Overview
A stunning 50th anniversary edition of one of the most beloved cookbooks of all time, by ""the empress of Southern cooking"" (The New Yorker). Beautifully repackaged and redesigned, with a new foreword by Toni Tipton-Martin. The most beloved Southern cookbook of all time- a glorious celebration of seasonal eating that has shaped generations of home cooks, from ""the first lady of Southern cooking"" (NPR). Beautifully repackaged and redesigned, with a new foreword by Toni Tipton-Martin. ""A classic, showing Americans the bounty of Southern cuisine and influencing generations."" -Melissa Clark, The New York Times ""Indispensable . . . An inspiration to all of us who are striving to protect both biodiversity and cultural diversity by cooking real food in season and honoring our heritage through the ritual of the table."" -Alice Waters With the publication of The Taste of Country Cooking in 1976, Edna Lewis proclaimed the food of the American South one of the world's great cuisines. From the field greens and salads of spring; pan-fried chicken and crushed peaches in summer; preserves and sweet potatoes for fall; and hearty soups and stews during the cold winter months, Miss Lewis (as she was almost universally known) extolled the vir-tues of the good food of her childhood, spent in a Virginia farming community founded by her grandfather and his friends after Emancipation. A celebration of eating locally-decades before ""farm to table"" became common parlance-the book showcases the joys of cooking with the seasons. The 150 accessible recipes in its pages include- .Baked Virginia Ham, Buttered Jerusalem Artichokes, and Rhubarb Pie in Spring .Green Tomato Preserves, Wilted Lettuce with Hot Vinegar Dressing, and Fresh Blackberry Cobbler in Summer .Crispy Biscuits, Green Bean Salad with Sliced Tomatoes, and Country-Fried Apples in Fall .Oyster Stew, Pan-Braised Spareribs, and Coconut Layer Cake in Winter An affirmation of a distinctly American way of eating, fifty years after its publica-tion, The Taste of Country Cooking remains the definitive book on Southern food.
Reviews
“[A] masterpiece of Southern cuisine . . . widely hailed as one of the most important cookbooks of the 20th century.” —Saveur “[An] indispensable classic of a cookbook. . . . Thanks to this book, a new generation was introduced to the glories of an American tradition . . . of simplicity and purity and sheer deliciousness that is only possible when food tastes like what it is, from a particular place, at a particular point in time.” —Alice Waters (from the Foreword) “Known as the Grande Dame of Southern Cooking, Lewis is responsible for shining a light on Southern cooking as the basis for American cuisine.” —Food & Wine “[A] seminal cookbook.” —San Francisco Chronicle “[A] classic. . . . Revered for the way it shows the simple beauty of food honestly made in the rhythm of the seasons—the now common but at the time nearly forgotten ethos of eating farm-to-table—and for the way it gave a view of Southern food that was refined and nuanced, going beyond grease, greens and grits.” —Francis Lam, The New York Times Magazine “Edna Lewis brought a conviction and honesty to her food that few have touched.” —The Splendid Table “One of the most influential figures in modern Southern cooking. . . . [A Taste of Country Cooking] is celebrated for its focus on the simplicity of Southern food and emphasis of farm-to-table eating.” —Kiera Wright-Ruiz, The New York Times “The empress of Southern cooking.” —Helen Rosner, The New Yorker
""The empress of Southern cooking.” —The New Yorker “An eloquent tribute to farm life, and the bonding power of food. . . . Essays, combined with simple yet elegant menus, transformed the way people looked at Southern cooking.” —NPR “What Edna really teaches a cook is what you can’t find in a recipe. It’s respect. Respect for every ingredient. Respect for the recipe itself . . . It’s about reverence—an application of spiritual sincerity, faith, vulnerability, and humanity. And that’s the greatest gift she gives: a new way to think about the art of cooking.” —Alexander Smalls, Bon Appétit “Lewis inspired the now-ubiquitous farm-to-table movement by championing the virtues of growing one’s own food and cooking with local, seasonal ingredients.” —The Washington Post “The grand dame of Southern cooking.” —San Francisco Chronicle “It’s impossible to overstate the importance of Edna Lewis in the pantheon of American chefs.” —Food & Wine “This book is my all-time favorite cookbook, always and forever. It’s such a seminal book for so many reasons. What has always felt so particular about this book was that no one else could have written it. It’s so tied to her experience, life, and voice. It appeals to her as a writer and a cook. I think it’s one of the most important cookbooks.” —Julia Turshen, Eater “[A] masterpiece . . . widely hailed as one of the most important cookbooks of the twentieth century.” —Saveur “One of the most influential figures in modern Southern cooking. . . . [A Taste of Country Cooking] is celebrated for its focus on the simplicity of Southern food and emphasis of farm-to-table eating.” —The New York Times
Author Information
Edna Lewis was born in 1916 in Freetown, Virginia, a farming community founded after the Civil War by freed slaves (among them her grandfather) and for many years lived and cooked in New York City. She was the recipient of numerous awards, including the inaugural James Beard Living Legend and Southern Foodways Alliance (SFA) Lifetime Achievement Awards, the Grande Dame des Dames d'Escoffier International, and the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) Lifetime Achievement Award. Her books were inducted into the James Beard Foundation Cookbook Hall of Fame, and she was commemorated with a United States Postal Service postage stamp. Miss Lewis was also the author of The Edna Lewis Cookbook, In Pursuit of Flavor, and, with Scott Peacock, The Gift of Southern Cooking. She died in February 2006.
