Man with a Pan: Culinary Adventures of Fathers Who Cook for Their Families

Look who's making dinner! Twenty-one of our favorite writers and chefs expound upon the joys--and perils--of feeding their families.

Mario Batali's kids gobble up monkfish liver and foie gras. Peter Kaminsky's youngest daughter won't eat anything at all. Mark Bittman reveals the four stages of learning to cook. Stephen King offers tips about what to cook when you don't feel like cooking. And Jim Harrison shows how good food and wine trump expensive cars and houses.

This book celebrates those who toil behind the stove, trying to nourish and please. Their tales are accompanied by more than sixty family-tested recipes, time-saving tips, and cookbook recommendations, as well as New Yorker cartoons. Plus there are interviews with homestyle heroes from all across America--a fireman in Brooklyn, a football coach in Atlanta, and a bond trader in Los Angeles, among others.

What emerges is a book not just about food but about our changing families. It offers a newfound community for any man who proudly dons an apron and inspiration for those who have yet to pick up the spatula.

"Cartoonist and New Yorker editor Donohue celebrates dads who cook with a delightful compendium of essays, recipes, cartoons, and interviews. Noting that American fathers 'now account for nearly a third of the time a family spends cooking,' Donohue — himself a cooking dad — checks how this trend is working out by soliciting a variety of personal perspectives. Among them are such professional voices as Mario Batali and cookbook author Mark Bittman. Not surprisingly, many of the contributors are writers, such as Stephen King, Jim Harrison, Mohammed Naseehu Ali, and Wesley Stace. Under the heading, 'In the Trenches,' Donohue explores the routines of other average guys: a Brooklyn fireman, a software engineer, and a father of two in New Orleans. And while few are clueless in the kitchen, it is their wit, devotion, and candor that inspire. For example, in 'Who the Man?' Jesse Green writes about being the noncook in a two-dad household suddenly faced with kitchen duty; and Matt Greenberg creates a screenplay explaining how to grill. Less a production but equally intriguing is what men cook: gumbo, fish tacos, roast chicken. (May)" Publishers Weekly Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

John Donohue, an editor at the New Yorker