Bernard Clayton's Cooking Across America: Cook W/101 No Amer Best Cks 250 Recip

by Bernard Clayton Jr.

A celebration of the best America's kitchens have to offer features recipes for 250 dishes--including Dewberry Cobbler, Shrimp and Feta Greek-Style Pizza, and Rabbit Stuffed with Spinach and Bacon--by... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671672908
• ISBN13: 9780671672904
• Release Date: April 2011
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 592 Pages
• Weight: 3.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 7.7" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

WISH I COULD GIVE THIS ONE SEVEN STARS

I always sort of have to snicker when I hear someone say that a book is doomed to end up on the bargain book rack. This of course is meant to be a putdown. Fortunately for me, I love bargain books and usually spend my time rooting through them while my wife shops. This book that I am reviewing, Cooking Across America was found in this way a number of years ago and I spent a couple of dollars on it. It is one of the best book buys I've ever made. This book was published in 1993 after the author, Bernard Clayton, his wife and their dog spent three years traveling across American, with dips into Canada, meeting people; more specifically, people who can cook. Each place they traveled, they sought out, by word of mouth, the best cooks in the area. From coast to coast and north to south, no area is overlooked. The author met, ate with, and interviewed these people, made a record of all he found and tasted, and then wrote this wonderful book. Now there are a couple of things you need to know about this work... First, it is not a book of recipes and fancy colored pictures. Secondly, these recipes are not for the beginner or halfhearted cook. What we are talking about here is scratch cooking. To make some of the dishes here takes work and skill and more work! I will be honest with you though, it is worth every bite you take! Thirdly; the vast majority of this work is narrative. Over 100 individual cooks are interviewed here and more than 250 of their favorite recipes are given. Each individual is interviewed extensively and you actually learn of the cook, be it a grandma in the Deep South, or a professional chief in Oregon. You discover their history, life style and "food philosophy." There are indeed 100 biographies in this work; biographies of very interesting people, people just like you and me. The author has a homey way of writing, almost a conversational style which I find not only refreshing, but down right enjoyable. This is as much a travel book, a people book, a sociological book, as a cook book. The book is packed with local wisdom and tales. As I said, you really get to know the people who are giving you the cooking information via the author. Most of the many black and white photographs are not of food, they are of the people who are cooking the food. These folks come from all walks of life, teachers, homemakers, retired persons, builders, professional cooks and chiefs, all walks of life are represented. They have all one thing in common..they can cook and they can cook well! We have tried over twenty of the dishes in this book, from Baked Stuffed Walleye Pike to Austrian Povitiza and then Turkey Salad with Tarragon and Hazelnuts and so very much more. Not one of these dishes flopped and in fact they were an absolute hit each and every time. Most of them have had repeat performances in our home. (Try the Hasenpfeffer) Again, let me stress, these are not easy dishes to prepare; you're going to have to work at them,

A GREAT READ!!

This book is a delight!! It combines wonderful recipes from home cooks all across the country with stories about each one. I collect cookbooks, and this is by far one of my favorites! I have read it over and over again. Mr. Clayton makes you feel like you are there with him in different kitchens as he gets the recipes. I highly recommend this book!!