Some of the food people I admire most won writing awards at the International Association of Culinary Professionals awards ceremony on Tuesday in San Francisco. Notice how I structured that sentence? Not all these authors are writers first–some are restaurateurs, anthropologists, or even waiters–but all have compelling food stories to tell, which makes them food people. And all, as writing coach extraordinaire Crescent Dragonwagon would say, are “deep feast” thinkers, giving us writing rich with multiple layers of meaning. Here are a few highlights you might like to check out (click here for the complete list of 2013 nominees and winners).

  • General Category: Gran Cocina Latina (W.W. Norton, 2012). Maricel Presilla, Ph.D, chocolate expert, professor, and owner of two Latin American restaurants in Hoboken, delivers the first comprehensive collection of Latin American cooking, which allows us to see the common foodways and differences among the regional cuisines of the area.
  • International Category and Book of the Year: Jerusalem (US Edition, Ten Speed Press, 2012). Yotam Ottolenghi and Sammi Tamimi remind us that in cooking there is no Middle East crisis as they seamlessly show us the delicious multicultural make-up of a cuisine, a city, and a food culture.
  • Single Subject Category: Roots (Chronicle, 2012). Longtime Chronicle author Diane Morgan goes deep (couldn’t resist) into one of the humblest, most delicious and sustaining food groups.
  • Culinary History: The Cookbook Library: Four Centuries of Cooks, Writers, and Recipes That Made the Modern Cookbook (University of California Press, 2012). Anne Willan and Mark Cherniavsky’s curated history of the Western canon also reveals the story of a shared lifetime of collecting and study. Their book also won the Jane Grigson Award for scholarship and depth of research, a prize that is only given in years when books measure up.

And for something completely different, don’t miss the blog, “Food for the Thoughtless.” Michael Procopio spins a rambling yarn like a 21st-century Mark Twain or as David Sedaris might if he were a cook, server, and food stylist (to name just a few hats Michael has worn). See also his piece on Bay Area Bites: KY Jelly is My New Jam. Michael was a finalist in the culinary blog category.