I am from here Stories and recipes from a Southern chef

Review by Booklist Review

Southern cooking has long been a mashup of influences: Native American, English, African, Caribbean, French, and more. Bhatt adds to this mélange with his Oxford, Mississippi, restaurant that has achieved national renown for its inventive blending of Southern cooking with the foods of Bhatt's native India. The assertive perfumes of tropical spices may seem removed from the land of fried chicken and pimiento cheese, but, in reality, one of the South's most iconic dishes is Country Captain, chicken stewed with curry. Bhatt's novel take replaces chicken with pork chops, but when it comes to jambalaya, Bhatt barely touches the New Orleans recipe. Bhatt's forte is his treatment of vegetables. Raised in a vegetarian household, he knows how best to make okra and eggplant attractive and filling for all. Bhatt also whips up some Turkish and Lebanese dishes, and uses Southern-staple peanuts along with cilantro as a base for pesto. Bhatt even comes up with his own version of the South's beloved grits, enhanced with mustard seeds, cashews, and ginger.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

---

Review by Library Journal Review

Bhatt made his way to the University of Mississippi as a young man bringing with him his Gujarati roots and that is where his culinary journey began. Now a James Beard Award-winning chef, he shares the secret to his unique fusion cooking in this debut. Recipes vary their foundations, sometimes Southern and sometimes Indian, but there is always a bit of both in his creative offerings. Home cooks will find mainly vegetarian options in chapters featuring okra, tomatoes, greens, and more. Non-vegetarians won't be disappointed, however, with separate seafood and meat chapters. Recipes are filled with exciting flavor combinations that are baffling but ingenious. Ginger, fennel, mint, basil, and a touch of heat, all in shrimp salad? It's amazing. Readers will enjoy his anecdotes about his childhood and his life experiences as a chef, as this is more than a delectable fusion cookbook, it is a reflection of a life journey about making new homes and creating communities all through food. VERDICT Recommended for all who like delicious comfort food, bold flavors, and classics with a distinctive twist.--Sarah Tansley

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

---

Review by Kirkus Book Review

A noted Southern chef delivers a palate-pleasing blend of memoir and recipes. "Recently, someone important asked me if I consider myself a Southern chef. The answer is absolutely yes…this is where I have made my home, and this is where I make my living." So writes Bhatt, who has headed numerous kitchens in Oxford, Mississippi, since 1992. Born in Gujarat, he came to the U.S. with a wealth of Indian recipes learned in his mother's kitchen. He pointedly asserts his status as a Southern chef who knows that grits and curry belong together and that the two food traditions (which, of course, each embrace countless other food traditions) have plenty of affinities, including a love of vegetables straight out of the garden and of rice, especially now that the South has increasingly become a place of settlement for new arrivals from Latin America and Asia and has grown more open to new foodways. "I grew up eating okra, black-eyed peas, fresh tomatoes, and lima beans," Bhatt writes. Those Indian staples are Southern ones, too. Still, the author brings plenty new to the table, such as a lively dish of coal-roasted sweet potatoes flavored with ghee, cloves, nutmeg, and lots of black pepper. Some of his dishes pass muster in a Southern setting but would likely scandalize the folks back home, as with a recipe for tandoori pork marinated in yogurt. Most of the recipes, however, travel easily between the continents--e.g., a variation on collard greens and cornbread that yields a treat "just like a pakora made with corn and spinach or fenugreek leaves that I had as a child." Bhatt closes with a listing of dishes built around occasions such as brunch (tomato-coconut chutney) and winter dinners (Afghan-style spinach with dill and cilantro) that will send readers to the kitchen straightaway. Bhatt makes a convincing case for a Southern cuisine based on both tradition and innovation. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

---