In-Store: Ella Quittner: Obsessed with the Best w/ Sohla El-Waylly

Event guidelines:

• Each ticket will include either a copy of the featured book or a $10 Books Are Magic gift card.
• Additional copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event.
• A signing will follow the talk.
• Home address is collected for contact tracing purposes; it will not be used otherwise.
• The event will also be livestreamed for free here: https://youtube.com/live/BlFaYXzl-e0
• As a reminder: If you are not feeling well, please do not come to the event, even if you have a ticket; email us and we'll work it out.

If you have any questions regarding these guidelines or to request accessibility accommodations, please contact [email protected].

A charmingly obsessive, thoroughly tested exploration of the best ways to cook and bake your favorite foods.

Some might think the “best” roast chicken means “most efficient without sacrificing juicy meat,” while others might think “best” is the one that you won’t be able to stop thinking about for years, no matter how long it takes in a sous vide bag. When writer Ella Quittner (creator of Food52’s “Absolute Best Tests”) is cooking or baking something, she cannot rest until she’s tested every method she can to arrive at the best result. Even if that means traveling to Tokyo to learn the trick to extra juicy tsukune for her tender meatballs or spending time in the Alabama Black Belt gathering intel from the pros for her flakiest biscuits.

In Obsessed with the Best, Ella walks you through the results of 24 head-to-head tests of cooking methods to help you find the perfect choice for your palate. From these building blocks, Ella shares more than 100 recipes, grounding you in minimalist techniques that maximize flavor, and sharing creative options as jumping off points for your own favorite flavors.

Punctuated with reported essays on people, places, or things obsessed with “the best”—be it a bacon evangelist from Iowa who flies annually all the way to Kofu, Japan, to throw a “Porktober Fest” in the middle of a seasonal celebration of a feudal lord, or an international spin through different pasta-making methods from Osaka to Tuscany—Obsessed with the Best is precise, informative, personal, and fun in equal measure.

Ella Quittner is a food writer, cultural journalist, and screenwriter who often writes about obsession. She splits her time between writing recipes, books, screenplays, and journalism, mostly for The New York Times, New York Magazine, and T Magazine. She has had work appear in The New Yorker, The Baffler, TIME, Food & Wine, The Wall Street Journal, Man Repeller, Family Style, Bon Appétit, Saveur, The Los Angeles Times, TASTE, Prior, and across many group chats. OBSESSED WITH THE BEST advances a viral project she began after she left a career on Wall Street for a job in food media.

Sohla El-Waylly is an American chef, author, and food media personality who's debut cookbook became an instant New York Times bestseller, winning a James Beard Award and two IACP awards. Her career includes notable work with The New York Times, where she led the Cooking 101 digital series and co-hosted Mystery Menu with her husband and frequent collaborator, chef and restaurateur Ham El-Waylly. She also hosted the viral digital series Stump Sohla for the Babish Culinary Universe. On the small screen, Sohla starred in The HISTORY Channel's Ancient Recipes with Sohla, and was a judge on the Dan Levy-hosted cooking competition show, The Big Brunch, on Max.

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