My Family Table
A Passionate Plea for Home Cooking
by John Besh
2012 IACP Award Winner in the Children, Youth and Family category
2012 James Beard Award Nominee
Price: $35.00
ISBN-13: 9781449407872
ISBN-10: 1449407870
Format: Hardcover
Size: 9 1/4 x 11 in.
Page Count: 272 pages

“In My Family Table, John Besh shares some of his secrets for getting full home-style meals on the table for his beautiful family of 6. He gives hope and inspiration to busy parents who would like to make wholesome meals, but don’t know how to find the time. From eggs, fish, roasts, and soups, to inspiring desserts, John explains how to prepare a variety of foods with perfection. John wants everyone to know that cooking doesn’t have to be a spectator sport, but that anyone can do it, no matter how hectic the schedule.” ––TopCookbooks.com http://bit.ly/Irrmod
“At first bite this book is a mouthful – I want to gulp it all in and dive for seconds. Chef John Besh remembers a time of organic preparation: cooking for our own families and enjoying the intimacy that each chop, stir, bite inspired. He dices up one amazing legacy in his newest addition, including stunning photographic images of his own family and the meals that are prepared with them in mind and at hand.” ––San Francisco Book Review http://bit.ly/xae4q1
“My Family Table: A Passionate Plea for Home Cooking, the follow-up book to Besh’s 2009 tome, My New Orleans, presents a convincing argument for making family time as special as possible by crafting and sitting down to meals together at home. By breaking bread around the table with those you love, he says, your bonds can’t help but strengthen, particularly if you eschew packaged, instant foods and drive-through fare. “I urge you to set aside manufactured convenience and to cook real food instead. You’ll be amazed at what this elemental act does — not only for the people you feed, but for you, as well,” Besh writes. Full of spectacular photography, the 265-page book brings to life the markets Besh frequents, as well as the family of six — including four young sons — that he feeds, all while juggling work at seven restaurants. Far from complex, the food and its preparation keeps accessibility and approachability in mind, with dishes ranging from Simple Meat Ragout for Any Pasta and Stuffed French Toast, to Roast Goose with Yukon Gold Potato Dumplings.” ––Dallas News http://dallasne.ws/ySHX3l
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With 140 Inspiring Recipes •
By John Besh
John Besh—New Orleans native, James Beard Award winner, and renowned chef of eight acclaimed restaurants—is known for his dedication to local ingredients and local cuisine. John’s best-selling first cookbook, My New Orleans (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2009), has become a culinary treasure and attained iconic status as the go-to book on New Orleans cuisine. Now, in his highly anticipated second cookbook, My Family Table: A Passionate Plea for Home Cooking, John moves beyond regional cooking and into the heart of American kitchens everywhere. He reminds us of the importance and necessity of making meals at home, and that by planning ahead and thinking smart, people everywhere can put fresh, healthy meals on their own family tables every day.
John is not only a chef—he is a father and a storyteller. In My Family Table, home cooks will have an intimate look into life at home with his wife and their four boys, as John urges others to get back into the kitchen and to gather around the table with family and friends to slow down and reconnect.
“It occurred to me that if I can help make a difference—by cooking simply and sharing what I love to cook—I can possibly help us all use our passions and skills to make our lives better at almost every meal,” John says.
With more than 150 color photographs and 140 recipes, each of the eleven chapters of MY FAMILY TABLE provides indispensable, accessible dishes for every occasion. The book also includes special cooking tips and sidebars that will help home cooks maximize their ingredients (and their budgets) and plan meals ahead. Some of the chapters include:
• Kitchen Focus, offering Master Recipes like Risotto of Almost Anything, Cream of Any Vegetable Soup, and Cherry Tomato Five-Minute Sauce. An “Essential Pantry” list will help home cooks plan ahead so meals come together easily and beautifully, and help them get the most out of every ingredient they buy.
• In Sunday Suppers, John provides dishes the whole family will love and recipes that will extend into those busy weeknight meals like those included in School Nights. Recipes like Pecan-Baked Ham prepared on a Sunday can be transformed into Carbonara with Sweet Peas & Ham, and Olive-Oil Roasted Cauliflower can be made into everyone’s favorite, Cauliflower Mac & Cheese.
• In chapters like Breakfast with My Boys and Drew Makes a Cake, John shares an early morning breakfast with his sons or a sweet treat to finish off a meal. Recipes like Angel Biscuits, Crab-Boil Home Fries, and Hummingbird Cake are sure to become family classics, as they are in John’s home.
• Dinner from a Cast Iron Pot, How to Cook a Fish, and Barbecue Wisdom offer John’s indispensable advice and techniques from braising to deboning a fish to frying and grilling. Recipes like Duck Stewed with Apples & Turnips, Soy-Braised Sablefish with Coconut Broth, and Dry-Rubbed Pork Ribs are demystified with John’s tips and how-to photos.
My Family Table explores the conviction that the simple act of cooking can change our way of life, and captures the spontaneity, intimacy, and fun of home cooking. It is sure to inspire a national movement back to the family table.
John Besh is a chef and a native son dedicated to the culinary riches of southern Louisiana. His nine acclaimed restaurants (August, Besh Steak, Lüke, La Provence, American Sector, Domenica, Lüke San Antonio, The Soda Shop, and Borgne) celebrate the bounty and traditions of the region. In his entrepreneurial pursuits and public activities, John further preserves and promotes ingredients, techniques, and heritage, one mouthwatering dish at a time. That devotion to the importance of local ingredients and local cuisine extended to the publication of his first cookbook, My New Orleans, in 2009 and a PBS show, “Chef John Besh’s New Orleans,” based on the recipes from the book, in 2011. From the outset of his career, John’s talent and drive have earned kudos: Food & Wine named him one of the “Top 10 Best New Chefs in America,” and his flagship restaurant, August, was featured in Gourmet magazine’s “Guide to America’s Best Restaurants” and “America’s Top 50 Restaurants.”