Wednesday, June 4, 2008

The Book!

Just in time for the new season, Jim Denevan's first book Outstanding in the Field: A Farm to Table Cookbook is now available in bookstores across the country and online.

The June 2nd, 2008 New York Times Sunday Book Review describes the book as "one of the summer season's most interesting new cookbooks."




After almost 10 years of hard work and celebration of Outstanding in the Field dinners we are pleased to present recipes, photographs and stories that share our mission of bringing farmer, chef and diner as close as possible to the source of our food.

This season, besides our bus being a home away from home on the road, we'll be setting up the bus as a "bookmobile." When you attend a dinner please come aboard and get your copy.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi! We are so excited to have reservations for our first Outstanding in The Field dinner! We're interested in knowing if the book is being given to dinner attendees or sold... and if it's sold - what the cost will be.

Also, we've done an extensive internet search for pictures of plates that people have brought to the dinners, but unfortunately, only found two pictures (one today, from a link on your page to a picture on Flicker). Does anyone from your organization HAVE pictures? We think this would be extremely interesting... and also give us an idea of what we should bring.

We can hardly wait for September at Pawley's Island, SC.

Very Sincerely,
John and Carolyn

sheila said...

This is such an incredible idea! This is a truly unique, magical idea! Would be really great to have one that didn't involve the torture and slaughter of animals (not sarcastic). Are you planning to incorporate vegan meals at any time?? That would be SO COOL! And if ANYONE can accomplish it, YOU can. Always room for a GREAT idea to expand (Oprah's going vegan...)!!! Glad you found your incredibly creative niche. Good on ya' mate! all the best, sheila

crazyzebu said...

"Hi! We are so excited to have reservations for our first Outstanding in The Field dinner! We're interested in knowing if the book is being given to dinner attendees or sold... and if it's sold - what the cost will be."

The book will be sold at all of the farm dinners and costs around 40 dollars I think.

check out this youtube video that shows jim denevans newest artwork, the largest human made drawing! Its almost 3 miles across!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6tWXU1dA7s

ExpatChef said...

The book review is now up at Eat Drink Better (www.eatdrinkbetter.com). I will be posting an article on seasonal cookbooks (including yours) over at Eat Local Challenge as well. Thanks for the mention in the book's appendices.

You can see the review here.

Best Regards

Unknown said...

we just went to the dinner in queens (originally scheduled for a farm in brooklyn but then moved). i agree with the other bloggers here that the concept is great, and i still think a nice dinner could be had where you appreciate the farm where it came from, etc.

however, there were a number of issues - no point in getting into all of them here - but just to let readers of this blog know, if you're thinking of signing up:

*all meals are served family style. nice idea, if there's enough food. no one at our dinner was obese/huge eaters. no one had enough food (people had to share a tomato with me; i had to give a piece of pork (had two little pieces) from one entree to a table mate; etc.).
*no salt/pepper. no butter/oil for bread (just bread sitting on the table).
*supposed to have local wines. long island has many wines (that would have been local enough for me...heck, even upstate new york would have been more local!). but all wines were from europe - disappointing (ok, taste-wise, nothing special...but not local).
*couldn't hear the dude. at. all. dude, you're been doing these dinners for a while. surely you know you need to speak up, when you have a group of 100 people crowded around you, so that everyone can hear? he (jim, i guess his name is - never met him or talked to him) spoke for about 15 minutes. probably interesting stuff about how he came up with the idea, etc....can't tell you because i didn't hear one friggin' word of it!
*no coffee, etc. minor...but come on. people make coffee/espresso while camping - let alone with great kitchen equipment - would have been nice after a small meal where there isn't enough food in particular (nice after any meal).

well, i guess i kind of did go over more of the problems than i meant to. my fingers just started typing and i guess i needed to rant. anyway, here's the bottom line: it's not worth $200. at that price, you have expectations. even in new york, i expect $200 to equal enough food. wouldn't do another one.