Back to the Family: Food Tastes Better Shared with the Ones You Love [Hardcover]

Art Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 13, 2007

Back to the Family is a companion to Art Smith's New York Times bestseller and James Beard award-winning cookbook, Back to the Table. Smith is the personal chef to Oprah Winfrey and a contributing editor to O Magazine.

This book encourages readers to better understand the importance of valuing the ones you love through cooking and communing with food. Most importantly Back to the Family stresses the importance of recognizing old food traditions (family recipes, meals, memories, etc.) and the equal importance of creating new and healthier food traditions. More than 150 recipes and more than 140 photographs provide a wonderful evocative eating and reading experience.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Expanding on the themes that made his James Beard Award-winning Back to the Table cookbook such a success-namely, its focus on comfort foods, togetherness and ease of preparation-Smith's latest, winning collection of over 150 recipes easily meets the standard set by its predecessor. The key to Smith's appeal lies in his ability to combine new flavors with comfort food favorites. Sure, there are recipes for staples such as Addie Mae's Potato Salad and Split Roasted Herbed Chicken, but his Sweet Ancho Rubbed Tenderloin and Caramelized Onion, Arugula and Parmesan Cheese Omelet are just as satisfying and easy to make. Smith takes great pride in sharing his secrets, which range from brining chicken before frying to adding sour cream to his pancakes, imparting both tang and tenderness. While not exactly revolutionary, the results will be for those who've previously attempted such dishes and gotten mediocre results. Smith even demystifies the oft-troublesome soufflé, and offers easy-to-follow recipes for everything from basic pizza dough to Classic Ceviche. Veteran cooks will probably have many of Smith's dishes in their repertoire, but those just starting out or looking for a standard, go-to cookbook will find this volume indispensable. Photos.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson (March 13, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401602894
• ISBN-13: 978-1401602895
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #613,911 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Ideas, June 3, 2008

By 

hair guru - See all my reviews

This review is from: Back to the Family: Food Tastes Better Shared with the Ones You Love (Hardcover)

I love the book. It has great ideas. I could do without the thousand pages of family style photos in the kitchen, a few would be nice, but let's not go overboard.

I love the simple recipes for stock, dough, pizza, salsa, etc.and being able to create healthier versions of those by controlling the salt and fat content.

I also love some the flavors such as the Tequila Lime shrimp. The description says how "wonderful it is hot off the grill", but the recipe says to cook it in a pan. An additional side note says you can grill it or bake it as well, but only gives direction for baking. Sure, I can figure it out, but not having to guess would be easier. Shrimp cooks quickly and it is easy to overcook and I've never been able to master the right temp & time.

But, my major pet peeve is when beautiful photographs of recipes and the actual recipe ingredients are different. An example of this is the goat cheese ball that in the photo appears to be dipped in chopped up green herbs,but the recipe doesn't call for any green herbs. Sure, I can be creative and figure it out. I noticed omitted herbs in some other recipes as well.

15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Don't need the novella but good recipes, October 30, 2007

By 

Jo Ann Graham "joanng417" (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Back to the Family: Food Tastes Better Shared with the Ones You Love (Hardcover)

I saw several TV segments of Art Smith promoting his new restaurant in Chicago and some of the recipes looked great. There are good and not too difficult recipes in the book. But it is interspersed with chapters about warm and fuzzy family things. I love my family but not Art Smith's and want a cookbook. The index and table of contents are incomplete and hard to use and make it difficult to locate a recipe you need. An expensive cook book with some good recipes but I don't think I would have bought it if I had seen it in the book store.

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Fried Chicken!, May 26, 2011

By 

Wicked Reader (California, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Back to the Family: Food Tastes Better Shared with the Ones You Love (Hardcover)

The man knows how to cook! The Fried Chicken is the BEST! It takes time, but well worth it, don't let it stop you from trying it. Mr. Smith is welcome in any Southern kitchen.