Customer Reviews

The South (Williams-Sonoma New American Cooking)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a native of Athens, GA., i was delighted to find this book. The recipes are mostly familiar, but updated and photographed so as to inspire...Beginners will not have any difficulty w/ the recipes, which are very accessible. The book has interesting mini-articles, about Winter-wheat (White lily flour, the secret to flaky biscuits) and tabasco sauce, are but two of the examples. All in all, this book makes you want to get in the kitchen and start whippin' up some Sally lunn, collards and red velvet cake! i look forward to the entire series.

This book is like a special gift to those of us transplanted Southerners. I now live on Long Island and miss the summers spent on my grandparents farm in rural Tennessee. This book brought back so many fond food memories (with updated twists inspired by the creative author, Ray Overton). It is a beautifully photographed book (in fact I bought 2, one for my kitchen, and one to display on my coffeetable). For anyone who loves comfort food at it's best, and those longing for a bit of nostalgia at the table, this is the book to buy. So, loosen your belt and have another helping .............

This book is part of a series of six, covering the different regions of the USA, the others are California, the Pacific Northwest, the Heartland, the Southwest and New England. All of them are really well done and interesting, with lots of information about regional produce and special traditions. The recipes, however, are quite new and up-to-date, even if they still can be classified as "regional". Almost all of them are illustrated in a picture, which I find very important in a cookbook, and all have a nutritional analysis chart (which is not as good if you have look at the calories!)
And now let's talk about this specific book. It is wonderful! I think it is the one I prefer out of the six. The recipes I tried so far are so tasty! Right tonight we made Hot Pepper Jelly Glazed Pork Roast: it's so yummy that you can hardly believe you used so few ingredients! It's just pork loin, hot pepper jelly, cider and little more. We all loved it, even if I have to admit that I added an apple too with the pork. The grilled chicken with onion marmalade was juicy and perfect.
The Sally Lunn Biscuits were wonderful too and quite easy and I could go on like that for a while, but I'm sure you got the idea.
However, there is a drawback: once you try the recipes in this book you will end up with the whole series! The others are just as good, I tried the Blackberry Barbeque sauce in the "Pacific Northwest" and it's just to-die-for and so on and on and on...
Last word: buy it, you won't regret it!

As usual, Williams-Sonoma has created a beautiful cookbook, filled with good recipes and great photography. BUT...this book is not a good representation of southern food. The "new spin" is not an improvement, and it's not what Southerners are eating.

The "new south" recipes in this book may be served in a few trendy Atlanta restaurants, but I've not seen this food anywhere else. The editors and authors have served up a book that is both stereotypical and distorted.....definitely not what the south is about.

I've lived in central Georgia since 1966, so I'm familiar with southern food. "Rack of Lamb with Fig-Port Sauce"? Give me a break! "Pulled Pork with Mint Julep Barbecue Sauce"? N-o-b-o-d-y I know would eat such a thing when we're surrounded by a wide variety of excellent savory barbeques. Turnip greens show up in way too many recipes, but not a single recipe is given for basic "turnip greens and corn bread," a much-loved southern staple. And why include the unheard-of "White Chocolate Banana Pudding" (With ginger snaps!???) instead of an honestly traditional recipe for banana pudding that is always included at southern gatherings?

The South offers plenty of excellent regional food that has no need of upscale embellishment.....but you'll have to find it in other books.

In response to "Ray Overton"... of course you will defend this book since you wrote it and hope to profit by it. But I spent good money for the book, and I'm disappointed. I HAVE read every recipe, and I still do not like the book. The South is NOT evolving according to Williams-Sonoma's agenda... or yours.