Soup & Bread is the tops

Or, precisely, one of the ten essential cookbooks for autumn, according to Time Out Chicago’s Fall Cookbook Preview. This was a unexpected prepublication surprise — we don’t even have books in the warehouse yet — and I’m thrilled to be in the company of Momofuku Milk Bar‘s Cristina Tosi and Chicago’s own Stephanie Izard and Heather Shouse. (Those last two are responsible for one of the more elaborate recipes in OUR book.) And I’m totally smitten with Christine Berrie’s sweet illustration, which I’ve shamelessly cribbed above and is, I’d wager, an art direction decision made necessary because, well, see above re: not actually having books yet.

TOC food and drink editor David Tamarkin says he and his colleague Julia Kramer are going to essay Susan Goss’s Wild Mushroom Chowder (also in the book) this weekend, and promise to report back on the results. In the meantime, I gotta see about getting a print of this drawing.