Stephanie Stewart-Howard - Nashville Chef’s Table: Extraordinary Recipes from Music City

This book is dedicated to my husband Seth Howard, for all the love and support he's given to me, and to my late grandmothers, Myra Stewart and Lula Webb, who introduced me to the art of Southern food.

Edamame Salsa

Catfish

Southern Green Beans

Mac & Cheese

Tomato Basil Pie

Raspberry Lemon Cloud 9

Brussels Sprouts & Bacon Pizza

The Princess Biscuit

Brussels Sprouts

The Ramsey Burger

Crab Cakes with Asian Slaw & Mango Chili Sauce

Lobster & Brie "Mac and Cheese" with Benton's Smoky Mountain Country Ham Crisp

Smoked Salmon with Orecchiette Pasta

Hanger Steak with Vegetable Frites & Double-Fried French Fries

Spring Trout

Blueberry Cobbler Cocktail

Porch Pounder

Amy's Balsamic Raspberry Truffles

Sofia's Sweet Potato Truffles

Butternut Rotolo

Green Means Go

Cascade Cooler

Brown Sugar Shortcakes

Pork Tenderloin with Peach Salad, Shaved Radicchio & Sweet Cherry Gastrique

Tennessee Julep

West End Julep

Vanilla Bean Cafe Au Lait

Mini Spinach Feta Frittata

Etch Duck Breast with Ginger Grits, Sweet Potato Guava Schmear, Cranberry Relish & Pear Butter

Tuna, Eggplant & Spinach Ponzu Salad

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Coffee Creme Brulee, Milk Chocolate Crumble & Mocha Mousse

Whisper Creek Wakeup Chiller

The PC Muffin

Nashville Hot Chicken

The Cauveri Cocktail

Firepot Chai Hot Toddy

Chai Fried Chicken

Pig Ears with Waffles

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Spiced Parmesan Cream

Grilled Cheese

Old-Fashioned Tomato Soup

Listless Ease

Cucumber Salad

Southern Corn Bread

Collard Greens

Carrot Pudding

Goo Goo Cluster Pie

Penne with Porcini Cognac Cream Sauce

Zeppole

Salad with Fresh Strawberries, Blue Cheese, Toasted Almonds & White Balsamic Vinaigrette

Chicken with Fresh Spring Peas, Potatoes, Lemon & Mint

Redneck Taco

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Beef Tartare with Pecan Romesco

Strawberry Salad

Johnny Cash's "Old Iron Pot" Family-Style Chili

Smoked Salmon Dressing

Pecan Cheese Wafers

Miss Daisy's Hot Artichoke Dip

Miss Daisy's Black Bean Salad

Duck Hunter

French Baguettes

Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

Puckett's Chicken Salad

Puckett's King's French Toast

Braised Pork Shanks with Red Wine Jus

No. 1104

Char Siu Meatballs

Mac & Cheese

Chicken Fried Chicken

King Kong Couscous

Pulled Pork with Caraway Slaw & Homemade Dijon Mustard

BBQ Shrimp

My Way (Pasta)

Beets & Heat Salad

Shrimp & Grits with Pickled Okra

Jack Daniel's Pecan Pie

Vegetable Korma

Bouillabaisse

Onion Soup Gratinee

Thai Cobb Salad

Chipotle Mac & Cheese

Tennessee Sharp Cheddar Cheese Fritters

Chow Chow

Trying to represent Nashville's burgeoning food culture in such a small space has been a stunning task. I owe a lot of gratitude to the people who taught me what food and food writing are all about in this spectacular town.

The marvelous Martha Stamps familiarized me in so many ways with Nashville's traditional food culture, and food critic Kay West introduced me to both the newest and the oldest of the restaurants that define who we are as a culinary city. Miss Daisy King reminds me what Nashville cooking is truly all about with everything she does.

My friends and fellow writers Chris Chamberlain, Jennifer Justus, Dara Carson, Kay West, and Tammy Algood have inspired me, as have the chefs and artists who have become more than passing acquaintances, including Pat Martin, Tyler Brown, Jason McConnell, Carl Schultheis, Tandy Wilson, Siva Pavuluri, Sarah Souther, James Hensley, and Sarah Scarborough. Marne Duke, Robin Riddell Jones, Janet Kurtz,and Jennifer Hagan-Dier, thanks for your knowledge and advice over the years.

Photographer Ron Manville and I have worked together quite a bit over the past few years, first at Nashville Lifestyles, then on other projects. He has taught me to look at images of food in a way I never thought possible, and I'm delighted to have had the chance to work with him on this book.

My parents, Joe and Yvonne Stewart, opened up the culinary world for me, not only from their own Southern background, but through world travel and the opportunity to experience native foods across the globe-and they taught me to bring the recipes home and cook them for myself. They are both outstanding cooks, and I'm lucky they still believe in family meals.

Likewise, my late grandmothers, Myra Fendley Stewart and Lula Prillaman Webb, were my first teachers about eating fresh food you grew yourself and just how good the simplest things, like biscuits and yeast rolls, could be. (Needless to say, they were also both absolute masters of the complex, especially when it came to dessert.)

The greatest thanks of all belong to my husband, Seth Howard, who encouraged me to pursue my dreams and put up with my incessant talk about this book. He is my constant source of inspiration in all the arts I pursue and the goals that I make for myself.

Nashville has been a music town for decades now, ever since the Grand Ole Opry began in the 1930s with the rise of "old-time" music, followed by an even greater musical influx after World War II, with the birth of Music Row. It dates back to the days of RCA Studio B, on to Hank and Patsy, through George and Tammy and Dolly and Porter, then Willie and Kris and Johnny and Merle, on to Garth Brooks and George Strait, to Carrie Underwood and Blake Shelton. We've been viewed through the eyes of Hee Haw and Robert Altman's Nashville and Nashville the TV show. But there is more to "Music City" than years of music-then and now.

Two thousand thirteen, the year this book was written, saw Nashville become an "it" city in the eyes of the nation and the world-about, for once, more than just the musical superstars. Dozens of publications, domestic and international, rushed to talk about usour food, our arts, our craftspersons, our businesses, our sports, and our real estateand proclaim us the hottest thing in the nation.