One Big Table

Starred review from October 4, 2010
O'Neill, former New York Times Magazine food writer and author (New York Cookbook), has compiled an informative and heartwarming refutation of the demise of American home cooking. Ten years and many miles in the making, this collection celebrates the nation's culinary diversity, both ethnically and agriculturally, and offers a uniquely intimate look at what home cooking in America is truly like today. O'Neill crossed the country, interviewing home cooks and spending time in the kitchens of recent immigrants. The results are enticing recipes that intertwine family stories, personal histories, and food. From stuffed Danish pancakes in Utah to tamales in Santa Fe and Vietnamese shrimp pancakes in Mississippi, this eclectic collection showcases the best this country has to offer. O'Neill also includes old-style American fare, including black-eyed pea and mustard greens soup, corn chowder, campfire trout, and bluegrass bass with Kentucky caviar. Sidebars abound on everything from black sea bass to Johnny Appleseed, Elvis to shrimp. As engaging in the armchair as it is in the kitchen, this book is an enduring testament to our historic traditions and the new culinary forays being made by American home cooks.

November 1, 2010

Part cookbook, part ethnography, part cultural history, this volume contains all that it advertises in its subtitle. O'Neill (Mostly True: A Memoir of Family, Food, and Baseball), former food columnist for the New York Times Magazine and host of the PBS series Great Food, features hundreds of examples of hometown cooking from sea to shining sea, each accompanied by a folksy story and most with carefully noted provenance, whether Bill McIntyre's Marinated Feta (Corydon, IN) or Nina Chanpreet Singh's Chicken Tikka (Bronx, NY). Starters, soups, entrees, and desserts are represented, together with vegetarian options, seafood, and more. Clear instructions should allow all cooks to find success, and, although a wide range of ethnic and regional cuisines are represented, readers will find most ingredients to be readily accessible in grocery stores. VERDICT Replete with full-color illustrations and historical photos and peppered with sidebars, it's as much a coffee-table book as a source of recipes. This survey of American home cooking from the ground level is wide-ranging, attractive, and just plain huge; recommended.--Courtney Greene, DePaul Univ. Lib., Chicago

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from October 15, 2010
This is One Big Book, filled to the brim with anecdotes, references, information, memorabilia, and 800 recipes that are truly representative of all U.S. cultures and ethnicities. ONeill, former New York Times Magazine food columnist, respected author (New York Cookbook, 1992), and TV host, has outdone herself. Its difficult not to stop and savor every page, from the gee-whiz type of historical illustration and mouthwatering food photography to the stories of new and well-honed cooks. In fact, the documented recipes often seem like footnotes, even if theyre preserved lemons, borscht, cioppino, or feijoada (Brazilian black-bean stew), simply because of the powerful stories. Take a minute to meet painter-waterman Bobby Bridges, living on Marylands Eastern Shore, who imparts the secrets of his clam clouds (aka clam fritters), or Chicagos Mark Reitman, a self-made expert on hot dogs as well as the founder of the Hot Dog University. Read more about Michigan celery, a subtle variety called Golden Hue. Flip to the pages celebrating the soul and food (barbecued chicken) or Gees Bend, Alabama, natives, a community made famous by its quilts displayed at New Yorks Whitney Museum of Art. Perhaps no better and more humble quote summarizes ONeills attempt to capture the spirit of our eating past and present than these comments from Alabamian Mary Lee Bendolph: Old clothes have a spirit in them. I see that scrap of apron in a quilt and I remember the woman who wore that apron thin. Cooking is like that, too. I make my cornbread to remember all the cornbread that was made for me.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)