The Piglet Party | Astor Center

Who says print is dead? Food pros toast the top cookbooks and recipes.

This year saw the demise of Gourmet magazine at the hands of the Internet, but even Web 2.0 folks still have a soft spot for the cookbook. Former New York Times writer Amanda Hesser and a partner founded Food52.com as a crowd-sourced recipe resource for home cooks, and while they surely see a future for digital recipes, they still love the analog kind as well.

To celebrate the culmination of their March Madness-style Tournament of Cookbooks, Food52 hosted a Piglet Party on Monday at Astor Center. Aside from a panel discussion on the future of the cookbook, Ginger Pierce (Five Points) and Preston Madson (Freemans) served dishes from the participating cookbooks, and the coveted Piglet Trophy was presented to the winning entry: Francis Mallman's "Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way." A party honoring the year's best cookbooks, hosted by a crowd-sourced recipe Web site? Who knew?