• Eat Your Books

  See Eat Me Daily's review of this cookbook.

  This cookbook was listed in Publisher Weekly’s Best Food Books of 2009.

  This cookbook was listed in Omnivore Books of San Francisco’s Best Cookbooks of 2009.

  See Susie's review of this cookbook in her round-up of the best 2009 cookbooks at The Boston Globe.

  See Lisa Is Cooking's take on Crayfish etouffee and Grilled oysters with spicy garlic butter as well as her review of this book.

• nomadchowwoman on January 09, 2010

  I loved reading about the making of this particular chef and the local and European influences on his wonderful food. And Besh is an honest New Orleanian who understands that caricature is not necessary to capture New Orleans's character.The recipes seem more accessible than those of most chef cookbooks, and the ones I've tried--pumpkin seed brittle, spinach madeleine, basked oysters--were. But this is a very large, unwieldy tome.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Shrimp, chicken, and andouille jambalaya

  • cthdawn on February 07, 2010

    added oysters; very good; used white wine with the cx broth

• Beignets

  • zorra on March 11, 2014

    A Mardi Gras indulgence for us. Easily halved or even (for just 2 or 3 people) quartered.

• Honey island chanterelle soup

  • amoule on December 23, 2016

    Absolutely delicious; definitely worth repeating annually. I suggest cutting back the red pepper flakes to just a pinch, though. You can always add more if that doesn't suit your taste. Also, I added almost another cup of chicken broth because it's so thick. Note to self: next year try 1/2 potato instead of a whole one to cut back on the carbs.

• Besh barbecue shrimp

  • babyfork on February 08, 2016

    I was able to get fresh whole Louisiana gulf shrimp from Fish in Sausalito, so I decided to make this for my indulgent Super Bowl dinner. New Orleans-style barbecue shrimp really has nothing to do with the grill or barbecue as far as I can tell. Anyway, I had plenty of heads and shells after cleaning my 2lbs, so I made a double batch of the shrimp sauce base (as Besh says it freezes well). You could really taste the shrimp in the finished sauce and the shrimp themselves were tasty and sweet. Served with toasted French bread to mop up the delicious sauce as suggested in the book.

• Crabmeat maison

  • babyfork on January 27, 2016

    Used in-season Dungeness crab. Delicious! Will make again. Would also be a nice starter in a smaller portion for a special lunch or dinner.

• Cauliflower and crawfish soup

  • duggieduggieduggie on September 09, 2017

    http://www.louisianatravel.com/culinary/recipes/chef-john-beshs-cauliflower-and-belle-river-crawfish-soup-recipe

  • Baxter850 on April 15, 2020

    Delicious but really rich and more complicated than his Besh Big Easy cauliflower soup recipe. Use that recipe and add crawfish next time!

• Red beans and rice

  • Baxter850 on May 16, 2020

    Took forever and flavor was just okay. Had to add a ton of salt. Try a different recipe.

• Basic Louisiana white rice

  • Baxter850 on May 16, 2020

    Really good technique. Rice isn’t sticky like most rice cooking techniques.

• White chocolate and Meyer lemon semifreddo with vanilla-poached berries

  • Baxter850 on April 15, 2020

    A lot of work. The recipe will make two portions. Making one portion resulted in a super tall semifreddo and lots of extra cookies. Semifreddo was good but dough for the cookies was super sticky and basically impossible to roll out. Ended up just manually flattening them. Still a tasting dish. Let the semifreddo thaw a bit before serving.

  • Shelmar on September 04, 2019

    Very good, but for that the cookie broke.

• Food52 by Daniel Patterson

  The 2010 Piglet Tournament of Cookbooks vs. Donald Link's Real Cajun

  Full review

• Fine Cooking

  This glorious book is award-winning chef John Besh’s testament to his beloved hometown. Besh honors classics like gumbo, but he also breaks with tradition...

  Full review