Mario Batali To Publish Two Cookbooks at Grand Central

By Jason Boog 

Celebrity chef Mario Batali has inked a book deal for two new cookbooks.

Hachette Book Group’s Grand Central Life & Style imprint will publish the book, but Batali had previously published a number of books with HarperCollins Ecco imprint. Tony Gardner of Gardner Literary negotiated the deal and editorial director Karen Murgolo acquired the book in an auction.

The first book will come out in fall 2014, co-written with Washington Post writer Jim Webster–recipes focusing on “farmers and their top products in 12 American states.”

Batali has more than 500,000 followers on Twitter. Here’s more about the second book, scheduled for 2015 release:

The second cookbook will be Batali’s definitive look at American regional cuisine.  Featuring over 250 recipes of Batali’s interpretations of the best dishes America has to offer, the cookbook will emphasize the inexpensive and the deceptively simple, celebrating the treasures of state fairs, the dishes of local rotary clubs and regional classics such as the BBQ styles of Texas, the Smokeys and the Carolinas and the seafood soups of Boston and New Hampshire, the Gulf Coast, and the Pacific Northwest.  Batali’s approach to regional American cuisine will reflect the same excitement and passion as his interpretations of Italian and Spanish traditional and regional cuisine.