The Charleston Chef's Table: Extraordinary Recipes from the Heart of the Old South [Hardcover]

Holly Herrick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 22, 2009

From the best roadside dives to the finest upscale eateries, The Charleston Chef’s Table opens up a new window on the Holy City, which has become a world-class culinary destination in recent years.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Charleston has needed a cookbook devoted to its great restaurants for a long time, and now we've got one - and it's a winner.
Charleston Currents, December 17, 2009

....this cookbook promises to be a good addition to any Charleston-lovers bookshelf, whether they cook or not.
Charleston City Paper, December 16, 2009

From cooklink.com:

"Whether you happen to live in Charleston, SC, plan to visit it soon, or just like to know what's going on with Lowcountry cooking, you have to get a hold of Holly Herrick's book: The Charleston Chef's Table Cookbook - Extraordinary Recipes from the Heart of The Old South."

 

From Charleston Magazine, January 2010:

"Drawing upon a decade of experience as an area restaurant critic and a writer for publications like Gourmet and Southern Living, Herrick highlights more than 60 of her favorite eateries  and shares a signature recipe from each. "I chose places that serve delicious food consistently - places with dishes I crave," she says. Through Herrick's insider prose and Christopher Brown's vibrant photographs, readers can get the scoop on joints like Basil and Jack's Cosmig Dogs and try conjuring up Baked Brownies and Bowen's Island Frogmore Stew."

From The Index Journal, Wed., Dec. 23, 2009 St. Claire Donaghy writes:

"It's part cookbook, part restaurant guide and part coffee table book for those who love The Holy City of Charleston. 'The Charleston Chef's Table: Extraordinary Recipes from the Heart of the Old South' is an elegant, hard-bound book, loaded with tantalizing full-color photographs and recipes from more than 60 of Charleston's top restaurants...The 208-page book highlights everything from tea rooms to chic King Street restaurants serving up iconic she-crab soup to island taverns serving up buffalo fried shrimp and roadside hot dog places."

......"The Charleston Chef's Table whets the appetite with recipes intended to inspire rather than intimidate. "I didn't want people to feel daunted by the recipes," herrick said, noting those chosen help to elevate even everyday ingredients into something more."

Ochef.com writes: 

“The Charleston Chef’s Table profiles of more than sixty of the city’s best restaurants and offers a signature recipe from each. From roadside dives to upscale eateries, Southern to Chinese, author Holly Herrick winnows Charleston’s 1,500 restaurants down to her top picks. Complementing the text are full-color photographs, as well as sidebars that highlight this city's 300-year history.”

 

From The Florence Messenger, February 3, 2010

By Libby Wiersema

”A quick browse through the cookbook’s pages, filled with Christopher Brown’s gorgeous glossy photos of Charleston sights and dishes, reveals something unique. While Lowcountry influences are apparent throughout, there is a surprisingly distinctive array of ethnic and fusion offerings.”

 

From The Greenville News, March 10, 2010

Passion for Charleston's food culture fuels cookbook

By Staff Writer Lillia-Penso

“When Holly Herrick talks about Charleston, the food writer and formally trained chef slows the pace of her words, as if to allow listeners to savor every tiny morsel of her story. By the end of the conversation you feel oddly full, and in desperate need of a trip to Charleston — or at least a good bowl of She Crab soup.”

From JamesBeard.org "The Bookshelf," May, 2010

By Anna Mowry

"As we scanned the names and dishes that fill the pages of food writer and critic Holly Herrick’s new cookbook, The Charleston Chef’s Table, something struck us: the city of Charleston, where Herrick works and lives, boasts three back-to-back medals for Best Chef: Southeast, with Robert Stehling, Mike Lata, and Sean Brock winning in 2008, 2009, and 2010, respectively. If that streak doesn’t convince you to hightail it to the Lowcountry culinary mecca, perhaps Herrick’s book will: it profiles more than 60 of the city’s restaurants, complete with beautiful photography, appealing regional recipes, and bits of local culinary history."

From Pettprojects.com, August, 2010

by Adrienne Petterson

"More than sixty of the city's best restaurants are profiled in this book on Charleston's eateries.  Author/columnist and Cordon Bleu chef, Holly Herrick, who lives in Charleston, has put together this charmingly inviting book on the beautiful city and what it has to offer in the way of food and restaurants.  Herrick says, "Restaurants were chosen for inclusion based first and foremost on the high quality of the food they consistently deliver but also for their unique personalities".  Her book covers Starters; Salads; Soups; Sandwiches; Pasta; Seafood; Beef, Lamb, Pork, and More; Poultry Perch, and Just Desserts.  Along with a little story of each chosen restaurant, we're given one of their recipes and are invited to "feel free to make them just as the chefs do or to modify them and make them your own". 

 

From the Inside Flap

Charleston has matured into a world-class culinary destination, and now locals and visitors alike can take home a bit of the city’s incomparable flavor in The Charleston Chef’s Table. This sumptuously illustrated book profiles more than sixty of the city’s best restaurants and a includes a signature recipe from each. From roadside dives to upscale eateries, Southern to Chinese, Holly Herrick leaves no stone unturned as she winnows Charleston’s 1,500 restaurants down to her top picks.

 

Choose from Peninsula Grill’s Southern Seared Foie Gras with Black Pepper–Duck Biscuits and Carolina Peach Jam; Bowen’s Island Frogmore Stew;  SNOB’s Grilled Maverick Beef Tenderloin with Deviled Crab Cake, Bérnaise, and Green Peppercorn Sauce; and 181 Palmer’s blend of peanut butter and chocolate mousse served on a chocolate/coconut cookie crisp.

 

The Charleston Chef’s Table delivers all the goods that make Charleston an exciting place to visit, live, and dine. Complementing the text are full-color photographs, as well as sidebars that highlight this Southern city’s 300-year history.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Three Forks; First edition (December 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0762750103
• ISBN-13: 978-0762750108
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 7.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #75,076 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Holly Herrick is a bona fide lover of delicious food and life in general. Born in Alabama and raised in New England, Herrick's roots hail back to rural life. Later, she attended Boston College as a journalism major and began her food-writing career with a jump-start education in classical cuisine at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, France.

Holly is a first-place national awarded restaurant critic and food writer. She's written features and columns for many magazines, including Southern Living, Lowcountry Living, Bon Appetit and more. Her first book, Southern Farmers Market Cookbook (Gibbs Smith) was released in June, 2009. Holly's second book, The Charleston Chef's Table Cookbook - Extraordinary Recipes from the Heart of the Old South (Three Forks Press) was released in December, 2009. Tart Love - Sassy, Sweet, and Savory, a delicious and facile instructive nod to Holly's love of tarts via her education and life in France, was released October 1, 2011(Gibbs Smith) and is in bookstores/online now. Food Lovers' Guide to Charleston and Savannah - The Best Restaurants, Markets & Local Culinary Offerings (Globe Pequot Press, December, 20, 2011), reflects Holly' love and culinary familiarity with both of these great Southern cities and the best food and foodie destinations they offer. It is in bookstores/online now. Look for Savannah Chef's Table (Globe Pequot Press) in the fall of 2012.

Holly resides happily in beautiful Charleson, SC with her chocolate cocker spaniel therapy dog, Tann Mann and her chubby cat, Chutney. As always, she wishes you "Bon Appetit!"

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Cookbook...A Great Book, December 31, 2009

By 

Richard Berg (Charleston, SC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Charleston Chef's Table: Extraordinary Recipes from the Heart of the Old South (Hardcover)

There are lots of really good cookbooks, but this one, by Holly Herrick, is more than that. It is a really fun, beautiful, hunger inducing paean to a beloved city . . . and simply a great book. Yes, it has recipes, one from each of the many Charleston restaurants featured. But along with those recipes are sidebars of insight and background on the people who make all this great food, the whys and wherefores of why they do what they do, and lot of fun stuff on local practices and views . . . what makes Charleston such a special place, as well as a culinary mecca. All of this is supported and augmented by great photos, and not just of food in a plate. And bottom line, the book is a brilliant reflection of the love Holly Herrick has for her city and her food.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it! Gave it! Bought it!, August 16, 2010

By 

M. R. Mclellan, Jr. "Mac Man" (Sweet Home Alabama) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Charleston Chef's Table: Extraordinary Recipes from the Heart of the Old South (Hardcover)

Bought it for an anniversary present for friends fron South Carolina. They loved it! We loved it! Bought one for ourselves!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Charleston Restaurant Favorites, March 1, 2010

By 

Maureen Cook "MOSC" (Charleston, SC) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Charleston Chef's Table: Extraordinary Recipes from the Heart of the Old South (Hardcover)

This is a beautiful coffee table book. It has stunning photographs of Charleston SC and recipes from some of its most celebrated restaurants! Most recipes are of a challenging nature, but it is a great source for food ideas and challenges you to selct which restaurant you'd love to visit next!