The majority of this narration is from the cookbook’s jacket. Chef Chris Shepherd, a citizen of Houston, has received numerous accolades, including the prestigious James Beard Award and Best Chef: Southwest. He has also been recognized as one of the “10 Best New Chefs in America” by Food & Wine and has multiple nominations for his culinary contributions. In his book, nominated for a James Beard Award, he features many Asians dishes, some with his own twists. (He was) trained in fine-dining restaurants, and also trained in the Vietnamese noodle shops, Korean grocery stores, Mexican taquerias, Indian kitchens and Chinese mom-and-pops (that, according to him,) make Houston, the city that inspires him, one of the most culturally diverse cities in the United States. Along the way, he’s learned to use a world’s worth of flavors, and, more important, made friends who he wants to introduce to you (in this book).
This is a cookbook that shows how you can bring flavors from around the globe – from fish sauce and chiles to soy and spices to rice and corn, seamlessly into your home cooking. But more than that, it’s a book about learning: how to talk with your neighbors and how to bring people together in a world that sometimes makes them feel far apart. It’s a story of Vietnamese Houstonian Crawfish and Fried Chicken Tamales and Korean-Style Sloppy Joes. It’s a story of how cooking like a local often means cooking like someone from half-way across the globe.
If you have never eaten Vietnamese food, you owe it to yourself to try it. Something simple like bun (pronounced boon) or my favorite Vietnamese dipping sauce, nước chấm.
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