South: Essential Recipes and New Explorations

South: Essential Recipes and New Explorations

Southern food is one among the foremost beloved and delicious cuisines in America. And who better to offer us the key elements of Southern cuisine than Sean Brock, the award-winning chef and Southern-food crusader. In South, Brock shares his recipes for key components of the cuisine, from grits and fried chicken to collards and corn bread. Recipes are often mixed and matched to form a meal or eaten on their own. Taken together, they create up the essential elements of Southern cuisine, from fried green tomatoes to smoked baby back ribs and from tomato okra stew to biscuits. Regional differences are highlighted in recipes for shrimp and grits, corn bread, fried chicken, and more. Includes key Southern knowledge too: the way to fry, the way to look after forged iron , the way to cook over a fire , and more. this is often the book fans of Sean Brock are expecting , and it’s the book Southern-food lovers the planet over will use as their bible.

About the Author

Sean Brock is the founding chef of the award-winning Husk restaurants and the chef/owner of Audrey, opening next year in Nashville. His first book, Heritage, was the winner of the James Beard Award for Best American Cookbook and the IACP Julia Child First Book Award in 2015 and was called “the blue-ribbon chef cookbook of the year” by the New York Times. Brock won the James Beard Award for Best Chef Southeast in 2010 and was a finalist for Outstanding Chef in 2013, 2014, and 2015. His TV résumé includes Chef’s Table and The Mind of a Chef, for which he was nominated for an Emmy. Raised in rural Virginia, Brock is passionate about preserving and restoring heirloom ingredients. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

This is a cookbook that will become a classic. I'm addicted to cookbooks, which I read from cover to cover--and to cooking. I also happen always to have lived in the far North--currently in the middle of nowhere--but love Southern cooking, own quite a few Southern cookbooks, know Chef Brock's reputation, and have read his "Heritage" (2013). And so I didn't expect to find many recipes with ingredients that would be easy for me to find, nor techniques that might be easy for me to execute. However, I bought the book because, although we cook more than a thousand miles away, I really wanted to know more of what Chef has to say about Southern cooking. My high expectations were exceeded. Chef's obsession--to use his own word--for the heirloom ingredients, and techniques of the South shines through on every page. This is why I bought the book: I wasn't looking for mere recipes. I didn't expect to find many recipes with ingredients that would be easy for me to find, nor techniques that might be easy for me to execute: for example, grilling--featured in so many recipes--is illegal on my condo deck. I appreciate that the author's editors have given him enormous leeway to present his dishes precisely as he wishes to do: with his preferred ingredients, whether easy to obtain in other regions or not; and with his preferred technique--regardless of how many pages it takes to present a recipe. Every recipe has an informative headnote explaining why Chef appreciates the dish, the recipe's history, why specific ingredients or technique matter, or more. I've actually placed a number of Post-It's on the pages. For example, I know how to cook grits, but I want to try grits Chef Brock's two ways (one of which uses an electric pressure cooker, who knew?). And I've flagged several recipes that will have to wait for the incredibly short season in which my Farmers' Market will provide some of the author's favorite vegetables.-Mary C.

The original cookbook by Sean Brock "Husk" was, at the time of it's original publishing, above my capability. Time has passed and my capabilities have improved and although most of the recipes in Husk remain too specific in terms of the ingredients, South has a different feel to it. I don't think the author is writing down, but he is writing about cuisine as opposed to what he served in his restaurant. Much of what is in this book can be created with only a few stretches of the pantry and that makes a huge difference. Maybe my skills have improved, or maybe Sean Brock is speaking more directly to cooks like me. -T. Blankey

Another hit from Sean Brock. His focus to detail and history leads you to the truest form of southern cooking. His recipes are great, accurate and even improve on some of his older recipes. (changing salt content on cornbread for example) Brock also provides great resources with accessibility to ingredients and some substitutes. Overall another hit by this great chef. -Sikora