The Pat Conroy Cookbook

Publisher Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, November 2004

American’s favorite storyteller is back-this time with a cookbook that is also a memoir of good food and good company from his beloved South and beyond.

Pat Conroy is well known to his readers as a lover of good food, but what may surprise them is that he has had a passion for cooking for more than thirty years. It all started with a chance purchase of The Escoffier Cookbook,an unlikely and daunting introduction for the beginner. But Conroy was more than up to the task. He set out with unwavering determination to master the basics of not only French but all good cooking-stocks and dough-and, with his kitchen redolent of veal demi-glace and pâte brisée, he went on to become an accomplished cook. He mastered the dishes of his beloved South and re-created the dishes he had savored in places as far away from home as Paris, Rome, and Bangkok. From Breakfast Shrimp and Grits to Fried Baby Artichokes with Beef Marrow, from Pappardelle with Prosciutto and Chestnuts to Fava Beans with Pecorino to Mocha Macaroons, Conroy takes the reader with him on a mouthwatering tour of some of the world’s great cuisines.

THE PAT CONROY COOKBOOK is more than just that. It’s a virtual Ode To Joy. Read it; cook from it. You will eat better than you ever have in your life, and will know more about Pat Conroy, perhaps, than he would ever tell you.
— Anne Rivers Siddons, author of Colony, Fox’s Earth, Homeplace, Islands