Awards
2018 Amazon's Best Cookbook
2018 Publishers Weekly Best Book
2018 Food52 Favorite Cookbook
2018 The Atlantic Best Cookbook
2018 Grub Street (New York Magazine) Best Cookbook
James Beard Award-nominated
Synopses & Reviews
Black American chefs and cooks are often typecast as the experts of only one cuisine — soul food, but Todd Richards' food is anything but stereotypical. Taste his Hot-Chicken-Style Country-Fried Lamb Steak or Blueberry-Sweet Tea-Brined Chicken Thighs as evidence. While his dishes are rooted in family and the American cuisine known as soul food, he doesn't let his heritage restrain him. The message of Soul is that cooks can honor tradition yet be liberated to explore. Todd Richards celebrates the restorative wonders of a classic pot of Collard Greens with Ham Hocks, yet doesn't shy away from building upon that foundational recipe with his Collard Green Ramen, a reinterpretation that incorporates far-flung flavors of cultural influences and exemplifies culinary evolution. Page after page, in more than 150 recipes and stunning photos, Todd shares his creativity and passion to highlight what soul food can be for a new generation of cooks. Whether you're new to Southern and soul food or call the South your home, Soul will encourage you to not only step outside of the box, but to boldly walk away from it.
The chapters in Soul are organized by featured ingredients: Collards, Onions, Berries, Lamb, Seafood, Corn, Tomatoes, Melons, Stone Fruit, Eggs and Poultry, Pork and Beef, Beans and Rice, and Roots. Each one begins with a traditional recipe and progresses alongside Richards' exploration of flavor combinations and techniques.
Review
"[A] sensational debut
cookbook. Richards's 'no limits' philosophy pushes the cuisine beyond
traditional expectations and celebrates the power of soul food." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Expertly written and beautifully produced, this deserves a spot in most collections." Library Journal
Review
"In
Soul, Todd Richards defines soulful cooking and rejects limiting
definitions of soul food. Fluent in African-American history and
cultural mores, he charts a progressive path forward for the generations
of young chefs who will surely follow in his wake. Plus, any book that
leads with a collards chapter wins my heart." John T. Edge, author of
The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South
About the Author
Todd Richards is a
self-taught chef who paid his dues in countless restaurant kitchens
before becoming an executive chef who garnered national attention. He
has multiple James Beard Award nominations for best chef in the
Southeast, an Iron Chef competitor, and named one of four new chefs to
watch by
Esquire. He is currently owner/chef of Richards' Southern Fried at Krog Street Market in Atlanta.