The 2012 Piglet Tournament of Cookbooks

Above: the coveted Piglet Tournament of Cookbooks trophy.

It's time for the 2012 Piglet Tournament of Cookbooks, which is orchestrated by the great site Food52.

What in the name of all that is porcine is the Piglet Tournament?

Piglet is the food world's NCAA-style competition in which Food52's staff seeds the 16 best cookbooks from 2011 into brackets and faces them off. Each pair of books is then passed to Food52's expert judges who cook from the books then write up their decisions.

In the first round, Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home is battling The Art of Living According to Joe Beef in a showdown judged by Cookie Bar owners Dorie and Josh Greenspan.

Now, this is where you come in.

When each day's outcome is reported, you—as Food52 puts it—"can weigh in with your yay or nay on each day's outcome until only one remains—the 2012 Piglet winner."

The first match-ups are under way as of today (Jan. 18), so be sure to check out Food52 tomorrow to comment on decisions by Food52's illustrious cast of expert judges, which includes:

• Roz Chast, staff cartoonist for The New Yorker
• Caitlin Freeman, pastry chef for Blue Bottle Coffee, and James Freeman, founder and owner of Blue Bottle Coffee
• Ina Garten, cookbook author and host of Food Network's Barefoot Contessa
• Dorie Greenspan and Josh Greenspan, co-owners of Cookie Bar
• Carla Hall, a host on ABC's The Chew and owner of Alchemy by Carla Hall in Washington, D.C.
• Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer, founders of The Canal House
• Sara Jenkins, owner of Porchetta and Porsena in New York City
• Nigella Lawson, cookbook author and host of Food Network's Nigella Feasts
• Hunter Lewis, food editor at Bon Appetit
• Anita Lo, chef and owner of Annisa in New York City
• Celia Sack, owner of Omnivore Books in San Francisco
• Kim Severson, Atlanta Bureau Chief for The New York Times
• David Tanis, cookbook author, New York Times columnist, and chef at Chez Panisse in Berkeley
• Alice Waters, owner of Chez Panisse in Berkeley
• Jacob Weisberg, editor-in-chief of Slate