Our Cookbook of the Week: Sean Brock's 'Heritage'

Yahoo Food’s Cookbook of the Week: Heritage (Artisan)

The Team: Sean Brock, who Time magazine called “the most conspicuously gifted American chef of his generation,” and photographer Peter Frank Edwards.

The Restaurants: Brock is the chef-owner of Husk in Charleston, South Carolina and Nashville, Tennessee, and McCrady’s in Charleston. 

The Cuisine: Brock grew up in Appalachian Virginia and now calls Charleston home. He’s all about the South, in other words, whether that involves classic comfort foods (Pickled Shrimp; Hoppin’ John) or his own inventions with roots in soulful cooking (Crispy Pig Ear Lettuce Wraps). Throughout Heritage, Brock sprinkles personal tidbits, underscoring his favorite purveyors and Southern ingredients.

Who Should Buy It: Brock acolytes, of whom there are many.

Who Shouldn’t: Those with aversions to pickled or fried things; those who want to get to the point of a recipe without any poetry.

Must-Make Recipes: Husk’s famous cheeseburger and Brock’s grandmother’s “Hillybilly Fudge,” which contains black walnuts and Velveeta cheese.

Noteworthy: In the introduction to his book, Brock reveals that his father died of a heart attack at the age of 39 after years running a demanding coal trucking business. Brock, his mother, and his brother moved in with his grandparents, and it was at their home that he fell in love with food. They had an enormous garden and the kitchen was “a beautifully mysterious playground, filled with bubbling vats of homemade wine and fermented ears of corn.”

See more Cookbooks of the Week:
Brown Sugar Kitchen
The Fat Radish
Mastering My Mistakes in the Kitchen