My Mother's Southern Kitchen: Recipes and Reminiscences

Jim Villas is one of our better cookbook and culinary memoir writers, while remaining a throwback to the likes of James Beard and Craig Claiborne. His affinity to Claiborne is especially strong, as both are unreconstituted Bourbon drinking Southerners who live(d) on Eastern Long Island and wrote for the `Eastern Establishment' publishing powers. Villas' special talent seems to be in recapturing what is most familiar and most comfortable about food for Americans. This is certainly true of his most recent cookbooks `Crazy for Casseroles' and `Biscuit Bliss'. His most recent collection of culinary essays and opinions `Stalking the Green Fairy' brings out this orientation in well written essays, but no book represents his culinary roots and inclinations quite as well as this book, cowritten with his mother.On the face of it, this book would seem to be a transcription of mother Martha Pearl's little black recipe book into a form which William Morrow can publish and we can read and effectively translate into reproductions of Mrs. Villas favorite dishes. The back story of the book seems to be much more complicated than this, as Mrs. Villas' written recipes were sketchy, poorly handwritten, and done only as an aide d'memoire for someone who cooked almost entirely by experience, and look and feel, just like every other traditional southern cook whose praxis has been memorialized in writing. Thus, Villas had to do anthropology by observing his mother at work and doing his best to estimate amounts from quantities doled out by hand and eye. This too was made difficult by an entirely familiar friendly antagonism between mother and son in the kitchen. A running theme is that Mother Villas and son agree that Jimmy simply could never quite reproduce the quality of his mother's own recipes, in spite of years spent at studying and writing about the world's cuisines. Some of the repartee which documents this antagonism is a little difficult to believe, as when Miss Martha cannot find any `White Lily' or other soft southern flour in Jimmy's East Hampton kitchen with which to make biscuits. I've been cooking regularly for less than three years and I have a regular supply of `White Lily' shipped to the Lehigh Valley from Tennessee like clockwork.I am glad I am skeptical of Jimmy's inability to reproduce Miss Martha's recipes, as if this were gospel, it would bode ill for your or my ability to make the recipes in this book into something remotely like the jewels which appear on Martha Pearl's North Carolina dinner table. In fact, I think a fairly well practiced cook with average equipment will do quite well with these recipes thank you.The best things about the collection of recipes in this book are that practically all of the classic southern recipes are represented here and, in spite of the crack about doing anthropology, true practitioners of this cuisine are interpreting the recipes for us. With all due respect to Villas' friend Paula Wolfert, there is no observati

Martha Pearl is a spunky wonderful character. More than that, she is a wonderful Southern cook. Her son,James, shares her sense of humor and love of cooking. I adore the way she puts him in his place when he wants to "fuss" with her recipes. I am almost through with the entire cookbook. I have laughed and underlined and referenced. It is a great, wonderful read. Knowing recipes as I do, I can tell you that you can trust this book to give you great food. Don't wait. Don't even put this on your wish list. It's a keeper. Yum

Being a native South Carolinian, and a Charlotte, NC resident now, for years I searched for a cookbook that embodied our regional cuisine. Losing a mother at an early age, I was deprived of some of her food preparation "secrets" or "tips". This book helped with some of the information she surely would have shared. And, by the way, you must try the Mint Julep recipe! It's fantastic!!!!

This book is something of a Bible in my kitchen, so much so that I've had to buy two more copies to lend to friends who rave about my culinary skills. The clear instructions and the very helpful hints enable anyone to turn out perfect examples of Southern cooking. Being a Southerner now living in the Southern hemisphere, the ability to recreate the foods of my youth is an anchor to the past. This is the best book available (and works really well in metric countries, despite the lack of metric instructions).

James Villas makes no apologies for the simple ingredients that yield such delicious fare as found in this delightful cookbook. He makes it clear that these favorite foods of his childhood -- and adulthood -- depend on high-quality products and correct techniques, as well as the appeal of knowing that generations of his family have enjoyed and refined the same dishes over many years. Both reference guide and a slice of Southern culture (who won't love the inimitable Martha Pearl?), this book has a place in all kitchens. *Among many recommended recipes: Cheese Biscuits (you Southerners know that these are savory little party snacks, not bread), Yellow Squash Souffle, Crab Bisque, Peanut Soup and 1-2-3-4 Cake with Caramel Sauce