Review: Cheers to the Publican by Paul Kahan

Title: Cheers to the Publican, Repast and Present: Recipes and Ramblings from an American Beer Hall
Author: Paul Kahan
Format: egalley
Pub. Date: September 19th 2017
Source: Publisher/Netgalley


Book Description:

The highly anticipated narrative-rich cookbook by Chicago's superstar chef, Paul Kahan, whose destination restaurant, The Publican, is known for its incredibly delicious pork- and seafood-centric, beer-friendly cooking.

The Publican, often named one of Chicago's most popular restaurants, conjures a colonial American beer hall with its massive communal tables, high-backed chairs, deep beer list, and Kahan's hallmark style of crave-worthy heartland cooking that transcends the expected and is eminently cookable. Cheers to The Publican is Paul Kahan's and Executive Chef Cosmo Goss's toast to the food they love to make and share, the characters who produce the ingredients that inspire them, and the other cooks they honor. Larded with rich story-telling and featuring more than 150 evocative photographs and 150 recipes for vegetables and salads, fish and seafood, meat, simple charcuterie, and breads and spreads, Cheers to The Publican is sure to be one of the most talked-about and cooked-from cookbooks of the year.

Review:

★★★★★

I was super excited to get my hands on a copy of this book. Though I haven't gotten a chance to dine there yet (unfortunately :( ), Publican is a well known Chicago establishment. I'm in the neighborhood all the time, and I am happy to have gotten a peak behind closed ovens with this cookbook.

The book is divided into sections by ingredient: vegetables, shellfish, fish, meat, charcuterie and sausages, offal, and breads and spreads.

There are a LOT of photos in this book, which is a huge plus for me. And not only are there a lot of them, but the ones that are in there are gorgeous. There's also a lot of personal stories, and background information about the restaurant and the people behind it. Sure, it's gorgeous to flip through the pictures, but I really enjoyed reading the non-recipe information. It has a warm, welcoming tone that shows the passion for ingredients and cooking as a whole, which then comes across well in the recipes.

The recipes are a bit complicated with lots of components, but the steps are well written and to the point.

Some of the dishes that I'm most excited to try from this cookbook include Dry Aged Duck Breast with Pumpkin Seed Vinaigrette, Pork Country Ribs with Watermelon and Sungold Salad, and Blood Pasta with Sea Beans, Fava Beans, and Mussels

This is a great book for someone looking to be a bit more upscaled at home, prepare for a date night, or who is big into the culinary scene in Chicago.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.