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The Blackberry Farm Cookbook: Four Seasons of Great Food and the Good Life
Nestled in the blue mists of Tennessee's Smoky Mountains, the 10,000-acre bucolic refuge of Blackberry Farm houses a top-rated small inn with one of the premier farm-to-table restaurants in the country. This sumptuous cookbook offers a collection of recipes that are as inspired by the traditional rustic cooking of the mountainous south as they are by a fresh, contemporary, artistic sensibility. Some of the dishes are robust, others are astonishingly light, all are full of heart and surprise and flavor — and all are well within the reach of the home cook.
California has the French Laundry, Virginia has the Inn at Little Washington, and Tennessee has Blackberry Farm, where the indulgences of a luxury inn are woven together with odes to nature — fly-fishing, hiking, foraging, bird watching, and heirloom gardening — to create a new way of looking at the world, a way in which anything seems possible.
This is particularly true at the Inn's table and in its award-winning wine cellar. To the farm's master gardeners, food artisans and chefs, meals are an opportunity to express not only the earth and the culture of this remote spot, but also its spirit. On a spring day this might mean Rye Whiskey-Cured Trout with Fresh and Pickled Fennel, and the summer garden might inspire a Chilled Corn Soup with Garlic Custard, a papardelle of baby carrots, or a tomato terrine. In the cooler weather, game and traditionally preserved food — cider-basted venison, a shell-bean and gamebird cassoulet, a dried apple stack cake or Bourbon Apple Fried Pies — keep conversation in front of the fire lively. For all its artfulness, however, Blackberry Farm's garden-to-table cooking tends to be an ode to a well-loved cast iron skillet, a backyard smoker or a wood-fired grill.
In the foothills, you don't eat to eat, you eat to talk, to remember and to imagine what you will eat tomorrow. In this book, the stories of the people who practice the traditional mountain food arts — the bacon man, the heirloom gardener, the cheese maker and sausage man — are woven together with the recipes, lore and regional history to reflect the spirit of the cooking at Blackberry Farm. Breathtaking photographs capture the magical world that surrounds the table — the hills and rushing creeks, the lights and shadows of the forest, the moods and moments of the garden.
California has the French Laundry, Virginia has the Inn at Little Washington, and Tennessee has Blackberry Farm, where the indulgences of a luxury inn are woven together with odes to nature — fly-fishing, hiking, foraging, bird watching, and heirloom gardening — to create a new way of looking at the world, a way in which anything seems possible.
This is particularly true at the Inn's table and in its award-winning wine cellar. To the farm's master gardeners, food artisans and chefs, meals are an opportunity to express not only the earth and the culture of this remote spot, but also its spirit. On a spring day this might mean Rye Whiskey-Cured Trout with Fresh and Pickled Fennel, and the summer garden might inspire a Chilled Corn Soup with Garlic Custard, a papardelle of baby carrots, or a tomato terrine. In the cooler weather, game and traditionally preserved food — cider-basted venison, a shell-bean and gamebird cassoulet, a dried apple stack cake or Bourbon Apple Fried Pies — keep conversation in front of the fire lively. For all its artfulness, however, Blackberry Farm's garden-to-table cooking tends to be an ode to a well-loved cast iron skillet, a backyard smoker or a wood-fired grill.
In the foothills, you don't eat to eat, you eat to talk, to remember and to imagine what you will eat tomorrow. In this book, the stories of the people who practice the traditional mountain food arts — the bacon man, the heirloom gardener, the cheese maker and sausage man — are woven together with the recipes, lore and regional history to reflect the spirit of the cooking at Blackberry Farm. Breathtaking photographs capture the magical world that surrounds the table — the hills and rushing creeks, the lights and shadows of the forest, the moods and moments of the garden.
300 pages, Hardcover
First published October 20, 2009
103 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 3, 2010
I ripped out of a magazine an article on this farm in Tennessee several years ago. When I was going through my travel folder, I realized I had ripped out another article on the very same farm years earlier. Needless to say I'm consistent and I would LOVE to go visit someday. It looks beautiful and the cooking is supposed to be excellent. The son of the owners went to culinary school and worked at lots of different restaraunts including the French Laundry then moved back to his family farm (over 9000 acres with an Inn) and assembled a team of chefs that cook for their guests daily. Blackberry Farm is on my life list of places to visit and this cookbook has yummy looking recipes and gorgeous pictures.
March 13, 2010
I think I'll definitely try the cast-iron skillet apple crisp as well as the oven okra.
April 28, 2021
Sam Beall’s heartfelt words and the beautiful images took me back to my first visit, to the Bealls’ incredible hospitality and the delicious meals they nurtured us with. I am excited that Blackberry Farm continues to evolve into an idyllic destination, grounded by its own sense of place and history.
Thomas Keller
Hospitality, generosity, authenticity, quality, family....Life has stopped and our stress disappears at Blackberry Farm. The food and wine reveal the best of nature. Happiness is what can be found here.
Alain Ducasse
I admire the Blackberry Farm ethic, the reverence for place and people, the dedication to artisanal excellence, the trust in long-held tradition, and the belief that, as Wendell Berry once put it, eating is an 'agricultural act.'
John T Edge
Thomas Keller
Hospitality, generosity, authenticity, quality, family....Life has stopped and our stress disappears at Blackberry Farm. The food and wine reveal the best of nature. Happiness is what can be found here.
Alain Ducasse
I admire the Blackberry Farm ethic, the reverence for place and people, the dedication to artisanal excellence, the trust in long-held tradition, and the belief that, as Wendell Berry once put it, eating is an 'agricultural act.'
John T Edge
October 1, 2023
A beautiful ‘coffee table’ book, gifted to me by dear friends. The photography is amazing, the story of how the family house became an Inn, and one of the most prestigious small inns in America, was interesting.
The Inn is known for its creative culinary feats, as the property has been turned into a working farm set in the mountains of Tennessee. There were a few recipes I marked to try, but most had ingredients not readily available to me, not being from that area or having fresh sheep’s milk handy. But I rated high for the beauty of the book itself and because it is now on my list of places to visit for a beautiful, culinary experience.
The Inn is known for its creative culinary feats, as the property has been turned into a working farm set in the mountains of Tennessee. There were a few recipes I marked to try, but most had ingredients not readily available to me, not being from that area or having fresh sheep’s milk handy. But I rated high for the beauty of the book itself and because it is now on my list of places to visit for a beautiful, culinary experience.
December 21, 2017
Notes:
this book is huge and heavy
lots of photos of..... the farm
maybe a handful of recipes to try
this book is huge and heavy
lots of photos of..... the farm
maybe a handful of recipes to try
August 14, 2012
$60 is an awful lot of money to dole out for a cookbook. But this is more than just an ordinary collection of recipes. It is a very personal portrait of a Tennessee family farm and inn in a coffee table book format. The photos, of which there are a plethora, are absolutely splendid, crisply detailed and beautiful.
October 18, 2014
God Almighty, this book is beautiful! It's big, with tons of gorgeous photos. But, many of the photos are scenics and have nothing to do with food. There are some tempting recipes in here but I dislike books that promote both food and an expensive, glossy lifestyle. Just gimme some recipes, some photos of the recipes and let me get to the cooking. A pretty book but not one I would buy.
January 11, 2010
A visually stunning, seasonal cookbook, but a little meat heavy for my tastes. The photographs of the farm, and the narrative that accompanies the recipes are entertaining in their own right.
August 15, 2010
Pretty photos.
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October 14, 2010Food porn of the highest order.
December 7, 2011
More of a coffee table book than a true cookbook; although that was their intention.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews