The New Southern Cook: 200 Recipes from the South's Best Chefs and Home Cooks

John Martin Taylor is one of the cooks and writers devoted to preserving traditional Southern American cooking and to reviving interest in it. He is also creatively talented in the kitchen. Taylor, known as "Hoppin' John," focused on the traditions of the South in an earlier book, Hoppin' John's Lowcountry Cooking. In The New Southern Cook, he offers regional dishes gathered from local chefs and cooks from Texas to Appalachia, in addition to his own great cookin'. With the background Taylor provides, you'll appreciate dishes from Virginia's Peanut Soup to Peanut Hummus, and Deep-Fried Turkey Breast to Banana-Fried Sea Bass. Noting that cooking evolves as a living thing, he considers Green Tomato Soup and Tequila-Glazed Pork Roast as legitimate and Southern as Carrots in Ginger Ale and Crab Cakes. A wine aficionado, he provides recommendations with many dishes, but suggests beer or lemonade with barbecue!