Deep Run Roots

Starred review from October 3, 2016
On the heels of her Peabody award–winning PBS show, A Chef’s Life, restaurateur Howard (Chef and The Farmer) shares personal stories and 240 recipes inspired by fare from her hometown of Deep Run, N.C., in this outstanding debut. Returning home following a Manhattan culinary career, Howard reacquaints herself with regional dishes and ingredients of her youth, discovering a vibrant, multi-generational farm-to-table world. In odes to 25 local ingredients such as dried corn, watermelon, pecans, peanuts, beans and peas, sausage, and collards, recipes combine Howard’s food memories with “modern sensibilities” and wisdom gained in professional kitchens. Fans of Southern cooking will find plenty of catfish, corn cakes, cast-iron skillet dishes, and cooking-with-Grandma stories—but it’s not all biscuits and gravy. Recipes elevate fried green tomatoes with curried peach preserves and buttermilk whipped feta; okra gets tempura batter and tangy ranch dressing ice cream; oysters are transformed into a citrusy apple and scallion ceviche; and marinated turnips are dressed with orange, pumpkin seeds, and ginger-orange vinaigrette. Going beyond the glories of grits, Howard’s text is storytelling at its best, rich in mouthwatering detail and reminiscences, though at times her lively anecdotes obscure the recipe directions. This tribute to her family roots is destined to become an enduring classic.

Starred review from October 15, 2016

Cocreator of the award-winning PBS series A Chef's Life, Howard left the grueling kitchens of New York to open a restaurant near her hometown in rural North Carolina. Her first cookbook presents an intriguing story of reconnecting with family and rediscovering ingredients such as turnips, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, peaches, and collards. Home cooks of all skill levels will devour Howard's recipes (e.g., sweet corn boiled in a big pot with coconut ginger butter, sausage-stuffed honey buns, fried green tomatoes with curried peach preserves and whipped feta), whose appeal goes far beyond that of typical Southern fare. VERDICT A standout collection of regional Southern foods, both simple and restaurant-worthy.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from October 1, 2016
It's rare that reminiscences and recipes mix holistically in one book. Remember, though, that the cocreator and star of PBS' A Chef's Life Howard (and double restaurateur) hails from North Carolina, where a penchant for storytelling is in everyone's DNA. So leafing through dishes like apple and scallion oyster ceviche and blueberry barbecue chicken, watermelon tea, and turnip root and green gratin means getting involved, at least peripherally, with Howard's life, from her farming childhood and New York internship with CBS to the start of her second career in a Harlem kitchen, and her return to North Carolina. Every ingredient (how this book is categorized) features a tale: avocado and tomato with broken-egg dressing is from the 2011 birth of her twins; fig dishes are in tribute to her grandmother; and a recipe pays tribute to the pecan. Each chapter includes a must-read compendium of wisdom, where she details the different types of that ingredient and how to select, store, and cook (pick store watermelons with flat yellow bottoms). Folk wisdom, grown for today, in more than 200 recipes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)