Deep run roots : stories and recipes from my corner of the South / Vivan Howard ; photographs by Rex Miller ; design by Don Morris Design.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

New York Times bestseller * IACP Cookbook of the Year * A landmark work of culinary storytelling with 250 recipes celebrating the flavors of North Carolina's coastal plain by Vivian Howard, star of PBS's A Chef's Life and Somewhere South .



This new classic of American country cooking proves that the food of Deep Run, North Carolina--Vivian's home--is as rich as any culinary tradition in the world. Organized by ingredient with dishes suited to every skill level, from beginners to confident cooks, Deep Run Roots features time-honored simple preparations alongside extraordinary meals from her acclaimed restaurant Chef and the Farmer. Home cooks will find photographs for every single recipe, alongside a storytelling voice that "will keep your soul fed for weeks" ( Garden and Gun ).



In 2006, Vivian opened Chef and the Farmer and put the nearby town of Kinston on the culinary map. But in a town paralyzed by recession, she couldn't hop on every new culinary trend. Instead, she focused on rural development: If you grew it, she'd buy it. Inundated by local sweet potatoes, blueberries, shrimp, pork, and beans, Vivian learned to cook the way generations of Southerners before her had, relying on resourcefulness, creativity, and the traditional ways of preserving food.



Deep Run Roots is the result of years of effort to discover the riches of Eastern North Carolina. Like The Fannie Farmer Cookbook , The Art of Simple Food , and The Taste of Country Cooking before it, this is landmark work of American food writing.



Recipes include family favorites like Blueberry BBQ Chicken Creamed Collard-Stuffed Potatoes Fried Yams with Five-Spice Maple Bacon Candy Chicken and Rice Country-Style Pork Ribs in Red Curry-Braised Watermelon And show-stopping desserts like Warm Banana Pudding , Peaches and Cream Cake , and Pecan-Chewy Pie . You'll also find 200 more quick breakfasts, weeknight dinners, holiday centerpieces, seasonal preserves, and traditional preparations for all kinds of cooks.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Cocreator of the award-winning PBS series A Chef's Life, Howard left the grueling kitchens of New York to open a restaurant near her hometown in rural North Carolina. Her first cookbook presents an intriguing story of reconnecting with family and rediscovering ingredients such as turnips, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, peaches, and collards. Home cooks of all skill levels will devour Howard's recipes (e.g., sweet corn boiled in a big pot with coconut ginger butter, sausage-stuffed honey buns, fried green tomatoes with curried peach preserves and whipped feta), whose appeal goes far beyond that of typical Southern fare. VERDICT A standout collection of regional Southern foods, both simple and restaurant-worthy. © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

On the heels of her Peabody award-winning PBS show, A Chef's Life, restaurateur Howard (Chef and The Farmer) shares personal stories and 240 recipes inspired by fare from her hometown of Deep Run, N.C., in this outstanding debut. Returning home following a Manhattan culinary career, Howard reacquaints herself with regional dishes and ingredients of her youth, discovering a vibrant, multi-generational farm-to-table world. In odes to 25 local ingredients such as dried corn, watermelon, pecans, peanuts, beans and peas, sausage, and collards, recipes combine Howard's food memories with "modern sensibilities" and wisdom gained in professional kitchens. Fans of Southern cooking will find plenty of catfish, corn cakes, cast-iron skillet dishes, and cooking-with-Grandma stories-but it's not all biscuits and gravy. Recipes elevate fried green tomatoes with curried peach preserves and buttermilk whipped feta; okra gets tempura batter and tangy ranch dressing ice cream; oysters are transformed into a citrusy apple and scallion ceviche; and marinated turnips are dressed with orange, pumpkin seeds, and ginger-orange vinaigrette. Going beyond the glories of grits, Howard's text is storytelling at its best, rich in mouthwatering detail and reminiscences, though at times her lively anecdotes obscure the recipe directions. This tribute to her family roots is destined to become an enduring classic. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* It's rare that reminiscences and recipes mix holistically in one book. Remember, though, that the cocreator and star of PBS' A Chef's Life Howard (and double restaurateur) hails from North Carolina, where a penchant for storytelling is in everyone's DNA. So leafing through dishes like apple and scallion oyster ceviche and blueberry barbecue chicken, watermelon tea, and turnip root and green gratin means getting involved, at least peripherally, with Howard's life, from her farming childhood and New York internship with CBS to the start of her second career in a Harlem kitchen, and her return to North Carolina. Every ingredient (how this book is categorized) features a tale: avocado and tomato with broken-egg dressing is from the 2011 birth of her twins; fig dishes are in tribute to her grandmother; and a recipe pays tribute to the pecan. Each chapter includes a must-read compendium of wisdom, where she details the different types of that ingredient and how to select, store, and cook (pick store watermelons with flat yellow bottoms). Folk wisdom, grown for today, in more than 200 recipes.--Jacobs, Barbara Copyright 2016 Booklist

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Vivian Howard is the chef and owner of the acclaimed Chef and the Farmer restaurant in Kinston, North Carolina, fifteen miles from her home of Deep Run. She trained under Wylie Dufresne and Sam Mason at WD-50 and was a member of the opening team at Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Spice Market in New York. The first woman since Julia Child to win a Peabody Award for a cooking program, she co-created and stars in the PBS series A Chef's Life .