America The Great Cookbook: The Food We Make for the People We Love from 100 of Our Finest Chefs and Food Heroes

by Joe Yonan (Editor)

“What do you cook for the people you love?” America’s top chefs answer that question to make the most unique cookbook of the year, The Great American Cookbook. Take a journey across the states to celebrate the food of America, created in the homes and kitchens of 100 of our most beloved chefs and food heroes. A portion of the book’s proceeds will benefit No Kid Hungry, which helps to end childhood hunger in the United States. 

From well-known chefs like Ina Garten and Padma Lakshmi to food revolutionaries such as Ruth Reichel, find 100 of America’s top food personalities and their most treasured home recipes in this one-of-a-kind cookbook. Lavishly photographed with food and lifestyle imagery, and with a unique cover designed by a renowned artist, this gorgeous book tells the story of cooking—and making food for those we love—across America.

Contributors include:
Charles Phan/Slanted Door
Nik Sharma/A Brown Table
Tanya Holland/Brown Sugar Kitchen 
Yoni Levy/Outerlands
Ina Garten
Mark Bittman
Melissa Clark of the NY Times
Ruth Reichl
Padma Lakshmi (Top Chef)
Von Diaz
Jose Andres
Jerome Grant
Joan Nathan
Katherine Kallinis Berman and Sophie Kallinis LaMontagne of Georgetown Cupcakes
Patrick O'Connell of Inn at Little Washington
Andrea Reusing of Lantern Restaurant
Vivian Howard (A Chef's Life)
Ronni Lundy
Nathalie Dupree
Steven Satterfield of Miller Union
Virginia Willis
Tunde Wey
Pableaux Johnson
David Chang (Momofuku)
Mahsama Bailey
John Currence
Ed Lee
Nicole Valls
Michael Voltaggio
Ayesha Curry
Carla Hall
Molly Yeh
Michael Hudman & Andrew Ticer
Cecilia Chiang
Amelia Moran Ceja and daughter Dalia Ceja
Jennifer Bice, founder of Redwood Hill Creamery
Kris Yenbamroong
Teague Moriarty
Nicole Valls
Michael Schwartz
Simone Cormier
Jessica Koslow/Sqirl LA
Al and Becky Courchesne/Frog Hollow Farm
Wolfgang Puck
Marcela Valladolid
Chris Shepherd of Underbelly
Gary Paul Nabhan
Nancy Silverton
Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo
Cathy Whims
Leah Chase of Dooky Chase
Hugo Ortega
Chris Shepherd
Sean Sherman
Andrew Zimmern

                                                   

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Foodie

482 pages, Hardcover

Published October 31, 2017

About the author

Joe Yonan is the two-time James Beard Award-winning Food and Travel editor of The Washington Post and the author of “Serve Yourself: Nightly Adventures in Cooking for One,” which Serious Eats called “a truly thoughtful, useful, and incredibly delicious book.” He was born in Georgia and raised in Texas, moving to Boston after college to work in newspapers. He was a food writer and Travel section editor at The Boston Globe before moving to Washington in 2006 to edit the Post’s Food section, for which he also writes an award-winning monthly column and occasional feature stories. His work from the Globe and Post has appeared in three editions of the “Best Food Writing” anthology.

Joe is spending the year in North Berwick, Maine, on leave from the Post to work on two more book projects.

Reviews

[Ivonne Rovira · Rating 5 out of 5]

America The Great Cookbook lives up to its name: Joe Yonan has included recipes from all across the United States, from extremely famous chefs and obscure cooks, from every demographic and from every category. Not a single one of its 707 pages is wasted, as each recipe builds in another taste of America, from its Native Americans to its most recent immigrants. If you can’t find plenty to love here, you’re not even half-trying. Five big stars!

Even better: Proceeds go to No Kid Hungry!

[Kristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this one. I loved getting to see some recipes from my favorite chefs and discovering new ones. They definitely should have removed Mario B. From the line up or put him in the back of the book, he’s one of the first few chefs and it took a while to get that sour taste of my mouth, pun intended.

The recipes range in cooking skill, but unfortunately it seems many have ingredients that aren’t readily available for the simple home chef.

Main dishes, desserts and sides are all covered as well as a variety of cuisine and diets. Several vegan and veggie options we welcoming amount the numerous meat options.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll add more to this review after trying a couple of the recipes, but first....
WOW!!!
Dear Joe Yonan,
Thank you for compiling a gorgeous, interesting, USABLE cookbook. (I'm hugging it, right now.)
FedEx delivered my Goodreads giveaway copy about an hour ago, and I can't put it down! Really, really!

First of all, the cover...it's above and beyond the standard cookbook. I love the different textures, the simple rich design, the font....everything. A CLOTH RIBBON BOOKMARK, for crying in a bucket!

Your introduction was SO good. Schoolhouse Rock Melting Pot song, of all things! It grabbed a 1970's kid right there, and I was ready for more.

I don't even know where to begin when it comes to the recipes and chefs who contributed....
I love the photos, the little letters from each chef, their signature on their pictures.
Recipes like: (wiping drool off the keyboard) Pumpkin Cake Donuts with Cider Glaze, Monday Night Red Beans and Rice, Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, Brick Roasted Chicken...these I can do! And the recipes like: Jollof Rice (from Nigeria), Tart Lemon Tart, Oyster Pan Roast, and Baklava Cheesecake....these I'm excited to try!
The recipes are in standard AND metric measurements for the most part, have clear directions (even on the most intimidating looking recipes), and there's room on the pages for the cook's notes, something most cookbooks do not take into account but a very fine detail.

This is one of those "standing in Barnes and Noble, coveting, thinking what to pawn in order to buy it" cookbooks.
With gratitude for your swoony cookbook,
Mary Jane

[Alisa]

This is way more gourmet than I expected it to be, though I did recognize a few of my favorite chefs who contributed. I'm looking forward to trying some of these recipes, but many are unrealistic for the average home chef. Lovely collection, just more along the lines of those once a month big kitchen experiments than even an average weekend project.

[Shirley · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a delightful way to see the works of so many writers, bloggers, chefs and one or two recipes.

[SqueakerKitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

note: I am reviewing this based on the recipes, not based on the chef bios. I honestly almost never read cookbooks cover-to-cover, and this one was no different. I skipped over most of the chef bios and just focused on the recipes.

this book collects recipes from many different chefs (usually 1-2 per chef). naturally, that means that the type of cuisine and the quality and complexity of the recipes vary wildly. there is a bare-bones, barely-a-recipe recipe for hamburgers, there is an achievable-on-a-weeknight recipe for mushroom ragu, and there is an elaborate recipe for porcini mousse. some recipes are vegetarian, some are carnivore; some are "ethnic", some are americanah. etc.

with that said - this wont become your go-to family cookbook, but it is almost guaranteed to have *something* that will appeal to you. I tagged about 20 recipes that I would like to try (ex. the mushroom ragu), and also many recipes that I would never touch (porcini mousse).

I think that this cookbook has many unique, interesting recipes, and of course I am a sucker for a pretty cover.

[Ambur Taft · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely. Not necessarily a cookbook to motivate one to try a bunch of new dishes or make a weekly meal plan, but very fun to see what 100 famous chefs/cookbook writers use as their go to favorites for gatherings or comfort. Great pictures and some lovely pictures.

[Bethany Curran · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun cookbook to peruse. The recipes vary from (too) simple to (very) complicated. I loved the photography and the variety of today's food influencers. A great coffee table book.

[Honest Mabel · Rating 3 out of 5]

so it is good and worth it on sale

But I almost gave up at 50% because if there were maybe 3-4 actually approachable recipes by then it would be surprising. It opens strong then it has a lot of things that I had to google what vegetable it even was and then substitutes it was just something I never heard of or ever see at a typical grocery store. Maybe a specialty one? But at least not near me on Long Island. But at about 54% the book changes and its recipes that people will really make and don’t make me feel pretentious reading

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great idea, and a great cause. However, despite the premise that this is supposed to be what these foodies feed their loved ones at home many of these recipes are very time, labor, and ingredient intensive. Certainly not on a weeknight, anyway. I still really enjoyed reading it, and will make the recipes that don’t take more than 3 hours or require ingredients that I can’t find anywhere other than a specialty store.

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chefs around the country—think Mario Batali, Carla Hall and Dan Barber—share the dishes that make them tick, as well as the stories behind them. It's a cross section of and a love letter to the state of our national cuisine, with recipes like pink deviled eggs from Ruth Reichl and fried chicken with red velvet waffles from Marcus Samuelsson.
Tasting Table

[Dray · Rating 4 out of 5]

The subtitle of the book describes it well - Our food heroes. Food entries from a wide variety of people who have made food and eating their life. I enjoyed the brief bios as much as the recipes, both of which literally span the US. I was introduced both to a lot of new cooks and their restaurants (which i now want to visit) as well as known authors, restauranteurs and chefs. I recommend.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun look at various renowned chefs from all over the United States, providing recipes for favorite, seasonal, dishes. Much of the book is vegetarian, although there are some meat recipes as well. This book was a fundraiser for food insecurity, so the emphasis on fresh food full of fruits and vegetables, was a nice touch.

[Andrea D. Buchmann · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too difficult.

Almost every recipe had far too many ingredients, many of which would be difficult to find in local stores. I enjoyed the stories about the contributors but this book is not for the average American home cook. I did not find one recipe that I would attempt and I love to cook . So disappointing

[Robyn Schultz (ladyrobyns) · Rating 1 out of 5]

So disappointing. There were so many notable chefs that weren't included. Tom Douglas? Where was he? The recipes went from too complicated to so simple that it made my head swim. Not worth the time and effort.

[Deborah Weston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Melting Pot Cookbook

This is truly a melting pot of flavors and recipes which represent many cultures we all come from. Many famous name chefs are represented as well as others. A lot of great recipes I can’t wait to try

[Ramona · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would highly recommend this cookbook to everyone. I look forward to trying some of the recipes. I won this book through a giveaway on Goodreads website.

[Barbara Hugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A big heavy book. Only a few recipes I would use. The one page bios of the chefs interesting.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Needed more state representation.

[Nadia · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great collection from America's top chefs showing what truly makes us great!

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you collect cookbooks or love to read them like I do, you’ll enjoy learning about these chefs and what they prepare for those they love.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cool premise and set up...but not necessarily all meals I would make at home for my family.