grilled Bacon and Cucumber Salad with Chili Caramel Dressing", and "Spicy Braised Bacon with Spagna Beans andTreviso Radicchio" which uses thickly slicedpork belly bacon.[9][note 1] ThePasta section has a recipe for "Bacon Mac and Cheese" from Julie Taras Wallach, the chef and co-owner of the Tipsy Parson and Little Giant restaurants in New York City. Her variant on the traditionalmacaroni and cheese usescavatelli pasta seasoned withdijon mustard, thyme, rosemary, garlic, and nutmeg and incorporates sauteed onion and pieces of grilled bacon.[8] One of the recipes in theMeat section, "Veal andFoie Gras Meatloaf Wrapped in Bacon", comes from Mark Allen, who in 1997 became the youngest chef, and the first American, to have headed The Dining Room at theRitz-Carlton inBoston.[10] Allen also contributed a recipe for theFish section, "Whole RoastedBranzino with Carrots and Bacon". Other dishes in that section include "Pancetta-WrappedMonkfish with CauliflowerFlan" and "Bluefish with Corn, Avocado, and Bacon Salad".
Like its somewhat lengthier predecessors, Sara Perry'sEverything Tastes Better with Bacon (2002),Pruess andLape'sSeduced by Bacon (2006), and James Villas'sThe Bacon Cookbook (2007), Rockmill'sI Love Bacon! includes sweet dishes using bacon. Among the recipes in theDesserts section are "BaconPanna Cotta withHuckleberries", "Cane Sugar and Bacon-Iced Cupcakes", and Cat Cora's "Pig Candy Ice Cream". Cora's recipe uses a pound (.454 kilograms) of chopped applewood-smoked bacon perquart (.946 litres) ofbrown sugar-sweetened vanilla ice cream.[11]
Carol Johnson writing in theKansas City Star describedI Love Bacon! as both a cookbook with "inventive" recipes and "a mini-course in some of the country's top restaurants." Johnson noted that not all recipes were for beginners, but found the accompanying notes for many of the recipes with information about techniques and ingredients to be helpful. She described Ben Fink's photography as "vivid and mouth-watering, if a little spare."[8] The Republic of Bacon website favorably reviewed the cookbook for its ability to go beyond the standard classic cured bacon dishes and the added biographies of the leading industry chefs which contributed recipes to the book.[12]
