SouthEssential Recipes and New Explorations

Sean Brock is the founding chef of the award-winning Husk restaurants and the chef/owner of Audrey and Red Bird, opening next year in Nashville. His first book, Heritage, was the winner of the James Beard Award for Best American Cookbook and the IACP Julia Child First Book Award in 2015 and was called “the blue-ribbon chef cookbook of the year” by the New York Times. Brock won the James Beard Award for Best Chef Southeast in 2010 and was a finalist for Outstanding Chef in 2013, 2014, and 2015. His TV résumé includes Chef’s Table and The Mind of a Chef, for which he was nominated for an Emmy. Raised in rural Virginia, Brock is passionate about preserving and restoring heirloom ingredients. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Find him on Instagram @hseanbrock.

“Sean Brock is prone to diving deep into culinary rabbit holes, and thank God. His latest cookbook, South, builds on the intellectual, culinary and historical work of his 2014 book, Heritage, but widens the lens from the Lowcountry to the Appalachian Mountains, where he grew up. . . . I will keep this book forever in my collection because no one cooking today is doing more to help the Southern culinary flame burn brighter.”
—New York Times

“Brock has juggled a panoply of roles: chef, revivalist, archivist, farm-to-table evangelist, the Duane Allman of vegetables, the Alan Lomax of heirloom grains, a dispenser of pleasure and history in equal bites. . . . The might of Brock’s influence may portend a turning point in how the cuisine is regarded both at home and in the wider culinary sphere. . . . His second cookbook, SOUTH: Essential Recipes and New Explorations, in many ways serves as a greatest-hits compilation.”
—Garden & Gun

“If you love to cook, check out Sean Brock’s South, a follow-up to his award-winning Heritage. Born and raised in the Appalachian mountains, Brock is known for his endless creativity, helming incredible restaurants . . . and celebrating Southern ingredients. Now he’ll also be known for two of the decade’s most beautiful and authoritative Southern cookbooks.”
—Southern Living

“[Brock has] taken Southern cuisine and helped move it past tired stereotypes of merely heavy, fattening and cheap. In his new cookbook South, the James Beard Award-winner dives deep to explore the differences in the region’s cuisines from Appalachia to Lowcountry and give his take on classics like catfish, cornbread and more.”
—Robb Report

“In this masterful follow-up to his James Beard Award–winning Heritage, Brock observes, ‘The American South has a geographical area roughly equal to that of continental Europe.’ Thus, he describes the territory as a land of microregions, finding the similarities as well as the differences that exist in the foods of the Southeast. Among the more than 125 recipes, a chapter of snacks includes deviled crab from the Low Country, fried bologna with pickled peach mustard from Appalachia, and two versions of shrimp and grits. The chef’s love of heirloom tomatoes is evident not only in his salads and side dishes but also in grilled catfish with barely cooked tomatoes, as well as a rhubarb-tomato conserve that pairs well with poultry. The recipe for basic cornbread is accompanied by four variations, including a ‘sour’ version that calls for a cornmeal, buttermilk, and bacon fat mixture to ferment for three days. A grill is the preferred source of heat for many dishes, including grilled quail with red-eye gravy, while canning mavens will appreciate a stellar chapter of preserved pantry items that includes watermelon molasses. Brock wears his Southern heart on his sleeve in this mouthwatering, virtuosic collection.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“An excellent resource of regional Southern cooking. . . . Exceptional full-color photographs beautifully showcase recipes, such as pickled peaches, fried okra, buttermilk pie, and Brock’s fried chicken. For vegetarians and vegans, there are some wonderful recipes for fresh vegetables, including fried green tomatoes and eggplant purloo. VERDICT Brimming with exquisite interpretations of Southern cooking, this is a great collection for intermediate to advanced cooks looking to broaden their culinary repertoire.”
—Library Journal, starred review

“South is a game changer and could be called The Southern Bible of Cooking. Sean has created one of the most beautiful and powerful books on Southern food ever written.”
—Frank Stitt, chef/owner and author of Frank Stitt’s Southern Table

“Sean is one of Southern food’s greatest champions. With this cookbook, he has distilled his knowledge of and affection for this region’s foodways into a road map that anyone can use to be a better, more fulfilled cook. Follow it, and be rewarded with food that connects you to a sense of place and evokes the true soul of the South.”
—Ashley Christensen, chef and author

“Every region, everywhere, needs a Sean Brock! Sean reminds us what it really means to eat and cook Southern food and how we can all be better custodians of the delicious ingredients we have available in our own parts of the world. We’re incredibly lucky to get a taste of what he knows in South.”
–David Chang chef/founder of Momofuku

“With prose, passion, and photographs, Sean Brock authoritatively sweeps us through his South, the land of shrimp and oysters, poke salad, tomatoes, and morels, with recipes designed to cook at home, whether grilling, sautéing, or stewing or cooking for groups of friends or just a few. He includes some of my favorite recipes, including caramel cake, doable at home with no fancy equipment needed and always delicious.”
—Nathalie Dupree, cookbook author

“Sean Brock understands that the American South is more than one region and more than one cuisine. He understands that it is American, yes, but also West African and European. He understands that, whether you know it or not, this is a cookbook distilled by and filtered through centuries of Southern sensibility. Read it for the history. Cook it for the recipes.”
—Lolis Eric Elie, food writer

“I love Sean’s cooking because it does the same thing for me that a good song does: It transports me to another place, often one that exists in my childhood memories of the South.”
—Jason Isbell, musician