Celia Sack

Meet Smitten Kitchen's Deb Perelman This Sunday

We've been admirers of Deb Perelman and her cooking blog Smitten Kitchen for years, and are stoked that her simple, elegant recipes and gorgeous photos have finally made their way into a cookbook. As she writes in a blog post announcing its release, the cookbook has 105 recipes (85 new, never appear ... More >>

Saturday: Omnivore Books Hosts Pie Battle

Omnivore Books has been holding amateur pie-baking battles in the tiny shop since the summer of 2009. The next one is set for 3-4 p.m. on August 11. It's a casual competition that doesn't require advance registration; you can literally show up with a pie you've baked and cut into as many samples as ... More >>

Star Chefs April Bloomfield and Marcus Samuelsson Headline Omnivore Books Dinners

Omnivore Books on Food is San Francisco's one-stop shop for culinary literature and celebrity chef readings/sightings, and next month owner Celia Sack is kicking it up a notch with two collaborative dinner events featuring acclaimed New York chefs Marcus Samuelsson and April Bloomfield at Oakland's ... More >>

Oakland's Camino Restaurant Hosts Mozza Cookbook Dinner

​Nancy Silverton's Los Angeles Italian restaurants -- Osteria Mozza and Pizzeria Mozza, co-owned by Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich -- have earned a cult-like following, which might inspire Silverton to stay guarded about their food's secrets. But instead, she's opening the restaurant's recipe ... More >>

Free Beer! (And a Book Signing, Too)

Brooklyn Brewery's brewmaster Garrett Oliver knows a lot about beer, and you're about to as well -- 960 pages of knowledge. As the editor of the beer-buff tome The Oxford Companion to Beer (out in early October), Oliver will be tapping into his expertise as a beer-mind for both the connoisseur and ... More >>

Cake Smackdown on Saturday

Sat Addict​Cake WalkWhere: Omnivore Books, 3885a Cesar Chavez St. (at Church St.)When: 4-5 p.m. Saturday, July 9Cost: Free for bakers; $5 for eatersThink you've got mad cake-baking skills? Test them out Saturday at Omnivore Books' "Cake Walk" competition.The contest is open to everyone, free to en ... More >>

Omnivore Books Seeks Contenders for July Cake Battle

Flickr/p3nnylan3​Cake is the theme of the next informal cooking competition at Omnivore Books in Noe Valley on July 9, and proprietor Celia Sack is calling for contestants. While the mandate is for "inventive" cakes, the sweets will eventually be hacked into tiny pieces for everyone in the hou ... More >>

Sandor Katz: Gettin' Tangy at Omnivore Books

infomad/FlickrCulture guru Katz at Eat Real.​Sandor Katz and Wild Fermentation Where: Omnivore Books on Food, 3885a Cesar Chavez (at Church), 282-4712 When: Fri., May 13, 6-7 p.m. Cost: Free The rundown: If you're a fermentation fetishist like Sandor Ellix Katz, no doubt you long ago cale ... More >>

Calling all Cookie Monsters

Gil Riego Jr./SFoodie​Cookie Jar Throwdown Where: Omnivore Books on Food, 3885a Cesar Chavez (at Church), 282-4712 When: Sat., Jan. 29, 3-4 p.m. Cost: Free for cookie entrants/ $5 for just-eaters The rundown: Past food contests at Omnivore have ranged from the arty to the esoteric, but fo ... More >>

Omnivore Launches Cookbook Club for Autograph Lovers

Omnivore Books​Just in time for the more generous gift-givers out there (whether to oneself or others), Omnivore Books has launched a new signed cookbook mail order club ($120 per year), tapping into the pool of culinary luminaries passing through the shop for appearances. Books will ship on t ... More >>

Amanda Hesser Talks Food Writing at 826 Valencia Benefit

Amazon.comAmanda Hesser.​East Coast food scribe Amanda Hesser (food52, the New York Times, Cooking for Mr. Latte) is helping raise money for kid-centric writing center 826 Valencia via a special two-hour seminar called "The Art of Food Writing" at the Women's Building Nov. 7. If you've ever wo ... More >>

Readers Cafe: Another Reason to Visit Fort Mason's Book Bay

Friends of the SF Public Library​Do you know about the Book Bay, the Friends of the San Francisco Library store at Fort Mason? Did you know that it has the best (uncurated) selection of used cookbooks in the city? Omnivore's Celia Sack and SFoodie both think so. Over the years, SFoodie has scored ... More >>

Omnivore Books In Consulting Deal with Williams-Sonoma

Janine KahnOmnivore Books' Celia Sack will pick a book of the month, and has curated a collection of vintage tomes for Williams-Sonoma stores.​Williams-Sonoma likes Noe Valley's Omnivore Books so much, the bigger-than-God cookware chain has hired Omnivore's Celia Sack to serve as book consulta ... More >>

Tasting Blind: Our Panel Rates Summer Beers

Brian YaegerRigorous steps were taken to assure impartiality.​For this month's blind beer-tasting, rather than focus on a specific style, and since we just celebrated the solstice with on-again, off-again warm weather, we lined up a mixed six-pack of seasonal summer beers. Here's how the Brewe ... More >>

Nominees for Woman Entrepreneur Award Include Omnivore, Huarache Loco, Ritual

Omnivore Books' Celia Sack.​Celia Sack (Omnivore Books), Krystin Rubin and Karen Heisler (Mission Pie), Veronica Salazar (El Huarache Loco), Eileen Hassi (Ritual Roasters), Lisa Rogovin (In the Kitchen With Lisa), Kaytea Petro (Neighborhood Fruit), Kara Lind (Kara's Cupcakes), Erin Archuleta ( ... More >>

Food Fight

Power Trio at Omnivore: Novella Carpenter, Elizabeth Falkner & Barbara Lynch

​We're coming up on the birthday weekend of Omnivore Books owner Celia Sack, and she's going to celebrate by hosting a double- ― wait, make that triple-header of literary happenings on Saturday and Sunday. First up on Saturday, Oakland's Novella Carpenter will be back in the house supportin ... More >>

CUESA's Urban Eats County Fair Promises Plenty of S.F. Flavor

​We harbor pleasant memories of childhood visits to the state fair: prize hogs, pink and bristly, bulging from their pens, ribbon-worthy layer cakes, and all manner of fried foods served on sticks, tucked into greasy waxed-paper wrappings. On June 20, we will revisit those summer excursions ... More >>

Omnivore's Celia Sack Producing a Book of Her Own

Celia SackA mockup shows vintage matchbook covers.​Quick, what kind of book would you say a cookbook collector would write? In the case of Omnivore's Celia Sack, the answer is a book that enables the very act of collecting. Sack has inked a contract with Ten Speed Press for The Omnivore's Reci ... More >>

For Savvy Shoppers, Omnivore's a Source of Pastured Eggs from West Marin

Tamara Palmer​Omnivore Books carries fresh tomes on food, but it's less known that the shop also carries fresh, free-range eggs from a neighbor of bookstore proprietor Celia Sack who owns a small family farm in Tomales Bay. The eggs come from a variety of breeds. Sack told SFoodie she estimat ... More >>

We Totally Scored at Last Night's 18 Reasons Book Swap

M. BrodyThe books nobody wanted -- even as freebies. Sorry, Guy -- and Gourmet.​We made out like a bandit at 18 Reasons' cookbook exchange last night. We're slightly embarrassed about it. We already have a sister and two friends we regularly give castoff food books to, and we're pretty attac ... More >>

Omnivore Books to Host Pie Baking Contest

chandoo.org​After last month's mighty fried chicken battle, eating enthusiast Celia Sack has announced a new cooking competition. Bring your best personally-baked pies (cut into bite-sized portions) to Sack's shop Omnivore Books (3885A Cesar Chavez at Church) on Thursday, September 10, at 6 ... More >>

Despite Snark from Critics, Julia's Books are Suddenly Must-Haves

Rakka/FlickrYou're not alone.​When Chelsea Handler told a panel of comedians on Chelsea Lately that ABC News was reporting that Julia Child's memoir My Life in France and some of her other books are "flying off the shelves because of the new movie Julie & Julia," the invective flew thick and f ... More >>

September Tasting and Preserves Swap Should Prove Just Peachy

pickyourown.org​ Gayle Okumura Sullivan of Dry Creek Peach and Produce in Healdsburg, one of the last peach farms in all of Northern California, will join Omnivore Books owner Celia Sack in hosting a special tasting of Dry Creek's heirloom yellow and white peaches. They'll also oversee  ... More >>

Fried Chicken Taste-Off Coming to Omnivore Books Next Week

Willie Mae's Scotch HouseIn a crispy twist from its usual schedule of readings and talks, Omnivore Books (3885A Cesar Chavez at Church) will soon host its first Fried Chicken Taste-Off. Are you a breast or thigh master? Bring your own home-cooked fried chicken to compete for the chance to win ... More >>

Is This the Gayest Book Ever Written About Food?

The Gay Cookbook by Chef Lou Rand Hogan   Published: 1965, Sherbourne Press, New York What the hell?: The Boys in the Band meets James Beard -- a self-consciously campy guide to the kitchen, at a time when gays were still mostly closeted. An excerpt from the entry for grinding hamburger ... More >>

Did a Couple of San Francisco Lesbians Invent Modern Food Writing?

Lee Sutton/FlickrIn anticipation of the city's sprawling Pride festival on Sunday, June 28, SFoodie is offering up daily features celebrating San Francisco's LGBT food and drink culture. In 1928, home ec writers and secret lesbian lovers Genevieve Callahan and Lou Richardson (yep, Lou was a s ... More >>

The Best Little Cookbook Store in San Francisco: Or, A Room With a View

By Meredith Brody This may seem like a quixotic time to open an independent book store, but we can thank our lucky stars that Celia Sack didn't let a little thing like the economy get in the way of her dream. Which is also ours: a cookbook store that honors the past along with the present. At Om ... More >>