Last night at the Astor Center in NYC, Food52’s Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs along with Charlotte Druckman announced the winner of their cookbook contest, The Piglet. Nora Ephron (writer and director of Julie & Julia) made the final call, picking Seven Fires by Francis Mallmann with Peter Kaminsky over Canal House Cooking by Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton. But the most interesting part of the evening was a panel discussion that included finalists Kaminsky, Hirsheimer and Hamilton, as well as Hamilton’s sister Gabrielle, the chef/owner of Prune (whose collection of essays is due out next fall) and Peter Meehan, who co-wrote Momofuku with David Chang. That's when things heated up. The panelists debated food photography (“Styled food shots make me furious,” Gabrielle Hamilton said) and the importance of “cookability” (bringing attention to the infamously complicated Momofuku recipes). They also discussed the motivation for writing a book. Meehan suggested that he and Chang were not focused on the commerce end of the equation, to which Gabrielle Hamilton smirked, “Oh, that’s just the ‘David Chang shtick.’” But his comment begged the question: Is writing a cookbook a labor of love (Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton claim they wrote their cookbook for themselves—"We both laughed when our copy editor mentioned the reviews that would come in.") or a way to expand a brand and hopefully make some money? Kaminsky closed the night by saying, “The best food writing should make me want to taste the food.” It’s a fair bet that each of these cookbooks accomplishes this, and more.

Michael Symon was in town last week, and that’s exciting. The F&W Best New Chef 1998 and winner of the first Next Iron Chef back in 2007 was here with his new cookbook, Michael Symon’s Live to Cook. So there we were, hanging out at the Breslin, eating beef-tongue sandwiches and baked beans in pork fat. It was the perfect place to pore through Symon’s book, which includes a magnificent list of the Five Things You Should Never Buy (p. 23)—boneless, skinless chicken breasts, lean turkey bacon and butter substitutes are all there—and delicious-sounding recipes like beef-cheek pierogies (p. 45) and mushroom-stuffed, brick-roasted chicken (p. 198), plus details on making bacon and pancetta (p. 98). For more on the cookbook, I couldn’t do better than eatmedaily.com’s terrific synopsis.

What can someone like me, a girl living in Queens, NY, possibly learn from a bunch of Park Avenue socialites with names like Muffie Potter Aston? A lot, I learned, after I read Park Avenue Potluck Celebrations, a new book by New York Times columnist Florence Fabrikant; it's a compilation of recipes and entertaining tips from some of the city’s most celebrated hostesses and members of The Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (proceeds from the book will go to the center). Here, a few surprisingly down-to-earth tips from high society that I'll actually adopt:

1. Be worldly—follow the Swedish tradition of eating birthday cake for breakfast on your birthday.
2. Drink a cocktail before party guests arrive—it'll loosen you up and make you a better hostess.
3. Be a gracious and unflappable hostess, unperturbed by spilled wine or a crying child. Note: See #2, which will help.
4. Lottery tickets make great place cards—that’s one way to make it to Park Avenue.
5. Note for next year: Hand out to-go wine cups for parents accompanying trick-or-treaters on Halloween.

Our fantastic senior copy editor, Ann Lien (who reads every recipe with her eagle eye), is also a terrific cook. Here, she reports on a recent dinner:

Julie & Julia is coming out on DVD in December and I’ve already preordered my copy of the movie, which recently inspired me and my friends to do a Julia Child potluck. Armed with volume one of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, we attempted coq au vin, beef bourguignon, potage parmentier (potato-and-leek soup) with galettes du fromage (flattened gougères) and Queen of Sheba cake. While the recipes weren’t difficult, there were unexpectedly daunting tasks, such as the tearful peeling of 24 small onions (no way to make it go faster) and the hacking up of a whole, slippery raw chicken (roasting it partway helped us find the joints to tear the limbs apart, but we all shuddered). Everything came out utterly delicious—and irresistible. Long after I was stuffed, I was still reaching for more of the salty, cheesy, doughy, crispy galettes. We had so much fun, we immediately planned a second Julia potluck. If you want to create your own Julia Child party, check out our slide show for great ideas. In the meantime, bon appetit!

Jamie Oliver just keeps getting better. Eons ago I used to scratch my head at the popularity of the Naked Chef and his mumblings about great pasta with peas, but now I'm on the front lines of fandom. Unlike other celebrity chefs, who churn out new cookbooks at the drop of a pan, lately each new Jamie Oliver endeavor has been inspired by a brilliant, truly helpful idea. This time he's teaching residents of unhealthy towns how to cook fast from-scratch dinners. He already did it in the UK, and now he's tackling Huntington, West Virginia. He's calling it Jamie's Food Revolution, which is also the title of his new cookbook. His casual recipe style can be frustrating, but the dishes themselves are great and regularly include a half-dozen inspired variations, like a bright cucumber-and-mint salad with optional yogurt dressing, black olives, fresh red chiles or a little extra-virgin olive oil. For Jamie Oliver recipes from F&W, click here.

November will be a big month for superstar chef Thomas Keller (an F&W Best New Chef 1988): He’ll release Ad Hoc at Home (Artisan) and has plans to open a Beverly Hills outpost of Bouchon. Reasons to honor him now: his birthday this week, plus stellar dishes like his over-the-top mushroom quiche with buttery pastry shell (pictured), BLT fried egg-and-cheese sandwich, and a whole grilled chicken with arugula.

More Incredible Dishes by Our Best New Chefs:
- Our 2009 Best New Chefs’ easiest dishes like Kelly English’s meat pies with spicy buttermilk dip and Paul Liebrandt’s beet-and-red sorrel salad with nutty pistachio sauce

Last weekend I tried a few recipes from the new cookbook Everyday Harumi. The author, Harumi Kurihara, is a homemaker-turned-cooking-star in Japan, where she has a TV show, magazine, tableware line and restaurants. The photographs in her book are beautiful and the recipes are very doable. I tackled the Tofu Steak, a homestyle version of agedashi tofu, a popular appetizer in Japanese restaurants. I rubbed slices of tofu with grated garlic, dipped them in potato starch and pan-fried them. I then topped each piece with scallions, ginger, bonito flakes and a soy-mirin sauce. I've never grated garlic for a recipe before, but it was worth the effort—the flavor is more delicate and I don't think minced garlic would stick as well to the tofu.

If you can't get a copy of Harumi's book, try these delicious Japanese recipes from Food & Wine:

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Food52, a website and online community launched about a month ago by Amanda Hesser (ex–New York Times food editor) and Merrill Stubbs, celebrates the "unsung heroes" of the food world: home cooks. There's a growing database of user recipes as well as weekly contests where readers submit recipes; Hesser and Stubbs choose the ones they like best, which they prepare and post on the site as a video or slideshow. Over the course of 52 weeks, the community will vote on its favorites, which will eventually be published in the Food52 cookbook.

Food52 celebrates cookbooks too. Next week Hesser and Stubbs and their writer-friend Charlotte Druckman will launch a new project called the Tournament of Cookbooks, a sort of NCAA championship for 16 of the best cookbooks of 2009. Contenders include everything from Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller to I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti by Giulia Melucci. Judges are food writers, bloggers, chefs and other pros—including F&W’s own Gail Simmons and Grace Parisi—as well as noted foodies Gwyneth Paltrow and Nora Ephron. “We thought a sports-like tournament would be fun, with two books competing in each round,” says Hesser. “Rather than have the judges tell readers why they do or don't like a cookbook, we want them to articulate what makes one book better than another.”

The 17-day contest begins next Wednesday; the Food52 community can vote on whether they agree with the pronouncements. A party and panel discussion will follow in early November at NYC's Astor Center, where readers can hobnob with authors and judges, and maybe catch a glimpse of the winner's Piglet Trophy.

The NYC Marathon is one month away, and while I’ve been pretty diligent about getting in my long training runs, I’ve been more lackadaisical about my diet. I’ve learned the hard way that late-night Momofuku pork buns and foie gras ice cream are not the best fuel for a 5 a.m. workout. So I’m making an attempt to cook at home more over the next few weeks, and I’ve found myself turning to the new cookbook from Ron and Colleen Suhanosky, the husband-and-wife chef team behind Sfoglia in Nantucket and New York City. Pasta Sfoglia features more than 100 recipes inspired by Sfoglia’s addictive pasta dishes. While I don’t always have time to make pasta from scratch during the week, I do have the luxury of being able to buy exceptional ingredients, like Sfoglia’s bread and house-made goat cheese, at Tutto Sfoglia, the tiny new market adjacent to the Upper East Side restaurant.

Last week, I was up in Boston to help host a party with rock-star chef Barbara Lynch and the founders of Fresh beauty, Lev Glazman and Alina Roytberg. The occasion: To celebrate an article in F& W’s September issue, in which Lynch helped her friends add more flavor to their favorite healthy recipes.

After the party, we headed over to Sportello, one of Barbara's newest restaurants, and the dinner conversation veered to keeping fit. Barbara is on a serious health kick. To keep up her energy (she just finished a new cookbook, Stir, out next month), she’s been obsessively juicing every fruit, vegetable and herb she can get her hands and storing batches in her fridge. Lynch also told me about her new favorite energy bar, Green Vibrance. (Cameron Diaz has been in Boston, filming Wichita with Tom Cruise, and her personal assistant introduced Barbara to the dark-chocolate-covered, vitamin-loaded veggie bar.)

In addition to trail-running with the Sportello staff, Barbara has also taken up boxing. And I don’t mean the cardio-punch classes they offer at fancy fitness centers. Lynch works out at Golden Gloves champion Peter Welch’s super-old-school gym in Southie. After a few drinks, Lev (he actually does the cardio-punch gym classes) and I had agreed to join her in the ring the next day. Lev was a no-show (I think he got scared), but Barbara’s publicist, Sarah Hearn, joined me for an intense hour-long session with a group that looked straight out of Rocky. After throwing uppercuts, jabs and hooks and doing what seemed like endless push-ups, I have a new respect for Barbara Lynch, way beyond her extraordinary skills in the kitchen.