Product Description

One of New Orleans’s brightest culinary stars, Susan Spicer has been indulging Crescent City diners at her highly acclaimed restaurants, Bayona and Herbsaint, for years. Now, in her long-awaited cookbook, Spicer—an expert at knocking cuisine off its pedestal with a healthy dash of hot sauce, and at elevating comfort food to the level of the sublime—brings her signature dishes to the home cook’s table.

Crescent City Cooking includes all the recipes that have made Susan Spicer, and her restaurants, famous. Spicer marries traditional Southern cooking with culinary influences from around the world, and the result is New Orleans cooking with gusto and flair. Each of her familiar yet unique recipes is easy to make and wonderfully memorable.

Inside you’ll find :
• More than 170 recipes, ranging from traditional New Orleans dishes (Cornmeal-Crusted Crayfish Pies and Cajun-Spiced Pecans) to Susan’s very own twists on down-home cuisine (Smoked Duck Hash in Puff Pastry with Apple Cider Sauce; Grilled Shrimp with Black Bean Cakes and Coriander Sauce) and, of course, a recipe for the best gumbo you’ve ever tasted

• Over 90 photographs by Times-Picayune photographer Chris Granger, which display the vibrant city of New Orleans as much as Spicer’s wonderfully offbeat yet classy way of presenting her dishes

• Instructions that make Spicer’s down-to-earth but extraordinarily creative recipes easy to prepare. Spicer, who cooks for two picky preteens and packs lunch every day for her husband, knows how precious time can be and understands just how much is enough

There is something else of New Orleans—its spirit—that imbues this book’s every useful tip and anecdote. The strong culinary traditions of New Orleans are revived in Crescent City Cooking, with recipes that are guaranteed to comfort and surprise. This is some of the best food you’ll ever taste, in what is certain to become the essential New Orleans cookbook.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36501 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-23
• Released on: 2007-10-23
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 416 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In this mouthwatering debut cookbook, Spicer, noted chef and proprietor of New Orleans's Bayona and Herb-saint, offers a vibrant look at the diversity and breadth of her local cuisine. With more than 170 recipes ranging from Cajun-spiced Pecans and Classic N'Awlins Shrimp Boil to Spicy Thai Salad with Shrimp, Pork, and Crispy Rice Noodles, Spicer highlights the range of the region's cuisine. Shellfish appear in several recipes such as Poached Oysters with Leeks and Bacon, and Shrimp and Tomato Bisque. Sandwiches, gumbos and desserts are also given ample attention. Throughout, Spicer provides brief but helpful descriptions of unusual ingredients such as file powder and less common techniques like cold smoking. The must-try Killer Cocktails section (to-go cup not included) and Spicer Pantry list of important tools and ingredients will make any cook happy. This comprehensive guide to New Orleans cuisine will whet the appetite and please the palate. 86 color photos not seen by PW. (Nov.)
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Review
“This is a great cookbook, full of accessible recipes that people can cook from everyday.  Susan Spicer is a master at marrying exotic flavors with great Southern food.  She is a New Orleans treasure and one of the most talented chefs at work in America today.”

–Suzanne Goin


“Susan Spicer is a chef who dazzles the palate with flavors rooted in her beloved New Orleans.  Her long-awaited debut, Crescent City Cooking, is full of mouth-watering recipes and show-stealing sides, and her chapter on killer cocktails from Bourbon Street is simply not to be missed.  This book is one big party.  Congratulations, Susan.”

–Lidia Bastianich


“Susan Spicer is one of my favorite chefs in my favorite dining city in the world. Her sense of place and tradition is as romantic as it is alluring, and her recipes, basted with an incredible depth of flavor, are disarmingly simple to prepare. Susan's cooking celebrates the vibrant key of the French quarter, and the food in this book is tasty, delicious and exciting to make.”

–Mario Batali


"Susan's cuisine is a true journey around the world, blending soulful ingredients into exciting and original recipes.  Her love for New Orleans' tradition shines through her innovative cooking."

–Daniel Boulud, Chef/Restaurateur

About the Author

Susan Spicer was born in Key West, Florida, and lived in Holland until the age of seven, when her family moved to New Orleans. She has lived there ever since, and is the owner of two restaurants, Bayona and Herbsaint. This is her first cookbook.

Paula Disbrowe was the former Cowgirl Chef at Hart & Hind Fitness Ranch in Rio Frio, Texas.  Prior to that, she spent ten years working as a food and travel writer.  Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Food & Wine, and Saveur, among other major publications.  

Customer Reviews

Please write another book soon!!!
Amazing sophisticated flavors! Nobody would ever guess most of the recipes are so straightforward, taking much less time and effort than so many other cookbooks. I've never bought my mom a cookbook, and this will be the first! I can't wait until Susan Spicer publishes another book!

I can't put it away
I received this book about three weeks ago, and have cooked almost exclusively from it since it arrived. Not one thing has disappointed. I sent my daughter a copy, since she spent most of a visit copying recipes from mine. We did the shrimp boil while she was here (delicious) with the epiphany lemon tart for dessert. Since then, my husband and I have enjoyed the shrimp with green chile cheese grits, and the Madeira mushrooms over goat cheese croutons. I've been reading it like a novel in bed at night, anxiously awaiting the next meal I can make from it. The photographs are beautiful, the writing approachable. Buy it.

Best of year!
My wife says this is the best cookbook she's used this year. And I love the pictures.