Celebrated Chef and Cookbook Author Anne Willan to Speak Oct. 23

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Anne Willan, the celebrated chef and cookbook author, will give a talk on “The Cookbook Family Tree: The History of Early Cookbooks,” at the UC San Diego Faculty Club on October 23 at 5 p.m. Her talk will include a reception and book signing of The Cookbook Library: Four Centuries of the Cooks, Writers, and Recipes That Made the Modern Cookbook. Published in April 2012 by University of California Press, her most recent book is based on her and her husband Mark Cherniavsky’s extensive antiquarian cookbook collection. The reception will include tastings from various historic cookbooks featured in The Cookbook Library.

The event is free and open to the public. Willan will be on hand to sign copies of her book. Warwick’s Bookstore staff will have books available for purchase at the event.

Willan, who is widely recognized as one of the world’s preeminent authorities on French cooking, founded École de Cuisine La Varenne in Paris in 1975. A recipient of the IACP Lifetime Achievement Award, James Beard Award, and Bon Appétit Teacher of the Year Award, Willan is also the author of more than 30 cookbooks. Notable titles include La Varenne Pratique; the 17-volume Look and Cook series; and The Country Cooking of France, which won two 2008 James Beard Foundation Book Awards. Willan divides her time between Santa Monica, California and France. For more information about Willan and La Varenne:  lavarenne.com.

Willan’s visit to UC San Diego is sponsored by the UC San Diego Library’s Mandeville Special Collections Library.  The Mandeville Special Collections Library is the repository for the American Institute of Wine and Food (AIWF) Culinary Collection, which was established in 1991, with an initial gift from the AIWF of about 360 cookbooks and other materials documenting culinary history, dating back to the 17th century. The collection has grown to include more than 6,000 books, manuscripts, and other materials, and has exceptional strength in materials from California, Latin America, and the Pacific Rim region.

Ranked among the nation’s top public academic research libraries, the UC San Diego Library plays an integral role in advancing and supporting the university’s research, teaching, and public service missions. As the intellectual heart of the UC San Diego campus, the university library provides access to more than 7 million digital and print volumes, journals, and multimedia materials to meet the knowledge and information needs of faculty, students, and members of the public.  Each day, more than 7,300 patrons visit one of the UC San Diego libraries and the libraries vast resources are accessed nearly 90,000 times through the Library’s main Web site.