Louisiana Real and Rustic Book

"Nowhere else have I found the passion for flavor that encompasses the lives of Louisianians, day in and day out," writes Emeril Lagasse. In Louisiana Real & Rustic, the prize winning New Orleans chef, cookbook author, and television cooking personality presents the great dishes of his adopted state in 150 down-home recipes—authentic versions of some of Americas favorite regional dishes, gathered from generations of Louisiana cooks. Fricassees, itouffies and grillades, meat pies and oyster fries, red beans and rice, and jambalayas and gumbos in endless, mouthwatering variety—each recipe is spiced with the unabashed joy of cooking and eating that makes every Louisiana meal a feast.

On a delicious tour of back roads and bayous, from country cabins in Acadia to the refined town houses of Creole aristocracy, Emeril, accompanied by co-author Marcelle Bienvenu, finds that Louisiana is more than a geographical state—it's a culinary state of grace.

Louisiana's colorful history has made it an extraordinary culinary crossroads, where the cooking customs of France, Spain, Africa, and the Caribbean meld into a unique New World Cuisine. In charming tales and tempting recipes, Emeril traces the roots of Creole and Acadian (or "Cajun") dishes, and honors the pioneer cooks who blended traditional tastes and techniques with the region's native ingredients. He shows how gumbos can use French roux, African okra, or fili from the indigenous Indians and he features Chicken and Oyster, Duck and Wild Mushroom, Shrimp and Okra, and Rabbit, or even collards, kale, mustard, and turnips. Emeril's explorations reveal that the spirit of culinary improvisation still thrives today.

Publishers Weekly

Even before his hit show on the TV Food Network and his New Orleans facsimile in Las Vegas (Emeril's New Orleans Fish House), the chef/owner of Emeril's and NOLA's in the Big Easy was a personality. His warm enthusiasm is present in the pages of his latest friendly, punchy book. Quickly covering some standard Louisiana ingredients like roux and Emeril's Worcestershire Sauce, he then moves on to classics like Crawfish Bisque (complete with stuffed crawfish heads) and Chicken and Dumplings. Notes to the recipes explain the origins of foodsuch as the native American roots of Natchitoches Meat Piesand are exuberantly spiked with comments like, "Mon cher, c'est bon, oui." Not for the fat-phobic are such dishes as Praline Cream Pie (a stick of butter in the graham-cracker crust, five egg yolks in the filling, a cup of heavy cream in the topping and crumbled pralines in all three layers) and the Peacemaker sandwich (a baguette split down the middle, slathered with butter and filled with fried oysters and tartar sauce). But this is authentic fare, delivered with irresistible conviction. (Sept.)