River Run Cookbook: Southern Comfort from Vermont [Hardcover]

Jimmy Kennedy (Author), Maya Kennedy (Author), Marialisa Calta (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 24, 2001

From the time Jimmy and Maya Kennedy opened River Run in 1991, this tiny restaurant in Plainfield, Vermont has attracted local followers -- and national attention from the New York Times and Food and Wine. Called "the best place on earth" by Pulitzer Prize winner and frequent patron David Mamet, River Run is more than a restaurant: it's a warm, welcoming home-away-from-home that serves up great food with an extra helping of small-town charm. Inspired by both Jimmy's Mississippi upbringing and its rural surroundings, River Run's menu blends traditional Southern favorites with a touch of the North. It serves the kind of honest-to-goodness cooking that draws locals every day of the week, and attracts out-of-towners who drive miles just to sample the fare.

If Plainfield isn't in your neck of the woods, don't worry: with this book, you can make all of River Run's house favorites right in your own kitchen, including Jimmy's famed buttermilk pancakes, really big buttermilk biscuits, fried chicken, catfish cakes, and banana pudding. In keeping with River Run's down-to-earth style, the recipes are simple, uncomplicated, and easy to prepare -- even if you don't know your gumbo from your jambalaya.

With lively photos of River Run customers, delightful, illustrations by Maya Kennedy, and contributions from some famous locals, River Run Cookbook offers a picture of the fabric of life in this vibrant community. It's about more than great food -- it's about a great town and the people that make it so.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Located in Plainfield, Vermont, the tiny River Run restaurant dishes up Southern cooking with a Yankee cast to a faithful clientele that includes farmers, artists, hippies, and out-of-towners who make special trips for the great grub. The River Run Cookbook, written by co-owners Maya and Jimmy Kennedy (who is also the chef), offers over 100 recipes of the restaurant's delicious breakfast-all-day-style fare, plus anecdotes that introduce readers to the restaurant's extended family. Those who love easily made down-home cooking will welcome this winning book.

In chapters that include "Fritters, Griddle Cakes, Breads, and Cereals," "Soups and Stews," and "Weekend Specials," the authors present uncomplicated yet tantalizing dishes like Horseradish-Crusted Fish, Red Beans and Rice Soup, and Fried Chicken Salad with Buttermilk Dressing. A section devoted to sides provides familiar and unconventional dishes including Shaken Potatoes, Fried Dill Pickles (a Southern specialty), and the deeply satisfying Corn and Oyster Casserole. With dessert and drink recipes that include a knockout chocolate mousse pie and refreshing citrus-juice-spiked Russian tea, the book offers good eating while conveying the spirit of a place and the people who give it life. --Arthur Boehm

From Publishers Weekly

River Run is a catfish-with-BBQ-spaghetti-for-breakfast-all-day kind of restaurant in Plainfield, Vt. Jimmy Kennedy, a cook from Mississippi, offers Fried Catfish, Corn Fritters and Tiny's Sauce Picante, while wife, Maya, the book's designer, collects recipes from Plainfield neighbors and friends, like David Mamet, who wrote the foreword, and Calta, who has written for the New York Times and Martha Stewart Living. They include such recipes as Anna's Peanut Soup, Marty's Granola and Strawberry Soup for a refreshing marriage of styles and oddball ingenuity that capitalizes on fresh, local ingredients, a Southern palate and a uniquely Plainfield aesthetic (resulting in Black-Eyed Pea Cakes, Fried Green Tomatoes and Coca-Cola Cake). Flexible yet informative directions make for adaptability (River Run's gumbo, although best with crawfish and andouille sausage, can be made with "chicken, beef, pork, seafood, game, or vegetables in just about any combination that suits you"). The sauce chapter is particularly strong, with everything from Anchovy-Caper Pasta Sauce to a basic Cheese Sauce for eggs or mac and cheese. With recipes heavy on bacon or deep-frying, light eaters will have to console themselves with Neurotic Salad, as opposed to Really Big Buttermilk Biscuits, which are filling enough for a meal.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 264 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers; 1 edition (April 24, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060195258
• ISBN-13: 978-0060195250
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 8.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,349,201 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good eating and good reading, July 23, 2001

By 

"robs59" - See all my reviews

This review is from: River Run Cookbook: Southern Comfort from Vermont (Hardcover)

This is the first cokbook I have read cover-to-cover...recipes, philosophy, little stories of the town and the people who live in Plainfield, Vermont. I loved it all. But the best thing about the book is the recipes. We have made the barbeque sauce and dry rub, barbeque chicken and soup, the Really Big biscuits (twice!), shaken potatoes, granola, the blueberry pancakes, summer salad and Russian tea. (Nashvillians call this elixir "Tea Punch.") Catfish Jambalaya is simmering on the stove at this very moment. Every thing we have made has been wonderful. A couple of things separate this cookbook from others: 1. The portions are enormous, allowing for ample leftovers, even with our family of two adults and two teenagers. 2. Many of the recipes use the leftovers. (BBQ chicken becomes the basis for BBQ chicken and rice soup, for instance.) 3. The story of Plainfield and its townspeople--from the artists to the aging hippies to the gas company guys to the cops--is woven in to the book. The authors treat the readers as if they are stopping in for a meal and might like to be a little up to date on the other folks who are eating with them. 4. The food is plain, easy-to-make and serve. It is flavorful, not pretentious, quite a bit like receiving a beloved family recipe as a gift. So, if you are hankering for some hush puppies, Coca-Cola cake or some pulled pork (and who isn't?), this will become a special cookbook in your collection.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Recipes Drenched in Social History, May 27, 2001

By 

Higgy Rocks "Reacher Nut" (Montpelier, VT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: River Run Cookbook: Southern Comfort from Vermont (Hardcover)

Interesting concept. Surround down home Southern recipes with photos and snippets from far northern daily life. Studs Turkel in a deep south kitchen. It works. While you're shelling crawfish or cleaning catfish you're oddly receiving a debriefing on the Plainfield, Vermont road foreman's 4AM struggle with last night's snowstorm. It kind of adds a northern spice to the catfish souffle. My cooking fool sister in New Jersey, to whom I sent this cookbook as partial thanks for helping our parents get through their deep end game, tells me that the five or so recipes she's whipped up have all worked spectacularly. She and her family of five REALLY like the catfish massaged into their breakfast. So do I. But I just have to drive ten miles to get it served up for me. Location! Location!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Southern Hospitality in the most unusual place., May 8, 2001

By 

Lillyspence (Knoxville, TN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: River Run Cookbook: Southern Comfort from Vermont (Hardcover)

.... Why would you want to buy this book? Because it is southern hospitality at its best; never mind that the restaurant is in Vermont. As a Yankee who migrated to the south over 30 years ago, I enjoyed reading this cookbook, trying many of the recipes (everything seems accurate so far), and vicariously participating in the social pleasantries that are an everyday part of southern life. You do feel as though you know both the proprietors and the customers of this wonderful eating establishment...they are real people. I see that as a plus. And despite it's social orientation, it is first and foremost a cookbook. One word of warning: the recipes are full of buttermilk, sugar, crawfish, soup beans, and red meat. If you're wanting to lower your cholesterol, this probably will not meet your needs. However, if you like great comfort food and don't like to eat alone, this cookbook might be just what you're looking for.