Specialties of the House

There are many components to good food writing, including an adventurous palate and an inquiring mind as well as a flair for communication. Good food writers do much more than describe various restaurant dishes; they craft prose that appeals to our senses, making food sound vibrant and inviting, and placing it in an informative cultural context. Two of the Chronicle Cuisine section's longtime contributing food writers have been busy doing just those things this past year, and we're taking this opportunity to share the results with you. Rebecca Chastenet de Géry was chosen by Chronicle Books of San Francisco to collaborate with two well-known Bay-area caterers and bring their popular party fare to the cookbook-reading public. We're sharing an excerpt from Skewer It!: 50 Recipes for Stylish Entertaining complete with recipes and an informed review by another of our contributors, MM Pack. For several years, Cajun country native Pableaux Johnson has been our resident Cuisines expert on the culinary lore of what he refers to as "the motherland." After investing several months in helping CitySearch create an online restaurant guide to New Orleans, Johnson was tapped by Lonely Planet Publishers to write the New Orleans edition of their line of World Food Guides. Check out the excerpt from World Food New Orleans and my reaction to it, then judge for yourself whether or not they hired the right guy.