Nominees this year featured some books we expected (Momofuku, Ad Hoc at Home), left off some that surprised us (where was Sam Beall's fantastic The Blackberry Farm Cookbook? Or The Big Sur Bakery Cookbook?) and decidedly favored Southern cuisine. We've made some tough calls below.

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Earlier today, we listed this year's winners of the IACP cookbook awards, which were announced on Saturday at an awards ceremony in Denver, Colorado. Eat Me Daily's Books Editor, Helen Rosner, weighs in on how the organization picked the wrong winners, and why that bodes poorly for the future of book publishing.

As an organization, the International Association of Culinary Professionals likes to bill its awards as the food industry's "most coveted acknowledgement [sic] of excellence." Typos aside, I'm starting to worry that "excellence" isn't, in fact, the quality that IACP rewards.

IACP is a trade group. Its members are teachers, editors, and food writers, and it pretty much flies under the radar — it certainly doesn't occupy the same place in popular awareness as, say, the Beard Awards, nor does an IACP win guarantee a book the kind of sales bump that a Beard does. What the organization does bring to the table, at least in theory, is an accurate sounding of the state of culinary literature, as determined by its practitioners.

Given that, you'd think that the IACP awards should honor books that break new ground, books that move the industry forward. The problem is that the view — at least, from where I sit — is of a voting majority of judges clinging desperately to a failing past.

Looking backwards

These folks have got to be happy to watch their industry die. What else could explain a retail-branded same-old baking book winning over Matt Lewis's topic-resuscitating Baked? Or old-guard favorite Arthur Schwartz's retread of American Jewish recipes snatching victory away from Virginia Willis's spectacular culinary epic Bon Appetit, Y'All?

But most egregiously, I'm stunned by Chanterelle: an inexplicable double winner in categories "Chefs and Restaurants" and "Food Styling and Photography."

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This past weekend, the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) convened in Denver, Colorado to schmooze, gossip, and — perhaps most importantly — announce the winners of their annual awards. Judged by a panel of 36 food and beverage professionals from all over the country and culled from a shortlist of nominees, the awards recognize books in thirteen categories — and from those thirteen winners selects one to be the Cookbook of the Year.

In the run-up to the Beard Awards later in the season, the IACPs (besides being a prestigious award in their own right) are a fairly reliable barometer of the zeitgeist of culinary letters. If the Beards are the Oscars of the food world, let's call the IACPs the Golden Globes.

The full list of IACP Winners »

The International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) has released the list of finalists for their 2009 cookbook awards. If the Beards are the Oscars of food, an IACP nod is a Golden Globe — the society of food pros encompasses writers, agents, editors, and teachers as well as the usual who's-who of restaurateurs and big chef names.

This year's nominee crop is divided into thirteen categories, and one of the thirteen winners will be chosen IACP Cookbook of the Year.

Curiously omitted from contention were some of 2008's critical favorites, notably Alinea, A Day at El Bulli, A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes, and Kenny Shopsin's Eat Me (no relation to the site you're reading now). We're sure the Beard Nominations will take care of these oversights.

Highlights include:

• Virginia Willis's Bon Appetit, Y'all;
• Matt Lewis's Baked cookbook, based on the recipes of his Brooklyn bakery;
• Eric Ripert's On the Line (reviewed here on EMD);
• Jennifer McLagan's Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient (reviewed here on EMD);
• Thomas Keller's Under Pressure (reviewed here on EMD), which got a double nod for both single-topic book and photography and presentation.

The finalists will be announced at IACP's annual conference, held this year from April 1-4 in Denver.

The complete list of finalists »