Biographical note:

Colman Andrews is editor of Saveur and author of Everything on the Table and other cookbooks. He lives in Connecticut.

Dorothy Kalins is editor-in-chief of Saveur and Garden Design magazines. She lives in New York City. Colman Andrews is editor of Saveur and author of Everything on the Table and other cookbooks. He lives in Connecticut.

Christopher Hirsheimer is executive editor of Saveur. Her photos appear in several cookbooks, including Fried and True. She lives in Pennsylvania.

Main description:

Authentic recipes, excellent stories, and fantastic photographs have made Saveur magazine a sensation. In just three award-winning years, it has established itself among those with discriminating tastes, enjoying a circulation of over 330,000. Chronicle Books is proud to present Saveur's first cookbook, a glorious look at food traditions and innovations throughout America. In 175 recipes and more than 400 color photographs, we visit kitchens across the country in search of great food: Old World Italian cooking in San Francisco's North Beach, original fusion cuisine in Hawaii, fiery specialties from Louisiana's Acadians, succulent spit-roasted lamb at a Greek Orthodox Easter in New York. In-depth and wonderfully varied, this is American cuisine in all its diverse flavors. Featuring outstanding food writing and recipes as well as luscious on-site photography and food and technique shots, Saveur Cooks Authentic American is a fascinating gastronomic journey. This colorful celebration of eating well is a sumptuous addition to any cook's library.

Review quote:

Saveur Cooks Authentic American

Reviews From:

The New York Times

San Francisco Examiner

The Boston Globe

From: New York Times

No matter what the recipes here may produce, the results appear irresistible in this pictorial celebration of American regional cooking. Even the macaroni and cheese made with good old Wisconsin cheddar looks like a gourmet special.

From: San Francisco Examiner Magazine

In the summer of 1994 the first issue of Saveur arrived in the mailboxes of America's clued-in foodies. This was a new kind of food magazine, full of stunning photographs picturing authentic cuisine from around the world and the residents who cook them. A celebration of culinary anthropology, the publication fell somewhere between National Geographic and Gourmet magazines. It was an immediate hit. (Let me just say that I have every issue stacked in my office.)

Though international in scope, Saveur covers American cooking in-depth, concentrating on distinctive regional pockets (Tex-Mex border, New Bedford Portuguese) or beloved American ingredients (head lettuce; Vidalia onions). After four years of bi-monthy publication, Saveur's editors were able to collect enough American pieces to create a handsome collection, Saveur Cooks Authentic American

The work is a glossy volume of art-book quality color photography, as only Chronicle Books can produce, interspersed with sidebars and simple recipes laid out in Saveur's signature style vivacious images with a soupcon of eye-pleasing text. Once you pick up Saveur Cooks Authentic American, you can't put it down. This is food porn at its most riveting.

It is one of the most sensually exciting cookbooks I've seen--and one of the most fun to browse.

Like the magazine that inspired it, this is a gorgeous book, with color photographs on every page. There are close-ups of food, as well as depictions of the people who contributed or inspired recipes, and archival photos tracking American meals from decades ago. But looks aren't everything, especially when it comes to cookbooks. Fortunately, the recipes here are also appealing. They are accompanied by introductory notes and sidebars, information that documents the source of a particular dish, such as Chuck's three-day chowder, from a Plymouth resident, or Tutu-Man's chicken with teriyaki sauce, from a Hawaiian native. The book stresses the diversity of our nation of immigrants, and dishes with flavors from around the world make appearances, along with classics such as sweet potato casserole and barbecued ribs.