Has anyone had a chance to check out Vivian Howard’s new cookbook Deep Run Roots? I think her show is very good but I’m not sure I’d get all that much use from a book that seems like it would be very much specifically focused on products and recipes from her area, many of which seem like they’d be pretty hard to be find on the West coast.
I never buy first printing cookbooks because it seems there are always errata which are corrected in subsequent runs. However, since Ms. Howard’s recipes interest me, I read the Amazon reviews for Deep Run Roots. Several point out that it’s a very heavy book, with pale print, and photos that seem flat/drab. It is chaptered by focal ingredient, e.g. muscadine grapes, rather than the category of dish. One of the reviews lists a couple of recipe titles from each chapter. They sound appealing, but personally, I would not buy this book sight unseen.
Hmmmmmm. 55 Amazon reviews; 52 of them 5 star, 2 of them 3 star, and 1 that hated the photos. I think I’ll stop by a Barnes & Noble to check it out for the usefulness of the recipes in my life, and maybe the
photos too, but I don’t buy this kind of book early either. I wait a while and buy a used copy at deep discount. I can also usually judge quality/demand based on the pricing at Amazon after a month or so.
I bought the book and love it after checking it out of the library first. I don’t have a problem with photos, and she has several indices that are very helpful and seem much more helpful than usual cookbooks. It hasn’t yet been indexed by Eat Your Books, but I have requested it and suspect it will be done soon. There are not many ingredients that are specific to her area of NC…I haven’t cooked from it much yet, but I have read a lot of the recipes and I can get most if not all of the ingredients in the Boston area.
I have the book, but can’t yet comment on the photos/print since I have not had time to crack it open. It is large and pretty hefty. I’ll report back when I spend some time in it.
It arrived a week ago. Lots of great side content and a slew of recipes. I do have to say that much of it (as I thought it might be) is about ingredients not all that commonly used here in SoCal. That could make it extremely interesting or maybe a bit difficult to decide to use much. I’ll have to see which it becomes.
As to the comment about the pictures… yes, they are somewhat subdued, but that seems to be because of the matte finish of the paper more than anything else. That kinda makes them less than ‘drop-dead-gourgeous’ but they just fine.
BTW, I bought a $27 and change “used” copy, on Amazon, that looks brand new to me.
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