Welcome to Eater Boston’s roundup of book and television news, updated most Tuesdays (the date of the most recent update appears above) with book or TV news pertinent to the Boston-area dining scene: local restaurants or chefs publishing cookbooks, Bostonians appearing on cooking shows, notable non-local chefs visiting Boston to talk about their cookbooks, food shows highlighting Boston restaurants, etc.

Reach out to boston@eater.com if there’s a new cookbook, TV appearance, or the like that should be on our radar.

General notes for the current month are listed at the top, followed by events taking place on specific dates.

DECEMBER 2019

General December 2019 Book and TV News

• Iron Chef fans will be pleased to know that Masaharu Morimoto will be opening his first Boston restaurant, a location of Momosan Ramen, this winter; it’ll be at the food hall at the Hub on Causeway development, Hub Hall, by TD Garden and North Station. Read Eater Boston’s coverage of the forthcoming restaurant for more details.
• Top Chef fans also have something to celebrate: A couple of familiar Boston faces will be returning for season 17, an “all stars” cast featuring past contestants. Karen Akunowicz of Fox & the Knife, who was on season 13, will compete in season 17, as will Stephanie Cmar from season 11. Cmar, who currently works as a private chef, is an alum of No. 9 Park and SRV. Top Chef: All Stars LA will premiere on March 19, 2020.

December 2019 Book and TV Events

With a hint of January 2020, too.

• December 17: Fernanda Tapia, chef-owner of Comedor in Newton, will appear on Chopped on the Food Network at 10 p.m. in an episode called “Dine on a Dime,” featuring “budget baskets full of low-cost ingredients.”
• December 23: As noted in the November 4 update below, several New Englanders are competing in the current season of the Food Network’s Holiday Baking Championships. Two of the three have made it to the finale, which will air on the 23rd: Sarah Wallace, who manages Magnolia Bakery in Boston, and Jennifer Clifford, a New Hampshire pastry chef who runs her own cake business. Tune into the finale to see if one of them takes home the grand prize — $25,000.
• January 15: Chef Bobby Marcotte of Tuckaway Tavern in New Hampshire and Hop & Grind in New Hampshire and Massachusetts will be returning to Guy’s Grocery Games on the Food Network. He’s already a two-time winner of Guy’s Grocery Games: Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives Tournament. Can he do it again?

NOVEMBER 2019

General November 2019 Book and TV News

• Joanne Chang (Flour, Myers & Chang) released a new cookbook this month, Pastry Love — it’s her fifth, and it includes 125 recipes, such as strawberry slab pie, malted chocolate cake, and passionfruit crepe cake, as well as techniques for making puff pastry, lemon curd, and more. Catch her at a variety of events around town this month.
• Stoneham-based chef Joe Gatto has shot the first season of a show called From Scratch, and it’s slated to debut this month on Pluto TV, a streaming service from Viacom. On the show, Gatto truly does things from scratch — forging knives, distilling rum, making salt from Atlantic water, and more. Stay tuned for an airdate.
• Boston chef Andy Husbands will release his new cookbook The Smoke Shop’s Backyard BBQ, written with Will Salazar, this winter, including recipes for Smoke Shop’s wings (among the best in town) and lots more. If you pre-order the book at this link by December 1, you can get four bonus recipes; email smokeshopbbq@quarto.com with proof of purchase.
• Union Square restaurant Juliet, Eater Boston’s 2016 restaurant of the year, self-published its first “cookbook(let)” this month, Our Market Season, under the same arm of the Juliet + Company team that publishes a magazine, Of Juliet. Given Juliet’s open-book/profit-sharing management system, it’s unsurprising that Our Market Season is a team effort with various restaurant staff members contributing and profiting from the project. (80% of the book’s revenue over expenses will be distributed to its creators, with the other 20% reserved to fund “future creative opportunities for the restaurant’s staff, and community,” according to an announcement from Juliet.) Order the book(let) online or pick up a copy in the restaurant. It contains 25 recipes from the restaurant, “loosely organized to flow with the seasonal offerings at a New England farmers market.”
• City Winery founder and CEO Michael Dorf recently released his first book, Indulge Your Senses: Scaling Intimacy in a Digital World, delving into how he created and grew New York music venue the Knitting Factory and the expanding restaurant/winery/music venue chain City Winery, which expanded to Boston two years ago.

November 2019 Book and TV Events

• November 2: New Englander Molly Stevens — she lives near Burlington, Vermont — will be conducting a master class at Milk Street Kitchen in downtown Boston in support of the November 5 release of her new cookbook, All About Dinner: Simple Meals, Expert Advice. In the new book, the James Beard award-winning cookbook author offers 150 recipes aimed at “entic[ing] busy cooks back into their kitchens.” The class is currently sold out, but interested folks can add themselves to the waitlist here or keep an eye out for the book a few days later.
• November 4: The new season of Food Network’s Holiday Baking Championship kicks off at 9 p.m. with an episode called “Gearing up for the Holidays.” There are several New Englanders among the 10 competing bakers for season six: New Hampshire pastry chef Jennifer Clifford, who runs her own cake business; Boston home baker Kobe Doan, who works in a dental office but wants to bake full-time; and Sarah Wallace, general manager of Boston’s Magnolia Bakery location.
• November 5: Jeffrey Salazar, executive chef of Parsnip in Harvard Square, will compete on Food Network’s Chopped on an episode titled “No Meat? No Problem.” “A marvel of modern food science is the centerpiece of the first basket, and a crispy green makes an appearance in round two,” per TV Guide. The episode airs at 9 p.m.
• November 13: The out-of-town team of authors behind new Armenian cookbook Lavash (Kate Leahy, Ara Zada, and John Lee) will be making a couple local appearances, starting with this one at Cambridge’s Elmendorf Baking Supplies. Tickets ($65) include a moderated discussion with the authors, hosted by Andrew Janjigian from Cook’s Illustrated, a signed copy of the book, and samples of some of the dishes from the book, plus a 10% discount on anything else purchased in the store during the event. The event runs from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
• November 14: The Lavash team (see November 13 update above) will also be appearing at Belmont Books in Belmont for a chat and book signing. This event is free and begins at 7 p.m.
• November 18: Joshua M. Bernstein, a Brooklyn-based beer journalist and author (and a former beer writer for Eater), recently published his fifth book, Drink Better Beer. On the 18th, he’ll appear at Sam Adams (30 Germania St., Boston) for an event where attendees will sample a flight of beer while listening to Bernstein and Sam Adams brewer Shelley Smith discuss the ever-evolving craft beer industry. Tickets are $15 (or $30, which includes a copy of the book); the event runs from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and includes a post-talk meet-and-greet in the taproom. Buy tickets online.