A follow-up to the author’s acclaimed Bon Appétit, Y’all, featuring 150 recipes that combine Southern flavors with time-honored French technique, and include a sophisticated variation that kicks each dish up a notch to make it brilliant. Virginia Willis has a knack for giving French recipes a downhome Southern feel. In Basic to Brilliant, Y’all, she builds on her signature style by offering 150 dual recipes: a soul-satisfying basic recipe accompanied by a technique, garnish, additional step, or short recipe that transforms a wonderful dish into a show stopper. A weeknight classic like Mama’s Chicken Pot Pie becomes sophisticated dinner party fare when it’s baked in a winter squash, and Old Fashioned Stove Top Low-Country Broth can be transformed into a Bouillabaisse-style broth with just a few simple changes. Throughout the book, Virginia paints a vivid picture of her Southern upbringing, drawing readers in with her vibrant tales of food and friends.

Featuring new recipes and photographs, this revised and updated edition of Virginia Willis’s best-selling culinary classic also features new variations and commentary on the original recipes plus options using healthier ingredients. More than two hundred heritage and new recipes seamlessly blend into a thoroughly modern Southern cookbook. The daughter and granddaughter of consummate Southern cooks, Willis is also a classically trained French chef and an award-winning writer. These divergent influences come together splendidly in Bon Appétit, Y’all, a modern Southern chef’s passionate and evolving homage to her culinary roots. Espousing a simple-is-best philosophy, Willis uses good ingredients, concentrates on sound French technique, and lets the food shine in a style she calls “refined Southern cuisine.” Approachable recipes are arranged by chapter into starters and nibbles; salads and slaws; eggs and dairy; main dishes with fowl, fish, and other meats; sides; biscuits and breads; soups and stews; desserts; and sauces and preserves. Collected here are stylishly updated Southern and French classics (New Southern Chicken and Herb Dumplings, Boeuf Bourguignonne, Fried Catfish Fingers with Country Rémoulade) and traditional favorites (Meme’s Biscuits, Mama’s Apple Pie, Okra and Tomatoes), and it wouldn’t be Southern cooking without vegetables (Cauliflower and Broccoli Parmesan, Green Beans Provençal, and Smoky Collard Greens). More than one hundred photographs bring to life both Virginia’s food and the bounty of her native Georgia. You’ll also find well-written stories, a wealth of tips and techniques from a skilled and innovative teacher, and the wisdom of a renowned authority in American regional cuisine, steeped to her core in the food, culinary knowledge, and hospitality of the South. Bon Appétit, Y’all is Virginia Willis’s way of saying, “Welcome to my Southern kitchen. Pull up a chair.” Once you have tasted her food, you’ll want to stay a good long while.

2016 James Beard Award winner and 2016 International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) nominee for Best American Cookbook A collection of classic Southern comfort food recipes--including seven-layer dip, chicken and gravy, and strawberry shortcake--made lighter, healthier, and completely guilt-free. Virginia Willis is not only an authority on Southern cooking. She's also a French-trained chef, a veteran cookbook author, and a proud Southerner who adores eating and cooking for family and friends. So when she needed to drop a few pounds and generally lighten up her diet, the most important criterion for her new lifestyle was that all the food had to taste delicious. The result is Lighten Up, Y’all, a soul-satisfying and deeply personal collection of Virginia’s new favorite recipes. All the classics are covered—from a comforting Southern Style Shepherd’s Pie with Grits to warm, melting Broccoli Mac and Cheese to Old-Fashioned Buttermilk Pie. Each dish is packed with real Southern flavor, but made with healthier, more wholesome ingredients and techniques. Wherever you are on your health and wellness journey, Lighten Up, Y’all has the recipes, tools, and inspiration you need to make the nourishing, down-home Southern food you love.

Passionate okra lovers crave this bright green, heat-loving vegetable, whether fried, grilled, steamed, roasted, boiled, broiled, pickled, raw, whole, sliced, or julienned. With Okra, Virginia Willis provides "the key that unlocks the door of okra desire" to okra addicts and newcomers to the pod alike. Topping eight feet, with gorgeous butter-yellow flowers that ripen into the plant's signature seed-filled pods, okra has a long association with foodways in the American South. But as Willis shows, okra is also an important ingredient in cuisines across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Featuring gardening tips, a discussion of heirloom varieties, and expert cooking directions (including a list of "top ten slime-busting tips"), Okra brilliantly showcases fifty delectable recipes: twenty-six southern dishes, ranging from Southern-Style Fried Okra to Gulf Coast Seafood Gumbo, and twenty-four authentic global dishes, from Moroccan Lamb and Okra Tagine with Preserved Lemons to Cuban Pork with Yellow Rice, Okra, and Annatto Oil.

Winner of the 2014 Guild of Food Writers Award for Cookery Book of the Year. James Morton was surely the people's favourite to win 2012's Great British Bake Off series - with his Fairisle jumpers and eccentric showstoppers, this soft-spoken Scottish medical student won the viewers' hearts if not the trophy. James's real passion is bread-making. He is fascinated by the science of it, the taste of it, the making of it. And in Brilliant Bread he communicates that passion to everyone, demystifying the often daunting process of "proper" bread making. James uses supermarket flour and instant yeast - you can save money by making your own bread. You don't even have to knead! It just takes a bit of patience and a few simple techniques. Using step by step photos, James guides the reader through the how-to of dough making and shaping, with recipes ranging from basic loaves through flatbreads, sourdoughs, sweet doughs, buns, doughnuts, focaccia and pretzels. Inspiring and simple to follow, with James's no-nonsense advice and tips, this book will mean you never buy another sliced white loaf again.

A collection of stories and 100 sweet and savory French-inspired recipes from popular food blogger David Lebovitz, reflecting the way Parisians eat today and featuring lush photography taken around Paris and in David's Parisian kitchen. In 2004, David Lebovitz packed up his most treasured cookbooks, a well-worn cast-iron skillet, and his laptop and moved to Paris. In that time, the culinary culture of France has shifted as a new generation of chefs and home cooks—most notably in Paris—incorporates ingredients and techniques from around the world into traditional French dishes. In My Paris Kitchen, David remasters the classics, introduces lesser-known fare, and presents 100 sweet and savory recipes that reflect the way modern Parisians eat today. You’ll find Soupe à l’oignon, Cassoulet, Coq au vin, and Croque-monsieur, as well as Smoky barbecue-style pork, Lamb shank tagine, Dukkah-roasted cauliflower, Salt cod fritters with tartar sauce, and Wheat berry salad with radicchio, root vegetables, and pomegranate. And of course, there’s dessert: Warm chocolate cake with salted butter caramel sauce, Duck fat cookies, Bay leaf poundcake with orange glaze, French cheesecake...and the list goes on. David also shares stories told with his trademark wit and humor, and lush photography taken on location around Paris and in David’s kitchen reveals the quirks, trials, beauty, and joys of life in the culinary capital of the world.

For twenty years, diners in the Bluegrass have been able to satisfy their cravings for Ouita Michel's sustainable, farm-to-table cuisine at her many acclaimed restaurants. Each restaurant—from Wallace Station to Holly Hill Inn—features dishes that combine Kentucky's bounty with Michel's celebrated vision. Diners can enjoy traditional southern staples like buttermilk biscuits, country ham, and Po-Boy sandwiches, or opt for unique variations on international favorites and American classics. Now, readers around the country can experience what makes Ouita Michel a culinary and cultural treasure. Just a Few Miles South serves up the recipes that patrons of Michel's restaurants have come to know and love, including the Bluegrass Benedict breakfast sandwich, Ouita's Sardou Panini, Wallace Station's Creamy Chicken and Mushroom Soup, and Honeywood's Hoecake Burger. Some dishes offer creative twists on classics, like the Inside Out Hot Brown, the Wallace Cubano, or the Bourbon Banh Mi. Throughout, the chefs responsible for these delicious creations share the rich traditions and stories behind the recipes. When you can't get down to your favorite place, this book will help you bring home the aroma, the flavors, and the love of fresh foods made with locally sourced ingredients—and share it all with friends and family.