Deep Run Roots: Stories and Recipes from My Corner of the South, by Vivian Howard, 2016, $45.00. New York, Little, Brown and Company, 564 p.
Selected by the International Association of Culinary Professionals as the 2017 winner of cookbook awards in four categories—Chefs & Restaurants, General, Julia Child First Book, and Cookbook of the Year—Deep Run Roots will appeal to a variety of readers. Measuring 8¼ by 10¼ inches and weighing almost 6 pounds, the book is packed with stories and recipes.
Despite its massive scope, the book has been carefully structured to make it easy to use. Following a brief introduction, each of the 24 chapters focuses on a single ingredient, its connection to eastern North Carolina, and the role it has played in Vivian’s life growing up in Deep Run. In the Contents, the chapter titles name each ingredient, and the next five pages organize those ingredients into the various types of recipes that are featured in the book; the book also includes a comprehensive index. Eighteen of the twenty-four chapters showcase a fruit or vegetable; the remaining six highlight eggs, oysters, pecans, rice, sausage, and peanuts. While some recipes include meat, they are not a primary focus in the recipes but, rather, an ingredient that complements a meal consisting primarily of vegetables and grains.
Each of the chapters follows a set pattern. The left-hand page features the title set on a colored background that complements an artist’s rendering of that ingredient on the facing page.
Vivian showcases the ingredient and the impact it had on her first as she was growing up and then as she was developing her own voice as a chef. Embedded in each story is a menu of the recipes that will appear in that chapter, a 1- to 2-page reflection on knowledge she has gleaned about that ingredient (described as “wisdom”), and an array of photographs highlighting the recipes and the people and land that are at the heart of this book. The book includes 189 recipes, so each chapter features from 5 to 11 of them. Each recipe includes a headnote that speaks to the ingredient’s role in Vivian’s life or in eastern North Carolina and provides suggestions to the cook. The ingredients are listed in boldface in the order in which they will be used. They are followed by instructions structured in paragraphs with headings when they are needed to discriminate the various components of a particular recipe. In the instructions, Vivian refers to the cook as “you,” which connects the author to the reader in a personal way. Each chapter begins with a recipe that provides a historical context for the use of the ingredient in eastern North Carolina; then it proceeds from simple recipes to those that are more complex.
The design of the book has been carefully considered and implemented, from the layout of each chapter to choices reflected in colors, photographs, and illustrations.
Running heads appear vertically at the top of nearly every page; many left-hand pages include an illustration of the ingredient being showcased, the page number, and the title of the book. If the illustration appears on the left-hand page, the right-hand page includes just a page number and the chapter title; otherwise, the illustration appears at the top on the right. These touch-points make it easy to navigate through the book. Each of the “Wisdom” sections is boxed on a pale yellow background with a headline, the title, and primary headings that reflect the colors used in the menu of recipes on the facing page.
Recipes use a black serif font, and the ingredients are set off between screened colored rules in a sans serif font. Almost every recipe includes at least one photograph, making them particularly inviting.
If you are interested in learning more about this part of the South or have watched Vivian Howard on A Chef’s Life and want to know more about her, her family, her perspectives on being a chef, and the foods of eastern North Carolina, this book will serve you well. You will find innovative ways to use the ingredients showcased here, particularly those you might harvest from your garden or purchase at a farmers’ market. But you don’t have to enjoy cooking to appreciate this book. If the history of foods and their evolving use are appealing, you will find pleasure in reading Vivian’s stories and perusing the photographs. This book is not overpriced for what it offers, and its encyclopedic nature suggests that it will retain its value over time.