Cooking from the Heart: 100 Great American Chefs Share Recipes They Cherish
Since 1984 Share Our Strength has targeted hunger in this country. Of the 33 million people who live with hunger in the US, 40% are children. Most of the adults have jobs. So there's more to Share Our Strength events like Taste of the Nation or the Great American Bake Sale than chefs and food enthusiasts meeting to display taste treats and stuff their faces. This ongoing process raises the millions of dollars that Share Our Strength delivers to programs that combat hunger.Cooking from the Heartis another element is this grand scheme. One hundred chefs have contributed some recipes and their own reminiscences about food in their life. Chefs are often distant, mysterious beings, some with celebrity status, many simply working out their creative demons back in the kitchen.Cooking from the Heartis an outsider's opportunity to peek inside, to get as close as family--if only for a page or two, a recipe or two. But it is telling and worthwhile.This is a warm book. Heartfelt warmth. And the recipes are terrific for being so personal. Seattle's Tom Douglas, for example,  provides Shrimp Remoulade on Molasses Toasts, while explaining that his mother's idea of spicy seasoning was a silver-dollar size piece of onion cooking in a pot roast for 12. Chpaters covering "Starters," "Brunch and Lighter Dishes," "Soups and Stews," "Pasta and Rice," "Seafood, Poultry, Meats," "Salads and Side Dishes," "Desserts"--they are all here. So too are Seeger, Van Aiken, Schlesinger, Boulud, Traunfeld, Milliken, Waters, Bastianich, Yan, Lagasse, and many many more. Like all Share Our Strength projects, a portion of the cover price ofCooking from the Heartwill end up feeding the hungry.--Schuyler Ingle