The New Yorker restaurant is, of course, a property of Gastronomy, Inc., owned by principle partners Tom Guinney and John Williams. Last week the National Restaurant Association (NRA) recognized Gastronomy as a Utah winner for outstanding community service in its Annual Restaurant Neighbor Award Program. The NRA’s award was presented to Gastronomy in appreciation of the annual picnic they host yearly at Hill Air Force Base. For the picnic the Gastronomy staff prepares 600 pounds of potato salad, 2,800 pounds of beef brisket and 4,000 pounds of chicken for the annual Salute to Our Nation’s Defenders Picnic, which attracts from 2,500 military service people and their families. Closer to home, the Utah Restaurant Association recently presented Gastronomy founding partner Tom Guinney with their Lifetime Achievement Award. Congratulations to Gastronomy for both awards.

Were it not for John Thorne, I probably wouldn’t be writing about food myself. I first became interested in food writing via Jim Harrison’s articles about food and Thorne’s newsletter, Simple Cooking. This week North Point Press released Thorne’s new Mouth Wide Open: A Cook and His Appetite ($26). It’s a lively collection of previously published Simple Cooking articles and other miscellaneous writings, and the perfect antidote to the overwrought, self-indulgent celebrity chef cookbook. Mouth Wide Open is a generous portion of tasty Thorne writing at its best.

Quote of the week: Americans, more than any other culture on earth, are cookbook cooks; we learn to make our meals not from any oral tradition, but from a text. The just-wed cook brings to the new household no carefully copied collection of the family’s cherished recipes, but a spanking new edition of Fannie Farmer or The Joy of Cooking. —John Thorne

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