Nathalie Dupree's Southern Memories: Recipes and Reminiscences Book

Sadly, when many people think of Southern cooking nowadays, they think of Paula Deen. They should instead think foremost of Nathalie Dupree, a woman who is as classy, refined, and genteel as Ms. Deen is brash and overly excited about butter. Dupree also has been on the scene far longer and this, of her many cookbooks, perfectly captures what she's all about. She shares stories of her childhood and early married years here and a wealth of detail about Southern foodways, yet the book is also filled with the beautiful photos of food and table-settings people seem to expect for a cookbook. The recipes are authentic, easy-to-understand, and the results for me have been uniformly superb.