Cookbook Club

Bookshelf: Florida Flavors

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Bury your nose, whet your appetite

Norman Van Aken’s Florida Kitchen

University of Florida Press, 2017

Exploring and defining Florida cuisine has been at the core of Norman Van Aken’s culinary journey as a chef. It also was the impetus behind his sixth book, Norman Van Aken’s Florida Kitchen. With recipes like yucca hash browns and Apalachicola oyster stew, its pages explore the diverse cultural influences on modern Florida fare, from the Caribbean and Latin America to the Middle East. In many ways, Aken’s story echoes that of the resurgence of Southern food. He began cooking professionally in the 1970s, a time when regional American foodways had few proponents—“it would be ten years before Alice Walters and Paul Prudhomme kindled that fire,” he says. Like most chefs at the time, Aken gravitated toward classic French cooking. “Yet my day-to-day eating experience was of vibrant New World flavors—West Indian chutneys and Central American plantains, Bahamian conch salad and Cuban steak a la parrilla.” In 1987, he had a revelation: it was time to champion the flavors of Florida. He returned to the dockside grills and Cuban-Bahamian joints he loved, savoring with a new perspective empanadas pulled from a paper bag and fish tacos grilled beside a boatyard. In the coming years Aken would open or partner on a handful of restaurants from Miami to Orlando, translating those essential experiences into elevated plates, along the way earning the distinction of the Father of Florida cuisine.

Salted and Cured

Chelsea Green Publishing, 2017

Curing meat is a practice that spans cultures, and in his second book, Jeffrey P. Roberts explores the stories it tells, from the evolution of prosciutto between ancient Rome and present-day Italy to the rise of country ham in Virginia. Cured meat has an especially rich history in the United States, as immigrants from across the globe have brought with them their distinctive methods for raising, butchering, and preserving meat.

Texas Slow Cooker

Harvard Common Press, 2017

This time of year, the slow cooker shines. We tote hot dips to tailgates and enjoy the easy comforts of chili and stew for dinner. In this new release, Cheryl Jamison introduces Texas favorites to the Crock-Pot. There are the usual low-and-slow suspects (venison chili, pintos cooked in beer) plus some whimsical newcomers—Jamison translates Frito pie into a corn-and-pepper-studded quiche, and even gives jalapeño cornbread the slow cooker treatment.