Man with a Pan: Culinary Adventures of Fathers Who Cook for Their Families

Cartoonist and New Yorker editor Donohue celebrates dads who cook with a delightful compendium of essays, recipes, cartoons, and interviews. Noting that American fathers "now account for nearly a third of the time a family spends cooking," Donohue%E2%80%94himself a cooking dad%E2%80%94checks how this trend is working out by soliciting a variety of personal perspectives. Among them are such professional voices as Mario Batali and cookbook author Mark Bittman. Not surprisingly, many of the contributors are writers, such as Stephen King, Jim Harrison, Mohammed Naseehu Ali, and Wesley Stace. Under the heading, "In the Trenches," Donohue explores the routines of other average guys: a Brooklyn fireman, a software engineer, and a father of two in New Orleans. And while few are clueless in the kitchen, it is their wit, devotion, and candor that inspire. For example, in "Who the Man?" Jesse Green writes about being the noncook in a two-dad household suddenly faced with kitchen duty; and Matt Greenberg creates a screenplay explaining how to grill. Less a production but equally intriguing is what men cook: gumbo, fish tacos, roast chicken. (May)