Today was a pleasant day with great weather and perfect to spend a Saturday afternoon strolling in downtown Austin, checking out the Texas Book Festival. http://www.texasbookfestival.org/2011_Festival_Details.php
We heard a few readings and book discussions, saw many authors book signing, and of course enjoyed the company of books and people interested in books.
A very long line of fans lined up to get their books signed in front of the authors tent ignited my curiosity to find out who was this popular author . The line of eager fans, surprisingly led me to Alton Brown. It looked like the world was interested in cooking more than economics, politics, self-help or even fiction!
Alton Brown was promoting his new book Good Eats 3. Like Volumes 1 and 2, Good Eats 3: The Later Years, packs a bounty of information and entertainment between its covers with Alton Brown’s wildly inventive, science-geeky, food-loving spirit. More than 200 recipes are accompanied by hundreds of photographs and drawings, as well as lots of science-of-food facts, cooking tips, food trivia – and bonus sock puppet instructions!
Brown is the host of Good Eats (winner of a 2007 Peabody Award and 2011 James Beard Award) and the commentator on Iron Chef America, both on Food Network. He is also author of seven other cookbooks like I’m Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking
Another cooking personality to check out at the Texas Book Festival was actress Sandra Bullock’s Sister Gesine Bullock-Prado .
Gesine Bullock-Prado was cooking with sugar: confections, candies, and cakes at the cooking tent. She demonstrated how to make Taffy to a large audience who was enjoying this interesting conversationalist, who sounded and looked very much like Sandra Bullock. Her latest book is Sugar Baby: Confections, Candies, Cakes & Other Delicious Recipes for Cooking with Sugar. In this book, Gesine Bullock-Prado offers unintimidating step-by-step advice; simple instructions; recipes for candy, confections, and treats that integrate stovetop work into finished desserts; and a hilarious voice. Bullock-Prado is the founder of the Gesine Confectionary product line and author of My Life from Scratch, Confections of a Closet Master Baker: One Woman’s Sweet Journey from Unhappy Hollywood Executive to Contented Country Baker and Pie It Forward: Pies, Tarts, Tortes, Galettes, and Other Pastries Reinvented. She has also featured on the Food Network, and in many other national publications.