Southern Heat by Anthony Lamas with Gwen Pratesi
“An American treasure with a latin beat.”—Chef Bobby Flay
“SOUTHERN HEAT showcases the great potential for diversity in American cooking. Its recipes are resplendent with chiles, but anchored in the history of the regional foods of Kentucky.”— Chef Hugh Acheson
Food Network’s “Extreme Chef” winner and multiple James Beard Best Chef nominee, Chef Anthony Lamas is taking the culinary world by storm and spicing up the South! Some call his style of cooking “Nuevo Latino” but Anthony calls it Modern Latin cooking using Southern ingredients that reflect the flavors of his life. Now, in your own kitchen, you can turn up the heat with his debut cookbook, SOUTHERN HEAT: New Southern Cooking Latin Style by Anthony Lamas and Gwen Pratesi (The Taunton Press; November 3, 2015; $35.00).
In the pages of SOUTHERN HEAT, experience the flavors of Lamas’ Louisville, Kentucky restaurant, Seviche, A Latin Restaurant—lauded by PBS, USA today, Today Travel and Esquire—where his Latin roots are blended with the best ingredients of the South to create a modern version of Southern food and cooking. Gwen Pratesi is the Atlanta-based writer and co-producer of the food and travel lifestyle website, Bunkycooks.com. Throughout SOUTHERN HEAT you’ll find traditional recipes peppered with the bold, daring tastes and textures of Latin cuisine like Macadamia Crusted Halibut with Passionfruit Habanero Sauce and Kentucky Apple and Bourbon Pecan Bread Pudding.
Chef Lamas’ pride in being part of the largest American regional food movement is evident throughout SOUTHERN HEAT. His appreciation for his heritage, mentors, local farmers, his dedication to using sustainable ingredients, and his passion for layering flavors to achieve the perfect balance between brightness, citrus, acidity, heat, and spice are conveyed in the more than 125 recipes and through the stories and tips as well as stunning photography.
About Chef Anthony Lamas
Anthony Lamas’ passion for cooking and great food began at a very young age. Inspired by his Latin heritage and early travel experiences, Lamas grew up working in the kitchen of his family’s Spanish restaurant while a young boy in California. Living on a family farm and participating in Future Farmers of America, Lamas was an early proponent of using locally sourced ingredients before it became a national movement. In 2005, with a change of partners, he opened Seviche, A Latin Restaurant, to extraordinary reviews, merging his West Coast, Pacific Rim, and Latin flavors with local Southern ingredients. Seviche was just named the Best Restaurant in Louisville by Eater (November 2013). Lamas is a three-time James Beard Award nominee for Best Chef Southeast and has cooked at the James Beard House six times. The Hispanic Food Network has named Lamas one of the top Latin chefs in the country. Lamas has been featured in numerous magazines such as Southern Living, Food Arts, Arts, Bon Appétit, and Wine Spectator. He won the Woodford Reserve Culinary Bourbon Recipe Challenge, the Louisville Iron Chef Challenge, and the Bourbon Classic Cocktail Challenge. Lamas appeared on and won the Cooking Channel’s Extreme Chef competition in 2011. Seviche was featured on America’s Best Bites on the Cooking Channel. Lamas received a “Seafood Ambassador Award” from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Program in 2011 for his continued efforts to support the use of sustainable seafood. Most recently, USA Today named Seviche as one of the “Ten great places for Latino flavor and flair” in the United States, and Southern Living named it as one of the Top 100 Places to dine in the South.
ABOUT GWEN PRATESI:
Gwen Pratesi is a James Beard Foundation Award nominated food and travel writer who lives in Atlanta, Georgia. She chronicles her love of travel, lifelong experience as a professional home cook, and food adventures on Bunkycooks.com, where she shares the stories of highly regarded chefs, restaurateurs, farmers, wine and spirits artisans, and owners of businesses that produce the very best in food products. She also shares the stories of the travel locations along with the recipes that are representative of the region. Bunkycooks.com has become a lifestyle website for those interested in the finest in travel and a closer connection to our food and culture. Gwen has been featured on numerous websites and in newspapers, including Gourmet.com, Bon Appétit.com and Fine Cooking.com, the LA Times and the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Southern Heat is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble Bookstores, Taunton, Indie and national chain stores.
