“It was the combined cultures of my family that gave me my first glimpse into the vast possibilities that foods brought to the world,” writes Justin Sutherland in his flavorful and personal new cookbook, Northern Soul: Southern-Inspired Home Cooking from a Northern Kitchen. “On my mother’s side, my grandmother Masako came to this country from Japan during the Korean War…My grandfather on that side is a 6-foot, 5-inch Viking of Norwegian descent, a product of the Great Depression, from a family of farmers and carpenters. On my father’s side, I am the descendant of slaves and sharecroppers. My grandfather, Harold, came up from Mississippi and settled in Waterloo, Iowa, with my Grandma Zona. Food was Zona’s love language, and her food was the start of my love of soul food and barbecue.”
With a palate of diverse flavors, Sutherland blazed his own trail, winning Food Network’s Iron Chef in 2018 and placing as a finalist in Bravo’s Top Chef: Kentucky. He runs the Handsome Hog, a pork-focused Southern restaurant in St. Paul, Minnesota, and his new cookbook draws largely on his Southern roots, including this recipe that combines shellfish and bourbon. “How do you make mussels come out of their shell? You get ’em drunk!” he writes. “Be sure to have some crusty bread close by so you can sop up all this bourbon-laced sauce.”
