Southern Comfort
A New Take on the Recipes We Grew Up With [A Cookbook]
-
- $14.99
-
- $14.99
Publisher Description
The much-anticipated debut cookbook from two of the most admired and innovative young chefs in the South, with 100 recipes featuring their refined, classically-inspired takes on the traditional Southern food they grew up with.
Allison Vines-Rushing and Slade Rushing are two of the most admired and innovative young chefs in the South. Their distinctive brand of cooking is praised for its brilliant juxtaposition of rustic flavors with refined, classically inspired preparations.
Southern Comfort is not only their much-anticipated debut cookbook, but also Allison and Slade’s personal story: their childhood food memories and family traditions growing up in Louisiana and Mississippi, how they met and fell in love in a New Orleans kitchen, and lessons learned working in top restaurants in San Francisco and New York. It also describes their bittersweet homecoming and the opening of their first restaurant just days before Hurricane Katrina hit. And perhaps most importantly, Southern Comfort shares Allison and Slade’s deep-rooted love for the area—its history, its cuisine, and its people—which inspired them to stay in New Orleans and keep cooking.
These 100 recipes reflect Allison and Slade’s refreshing approach to regional cuisine, with its pitch-perfect blend of high and low. Dishes like Hush Puppies with Caviar, Sweet Tea–Roasted Duck in Date Sauce, and their legendary Oysters Rockefeller “Deconstructed” are modern in technique and execution, yet inspired by the traditions, ingredients, and down-home philosophy that make Southern food so appealing.
At its heart, Southern Comfort is a celebration: of local ingredients, New Orleans’s vibrant food culture, and Allison and Slade’s shared Southern upbringing. Brimming with flavorful recipes and stories, it showcases the very best that the New South has to offer.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
When two celebrated Southern chefs escape the media storm surrounding their acclaimed East Village Oyster Bar at the height of fame and fortune, they trade Manhattan's intense culinary scene in favor of returning to Bourbon Street roots. But they trade one storm for another as Katrina hits New Orleans, sinking their fledgling restaurant venture. Down, but not out, the authors are approached by a major hotel in the Big Easy and create the elegant MiLa, rekindle the sweet life, reconnect with their families, and begin raising their own. The couple's first cookbook features dishes based on recognizable, humble ingredients that define Southern fare, infused with lively French or Asian accents and bluesy "riffs on New Orleans classics." Biscuits are laced with venison and cheddar, and hush puppies garnished with cr me fraiche and caviar. Black-eyed peas swim in a rich mushroom barley broth. Grits are elevated by the "high-class truffle," and a champagne-marinated catfish is proof that chefs must "never underestimate the potential of catfish." Crawfish shine in omelets, and sweet potatoes appear in multiple incarnations, from sweet to savory. Recipes feature a number of French cooking techniques. Photos reflect the humid, port city's faded architecture and shuttered balconies.