Cookbook Season

Fall is coming, which means days in the field, tailgating parties, and, of course, new cookbooks. Publishers crank out a bevy of them in anticipation of the holiday season. To help you wade through the clutter, here’s a rundown of the best upcoming releases with a decidedly Southern flavor.

Blackberry Farm has been doing the local foods thing long before it was a thing, and the 4,200-acre farm/luxury resort in Tennessee is bringing its rustic-meets-refined cuisine to the masses with The Blackberry Farm Cookbook: Four Seasons of Great Food and the Good Life. If you can’t get away to experience the resort’s stellar fare in person (black walnut soup, skillet apple crisp), this will tide you over.

It’s hard to beat New Orleans for great food, and nobody does New Orleans cooking better than Chef John Besh, owner of five highly lauded Louisiana restaurants. Covering everything from whole roast Gulf Coast lamb to turtle soup, My New Orleans: The Cookbook has just about anything a foodie could ask for.

Chef Chris Hastings and his wife, Idie, are some of the most passionate restaurateurs in the business, which is why their Hot and Hot Fish Club in Birmingham, Alabama, has become an icon for fresh and innovative Southern dishes. Though it features some two hundred recipes, The Hot and Hot Fish Club Cookbook: A Celebration of Food, Family, and Traditions is more than just a cookbook. With menu suggestions, beer and wine pairings, and a list of purveyors, it’s a guide to living right.

The Lee brothers (Matt and Ted) became a sensation with their award-winning The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook in 2006. Now comes their follow-up, The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern: Knockout Dishes with Down-Home Flavor. This is a good one to have around when you need to whip something up quick, and the creative cocktails (like the celery julep) are a hoot.

And for dessert, check out DamGoodSweet: Desserts to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth, New Orleans Style from NOLA-native and pastry chef David Guas and Raquel Pelzel. Red velvet cake, fig jam, double chocolate bread pudding with salted bourbon caramel sauce. Need we say more?