September 2021 Cookbook Reviews

 

The Chef's Garden by Farmer Lee Jones

I picked this one up because I recognized Farmer Lee Jones from his judging on Iron Chef America. I knew from the show that he was a farmer and often when he was judging the secret ingredient would be a vegetable that he had grown. In this massive cookbook he shares the origins of his family farm, how they went from conventional to specialty catering to chefs across the country. He also explains why he wears overalls all the time (I'm not going to tell you, pick up the book to see why). He also shares how because of their work with chefs they decided to create the Culinary Vegetable Institute, which is basically a building with a huge commercial kitchen and bedrooms for chefs to come visit the farm and stay on site and cook with all the varieties of vegetables they are growing. The book is organized by type of vegetable - alliums, stems and stalks, roots, etc. Each section features several varieties of vegetable in that family and explains how to select, store, clean, and use. There aren't as many actual recipes as you would expect for this size cookbook and most of the recipes are pretty fancy in my opinion. There weren't many recipes I wanted to try, but I really appreciated the story of the Jones family farm and how they are focusing on heirloom vegetables and regenerative farming. I love that they started out in conventional farming and when that wasn't making them any money they tried something new (catering to chefs and heirloom vegetables) and it paid off in a big way.

Southern Grit by Kelsey Barnard Clark

This is what I consider a classic Southern cookbook. Clark gives a lot of good information in the Introduction. She covers pantry staples, cooking tools, knife skills/terms she uses in the book with illustrations, canning info (as I always say, please don't learn to can from a book - take a class or work with a skilled canner!), tips on cleaning, hosting parties/events, and houseplants. The cleaning and house plant tips seem random, but I guess these are important things for her and she wanted to share them. The recipes are organized in seven chapters like - happy hour bites and sips, eggs & poultry, pork & beef, and breads & pastries. Each recipe has information about what inspired it or why it's a popular dish in the South and "notes" for any substitutions or important tips about that recipe. For instance in one recipe for risotto the note calls it a "toddler recipe" meaning you can't leave it unattended. There are also lots of beautiful pictures of the food and cooking/dining spaces. This is one cookbook I might buy for myself since there are so many recipes I'd like to try!