Customer Reviews

Food Heroes: 16 Culinary Artisans Preserving Tradition

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Can you imagine selecting the foremost artisanal food devotees from not only the U.S. but throughout the world? A daunting task, albeit a tasty one. Georgia Pellegrini more than rose to the challenge in her lively, informative FOOD HEROES as she shines a spotlight on those who are preserving tradition.

Compiling the book was a labor of love for Pellegrini who grew up in the Hudson Valley where her family raised chickens and honeybees. She followed her interest in food to the French culinary Institute in New York and two of N.Y.'s most highly rated restaurants. Thus, she brings intelligence, information and passion in her tribute to FOOD HEROES.

Each vignette reveals more about the individual artisan and includes photos as well as anecdotes. Once you've read about them you'll feel you know them, perhaps most of all you'll want to taste their food.

For instance, in a chapter titled Smoking Hog she introduces Alan Benton, hog breeder, and purveyor of some of the finest bacon and hams to be found. (www.bentonshams.com) It seems that in 1973 when Benton was a college guidance counselor he determined that he had made the wrong career choice. He knew he couldn't make it on the salary he received, so he just quit with no future plans. As his father said, "Son, that's not very prudent thinking."

As it turned out Benton heard of a man who was selling his business and decided he wanted to take it over. He never thought he'd become rich but some 36 years later his "intoxicating combination of pork, salt, smoke, brown, sugar, and time" result in what some consider the best ham and bacon in our country.

Pellegrini also discovered Stuart and Anissa Hull in Tellico Plains, Tennessee. The young couple converted an old bank building into a bakery complete with wood-fired brick oven on the ground floor and living quarters on the second floor. Tellico Grains Bakery (www.tellico-grains-bakery.com) offers some of finest breads and pastries extant. True artisans they bake croissants so fine they literally melt in your mouth while their Italian Bread is deeply satisfying with a crunchy crust and fresh, natural taste.

Rocky Mountain Organic Meats (www.rockymtncuts.com) is another of the author's finds. Based in Powell, Wyoming, Rod Morrison offers Certified Organic grass-fed beef and grass-fed lamb. He even provides pet treats! All of his meats 100% grass-fed.

And there are more artisans to be found in FOOD HEROES plus 32 recipes. This is a stand alone volume - one you'll want to keep and also share. We hope Georgia Pellegrini continues in her travels and some day offers us volume two.

Enjoy!

- Gail Cooke

I'm not a fan of most food books these days. The ones that aren't just plain trash are overtly commercial vehicles for celebrities hawking their latest line of pots & pans. Wait a minute, those are just plain trash, too.

But once in a while, a book comes along that's written by somebody who obviously loves what they're writing about, and can do it well. This is one of those books.

Chef Georgia Pellegrini (unrelated to me) is a breath of fresh air in a culinary scene that worships 30-minute-meals and the wonders of boneless, skinless meats. She's a real food lover who values timeless traditions embodied by the slow foods and artisan producers profiled in her book. This is not a "how-to" book (though it does contain a handful of brilliant recipes), or a deep dive into a narrow area of culinary minutiae. It's an eclectic celebration of the art of artisan food processing, delivered in the form of artisan profiles. The stories are moving, heart-felt descriptions of artisans and their craft, and will make you long for the foods described in each chapter.

The only criticism I have, if you can call it that, is the Euro-centric focus (considering that most American food traditions are handed down from Europeans). Perhaps this is an opportunity to even further expand horizons for future works. I vote for a chapter on miso artisans in your next book!

Georgia Pellegrini grew up with a family that used sustainable foods, she drifted to Wall Street in adulthood but quickly returned to the food world and has picked out 16 culinary heroes from across the world to write about. Her writing is both easy to read and illuminating, even if you are not quite `into' the world of sustainable ingredients. She will teach you that you definitely need to enter it and appreciate and support these men and women who are continuing the practice of good natural foods.

These heroes are ones who preserve food types and preparations of: potatoes, smoking hogs, fungus-mushrooms, beer, salami, olive oil, heirloom seeds, honeybees (containing a very interesting theory for the worrying disappearance of a number of honeybees), oysters, cheese, butter, chocolate, tamales, persimmons, whiskey and figs. The stories of these individuals and Georgia's visits to them are engrossing, she includes a to-do list and a listing of names, addresses phone numbers and web sites of those and more than she writes of. A conversion chart is included, as is a recipe index for the several recipes that follow each chapter, as well as a normal index.
Hint... do not miss the whiskey salad and bourbon pecan tart recipe - they are amazing..

As Georgia writes, people today "seek satisfaction in the drive-through. In response chefs today seduce patrons with novelty and food pyrotechnics; little towers of nothing in the center of oversized plates, while customers are increasingly distracted by what is stamped `healthy'. Artisanal beer is abandoned for a lower-calorie version. Fat is avoided like the plague. And as a result, good food has lost its luster."
This sums up what the goal of this book is and if you wish to gain knowledge of what real food is, you would do well to read and learn.

This book is a great read. I've learned a lot from it and really enjoy the writer's voice. It is broken down into short chapters with recipes at the end of each, so it is perfect for times when you don't have long to read. It is also great if you have time because it will be one that you may not be able to put down!

I never got to read this book, it was stolen from my front porch. I still haven't reordered it, but I will because it is an important book that looks great.