Food & Drink
Fall Book Events For Foodies
Consider yourself a foodie? Attend local book signings and parties for some of the culinary world's biggest names
By Kasee Bailey September 22, 2016

Prowling for new restaurants isn’t the only way that foodies can get their fix.
This fall, big name celeb chefs and authors are making their way to our fair city, giving you new culinary material to pour over.
Rowan Jacobsen
Food writer and James Beard Award-winner Rowan Jacobsen joins fellow James Beard Award-winner, chef Renee Erickson and the team at Bar Melusine to celebrate the release of his new book, The Essential Oyster, in true PNW style. The book offers recipes from top oyster chefs, as well as a guide to the best oyster bars and oyster history. (DYK: There are more than three hundred different types!) The book release celebration kicks off with a a four-course dinner, crafted by Bar Melusine chef de cuisine Bobby Palmquist. Rowan will discuss the book and sign copies.
What: Dinner, discussion and book signing
Date: October 5, 6:30 p.m.
Location: Bar Melusine
Price: $100; includes four-course dinner, wine, and a signed copy of The Essential Oyster
Want to know what celebrity chef Alton Brown cooks on a normal day? The television show host, cookbook author, podcaster and chef shares 101 recipes from his own kitchen — including Nitrous Pancakes, Lasagnalada and Cider House Fondue — with his new cookbook, Alton Brown: EveryDayCook.
What: Discussion and book signing
Date: October 10, 7 p.m.
Location: U District Store
Price: $34.89; includes admission and copy of Alton Brown: EveryDayCook.
Mark Bittman
Mark Bittman, whose cookbooks and writings about food are the stuff of legend, is on a mission to help us cook—and now, bake—everything. In his new book out October 4, Bittman offers advice on baking, plus more than 2,000 simple recipes, including American classics and global novelties. In discussion with radio host and producer Steve Scher, Bittman shares highlights from his new book and key baking tips at the event.
What: Discussion
Date: October 11, 7:30 p.m.
Location: Great Hall, Town Hall Seattle
Price: $5; Includes admission
Award-winning local author Kathleen Alcalá releases a new work this fall, The Deepest Roots: Finding Food and Community on a Pacific Northwest Island, which explores the human relationship with food and how it can connect a community.
What: Discussion and book signing
Date: October 19, 7 p.m.
Location: U District Store
Price: Free; Autographed book copies $28.95
Mario Batali & Tom Douglas
Mario Batali already has Seattle roots (chances are, you’ve eaten a porchetta sandwich at Salumi, his family’s shop) and he’s back to join a conversation with one of our city’s beloved chefs: Tom Douglas. Batali has scoured the U.S. searching for the best regional recipes—his interpretations on everything from state fair food to ethnic fare and treasures of the PNW—which he shares in his new Big American Cookbook.
What: Discussion
Date: October 23
Location: University Temple United Methodist Church The Sanctuary, 1415 NE 43rd Street
Price: $42.39; Each ticket admits up to two people and includes admission and copy of Big American Cookbook
Popular TV host, author and chef Anthony Bourdain visits the Paramount Theatre this fall on his speaking tour, The Hunger. The show lines up with with the release of his new book, Appetites: A Cookbook due out in October.
What: Live Show
Date: November 13, 7 p.m.
Location: Paramount Theatre
Price: Varies
Dorie Greenspan
You could say she’s the cookie expert. Having created more than 300 cookie recipes during the course of her career authoring cookbooks, Dorie Greenspan has gathered the recipes for her sugary gems into one collection, Dorie’s Cookies. A team of specially curated bakers, which includes bloggers Jeanne Sauvage of The Art of Gluten Free Baking blog, Megan Gordon of A Sweet Spoonful and Marge Granola, and Ashley Rodriguez of Not Without Salt, and the Book Larder events chef Amanda Coba, will pay homage to the cookie connoisseur and bake her recipes, while Greenspan herself chats about them and her new initiative, Cookies With Kindness.
What: Discussion and “Cookie Party”
Date: November 16, 6:30-8 p.m.
Location: Book Larder
Price: $35; includes cookies and signed copy of Dorie’s Cookies