This twenty-fifth anniversary edition of John Shields’s classic cookbook includes additional recipes and a new chapter on Chesapeake libations. Twenty-five years ago, Chesapeake Bay Cooking with John Shields introduced the world to the regional cuisine of the Mid-Atlantic. Nominated for a James Beard Award, the book was praised for its inspiring heritage recipes and its then-revolutionary emphasis on cooking with local and seasonal ingredients. Part history lesson, part travelogue, the book captured the unique character of the Chesapeake region and its people. In this anniversary edition, John Shields combines popular classic dishes with a host of unpublished recipes from his personal archives. Readers will learn how to prepare over 200 recipes from the Mid-Atlantic region, including panfried rockfish, roast mallard, beaten biscuits, oyster fritters, and Lady Baltimore cake. Best of all, they’ll learn everything they need to know about crabs—the undisputed star of Chesapeake cuisine—featured here in mouthwatering recipes for seven different kinds of crab cakes. Extensively updated, this edition includes a new chapter on Chesapeake libations, which features Shields’s closely held recipe for his notorious Dirty Gertie, an authentic Chesapeake-style Bloody Mary.

Seventy-five miles southeast of Washington, D.C., in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay, accessible only by boat, is tiny Smith Island, where a 300-year-old culture has survived in singular isolation. For a quarter of a century in this unique setting, Frances Kitching operated a small, widely renowned restaurant and inn. Susan Stiles Dowell, working closely with her, gathered more than one hundred of her recipesmany of them from the generation-to-generation oral tradition. This is more than just a regional cookbook. In Mrs. Dowells sensitive and luminous telling of the lore and lure of this remote island, and in forty evocative photographs, colorful people and places come to life.

The latest cookbook by the "Culinary Ambassador of the Chesapeake" encourages us to cook in a way that is not only healthy for us but also for the Bay. Captain John Smith, upon entering the Chesapeake, wrote in his diaries that the fish were so plentiful “we attempted to catch them with a frying pan.” That method sums up classic Chesapeake cooking—fresh and simple. In The New Chesapeake Kitchen, celebrated Maryland chef John Shields takes the best of what grows, swims, or grazes in the Bay’s watershed and prepares it simply, letting the pure flavors shine through. Honoring the farmers, watermen, butchers, cheese makers, and foragers who make the food movement around the Chesapeake Bay watershed possible, along with the environmental and food organizations working to restore the Bay, the land, and food security, Shields promotes a healthy locavore diet and a holistic view of community foodways. In this scrumptious book, enhanced with beautiful full-color images by former Baltimore Sun Magazine photographer David W. Harp, Shields urges readers to choose local, seasonal ingredients. Presenting what he dubs “Bay- and body-friendly food,” he advocates for a plant-forward and sustainable diet, one that considers how food consumption affects both your health and the environment. Shields presents creative and healthy options that nourish us while protecting the Bay, including one-pot recipes for meals like Fishing Creek Seafood Chili, Old Line Veggie Creole Oyster Stew, and Spring Pea Soup with Tarragon-Truffle Oil. To round it out, this holistic cookbook includes directions for canning, preserving, and fermenting. Shields offers many vegan- and vegetarian-friendly options, as well as innovative new takes on Chesapeake classics. You’ll find recipes for dozens of delicious dishes, from Aunt Bessie’s Crab Pudding and Hutzler’s Cheese Bread to “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Crab” Cakes, Blue Cat Seafood Hash, and an array of savory soups, braised meats, luscious desserts, and green breakfast smoothies—even recipes for a locavore cocktail party!

Shields has rediscovered the pleasures of a great regional cuisine with this rich celebration of the bounty of the Bay. Contains over 200 recipes, from Maryland crab soup and sweet corn pudding to Lady Baltimore cake and shoofly pie. 25 photographs and illustrations.

What could be more enticing on a hot summer’s day than to sit down to a table covered with newspapers, fresh steamed crabs, Old Bay seasoning, cole slaw, and a cold beer. Or is it something more elegant that you’re looking for – Beef Chez Conduit (beef tenderloin with Bearnaise sauce), fresh asparagus, new red potatoes, and pumpkin cheesecake. Getting hungry? Take a peek inside and you’ll discover a region rich in culinary delights and history. The Chesapeake Bay region offers an abundance of food from the Bay, fields and woods. Recipes come from the earliest Native Americans to the influx of international flavors. The recipes are elegant and easy, designed for many different occasions. Menus make for easy planning with all the recipes contained in the cookbook. The history chapter region captures the true traditions of the Bay, and an insight into the background of many of the dishes. The pictures capture the Chesapeake at its best – skipjacks, oystering, the marshes, and Mount Clare Mansion, built by Charles Carroll who married Margaret Tilghman, uniting two of the wealthiest and most prominent families in Maryland.

In the midst of recent growth and downtown development, Baltimore is breaking away from its culinary stereotypes and emerging as city that is attracting some extraordinary restaurants and talented chefs. While embracing the local food movement, the city is now being recognized for an expanding culinary movement. Newcomers and homegrown chefs alike are charming diners with delicious variations staring the perennial favorite, crab, as well as offering unique options like frankenfish tacos and hearts of palm crab cakes that are becoming the taste of Charm City. With more than eighty recipes for the home cook from over fifty of the city's most celebrated eateries and showcasing photos featuring mouth-watering dishes, famous chefs, and lots of local flavor, Baltimore Chef's Table is the ultimate gift and keepsake cookbook for both tourists and locals alike.