Sean Brock

For anyone who's ever picked an apple fresh from the tree or enjoyed a glass of cider, writer and orchardist Diane Flynt offers a new history of the apple and how it changed the South and the nation. Showing how southerners cultivated over 2,000 apple varieties from Virginia to Mississippi, Flynt shares surprising stories of a fruit that was central to the region for over 200 years. Colorful characters abound in this history, including aristocratic Belgian immigrants, South Carolina plantation owners, and multiple presidents, each group changing the course of southern orchards. She shows how southern apples, ranging from northern varieties that found fame on southern soil to hyper-local apples grown by a single family, have a history beyond the region, from Queen Victoria's court to the Oregon Trail. Flynt also tells us the darker side of the story, detailing how apples were entwined with slavery and the theft of Indigenous land. She relates the ways southerners lost their rich apple culture in less than the lifetime of a tree and offers a tentatively hopeful future. Alongside unexpected apple history, Flynt traces the arc of her own journey as a pioneering farmer in the southern Appalachians who planted cider apples never grown in the region and founded the first modern cidery in the South. Flynt threads her own story with archival research and interviews with orchardists, farmers, cidermakers, and more. The result is not only the definitive story of apples in the South but also a new way to challenge our notions of history.

Featuring recipes drawn from familiar classic dishes and new favorites, Laura Lea’s new book, Simply Laura Lea, offers delicious home-cooked food without sacrificing healthy eating. In Simply Laura Lea the author of The Laura Lea Balanced Cookbook and creator of LLBalanced.com offers a collection of over 130 delicious, balanced, and healthy recipes based on the food she eats every day. Unlike diets that prescribe food restrictions that are neither attainable nor desirable on a long-terms basis, Laura Lea promotes an attainable approach to cooking and eating healthy for life. All of the recipes collected here follow the LL Balanced Approach to Food:Focus on whole, fresh foods that make you feel great. Ditch any preconceived idea of what you should eat, and list to your body; it is your best wellness guru. Indulge in moderation, and occasionally, not in moderation! Have fun and don’t take yourself, or your food, too seriously. Enjoy food in a relaxed atmosphere and in the company of dear ones. Above all, practice self-love and patience in the kitchen. It will translate to the rest of your life. In Simply Laura Lea, you’ll find familiar dishes that can be cooked in 30 minutes or less. And with ingredient lists comprised of a limited number of easy-to-find items, recipes are approachable and easy-to-follow for new or seasoned home cooks. As Laura Lea likes to say: "No diet, no dogma, just great healthy food."

New York Times Bestseller and James Beard Award FinalistNamed One of the Ten Best Cookbooks of 2019 by The New Yorker Named a Best Book of 2019 by Publishers WeeklyNamed the Best Cookbook of 2019 by Amazon Named a Best New Cookbook of Fall 2019 by the New York Times, Food & Wine, Epicurious, Grub Street, Chowhound, Robb Report, and more“If Southern food is your comfort food and pantry cooking is the name of your game right now, this is an excellent book to order.” —Epicurious “I will keep this book forever in my collection because no one cooking today is doing more to help the Southern culinary flame burn brighter.”—New York Times Southern food is one of the most beloved and delicious cuisines in America. And who better to give us the key elements of Southern cuisine than Sean Brock, the award-winning chef and Southern-food crusader. In South, Brock shares his recipes for key components of the cuisine, from grits and fried chicken to collard greens and corn bread. Recipes can be mixed and matched to make a meal or eaten on their own. Taken together, they make up the essential elements of Southern cuisine, from fried green tomatoes to smoked baby back ribs and from tomato okra stew to biscuits. Regional differences are highlighted in recipes for shrimp and grits, corn bread, fried chicken, and more. Includes key Southern knowledge too: how to fry, how to care for cast iron, how to cook over a hearth, and more. This is the book fans of Sean Brock have been waiting for, and it’s the book Southern-food lovers the world over will use as their bible.

Once and for all, America learns the likely inventor of its beloved bourbon. Bourbon is not just alcohol -- this amber-colored drink is deeply ingrained in American culture and tangled in American history. From the early days of raw corn liquor to the myriad distilleries that have proliferated around the country today, bourbon has come to symbolize America. In Bourbon: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of an American Whiskey, award-winning whiskey author Fred Minnick traces bourbon's entire history, from the 1700s with Irish, Scottish, and French settlers setting up stills and making distilled spirits in the New World through today's booming resurgence. He also lays out in expert detail the critical role this spirit has played throughout the cultural and even political history of the nation — from Congress passing whiskey-protection laws to consumers standing in long lines just for a glimpse of a rare bottle of Pappy Van Winkle -- complemented by more than 100 illustrations and photos. And most importantly, Minnick explores the mystery of who most likely created the sweet corn liquor we now know as bourbon. He studies the men who've been championed as its inventors over time -- from Daniel Boone's cousin to Baptist minister Elijah Craig — and, based on new research and never-before-seen documentation, answers the question of who deserves the credit.

New York Times best sellerWinner, James Beard Award for Best Book in American CookingWinner, IACP Julia Child First Book Award Named a Best Cookbook of the Season by Amazon, Food & Wine, Harper’s Bazaar, Houston Chronicle, Huffington Post, New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Vanity Fair, Washington Post, and more Sean Brock is the chef behind the game-changing restaurants Husk and McCrady’s, and his first book offers all of his inspired recipes. With a drive to preserve the heritage foods of the South, Brock cooks dishes that are ingredient-driven and reinterpret the flavors of his youth in Appalachia and his adopted hometown of Charleston. The recipes include all the comfort food (think food to eat at home) and high-end restaurant food (fancier dishes when there’s more time to cook) for which he has become so well-known. Brock’s interpretation of Southern favorites like Pickled Shrimp, Hoppin’ John, and Chocolate Alabama Stack Cake sit alongside recipes for Crispy Pig Ear Lettuce Wraps, Slow-Cooked Pork Shoulder with Tomato Gravy, and Baked Sea Island Red Peas. This is a very personal book, with headnotes that explain Brock’s background and give context to his food and essays in which he shares his admiration for the purveyors and ingredients he cherishes.