Hot and Hot Fish Club Cookbook: A Celebration of Food, Family, and Traditions [Hardcover]

Chris Hastings (Author), Idie Hastings (Author), Katherine Cobbs (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 29, 2009

“Seasonality is the cornerstone to our menu-planning success,” says Chef Chris Hastings. The Hot and Hot Fish Club Restaurant is one of the best in the South because it only uses the finest and freshest ingredients in their recipes. From the fresh-caught Pacific seafood flown in from Osprey Seafood in San Francisco to the blackberries and Vidalia onions from local Garfrerick Farms of Alpine, Alabama, Hot and Hot goes to great lengths to make sure that what goes into every dish is always fresh and in season.

The Hot and Hot Fish Club Cookbook contains more than 200 creative and delicious recipes that are organized to reflect the seasonal nature of local ingredients. It features profiles of dozens purveyors who supply the restaurant with the freshest ingredients. With more than 50 full-color photographs, lifestyle menus complete with wine and beer pairings, and a sourcing section, The Hot and Hot Fish Club Cookbook is your guide to preparing exquisite, fresh cuisine from the hottest restaurant in the South.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Husband-and-wife team Chris and Idie showcase the best offerings of their Birmingham, Ala.–based restaurant, the Hot and Hot Fish Club. More than a cookbook, this is a personal tribute to seasonal offerings and the hardworking, dedicated purveyors who supply the restaurant with the freshest ingredients. The authors focus on honest, unassuming dishes with a Southern flair that highlight rather than bury the natural flavors of the ingredients. Organized by month and availability, recipes include rabbit tamales with black bean salsa, the unusual hot and hot tomato salad, which is topped by a crispy bacon strip, seared foie gras with brioche bread and wild persimmon jam, and pomegranate sorbet. Their dishes are not unfamiliar yet are distinctive, such as their devil's food cake, which includes grated red beets. Dispersed throughout are sidebars on cleaning soft-shell crabs, roasting whole pigs and wading for watercress along with family stories that convey the Hastings passion for and connection with food. They include a useful section on basic recipes, including not only the standard stocks, sauces and vinaigrettes, but also crème fraîche, risotto and hush puppies. (Oct.)
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Review

Modesto Bee, October 6, 2009
“It's a gorgeous book that should inspire readers to discover what's in their own back yard.”

Library Journal, 10/09
“Recommended for cooks who want to wow their guests this holiday season.”

Contra Costa Times, November 18, 2009
“…the book, which could masquerade as a coffee table tome, brims with seasonal recipes and beautiful images. We may not be up for roasting an entire pig — although now we know how — but we're eager to try, oh, about 100 of the other recipes…”

Aram Bakshian Jr., Wall Street Journal, 12/19/09
"The book's recipes, from appetizers to desserts, are complemented by sections on basic cooking techniques, dressings and marinades, and side dishes. Everything in this beautifully designed volume is in keeping with the spirit of its co-authors, whose credo is: 'For us food is magic.'"

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 6/10/10
“A Celebration of food, family and traditions.’…that’s the subtitle… and it’s a perfect description of the breadth of delights contained in the pages of this joyful compendium of Southern Cuisine.”

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Running Press (September 29, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0762435526
• ISBN-13: 978-0762435524
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 8.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #729,972 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Warmed My Winter!, April 13, 2010

By 

Sharon E. Johnson (McDonough NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hot and Hot Fish Club Cookbook: A Celebration of Food, Family, and Traditions (Hardcover)

My sister (who has lived in Montgomery AL for many years), gave me this book as a Christmas gift. It warmed my upstate New York winter! I love the philosophy, the linkage to history, the stories, the emphasis on local food and farmers, and the recipes. I even learned that I could make use of honeysuckle blossoms!

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Strange hybrid, July 3, 2011

By 

Jon Hildreth "(Paul Panzer)" (Chico, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hot and Hot Fish Club Cookbook: A Celebration of Food, Family, and Traditions (Hardcover)

Two different books served up together. The first section is a pretty coffee table production with highly complicated recipes in the Bradley Ogden tradition that most home cooks will avoid as too difficult; and with personal reminiscences, mostly by the chef's wife, which most readers will skip as too personal. The second section contains almost all the meat -- practical information anyone interested in starting a restaurant can use, some of great interest to the home cook, including a list of purveyors who handle high quality foodstuffs. It is in this second section that the fingerprints of the chef and his staff are found, and it's by far the most valuable part of the book, but suffers from a layout so ugly that it takes a little courage to read. There's a fine book lurking in here, but it would take a good editor to bring it out.