Local Cookbooks Take Austin by Storm

by Laura Kelso

Not only does Austin offer a dizzying array of dining options, but now you can experience some of the city’s best cuisine in your own kitchen, thanks to several recently published cookbooks.

In The Soup Peddler’s Slow and Difficult Soups: Recipes and Reveries, David Ansel - a.k.a. “Austin’s Soup Peddler” - provides more than thirty-five original recipes from his thriving soup business. The book is much more than a cookbook, however. It is a culinary memoir, filled with lively stories about Ansel, an entrepreneur-idealist who pulls his homemade soups around Austin in a trailer attached to his bike. His customers – an eclectic group who largely populate Austin’s Bouldin Creek neighborhood – figure largely in his story, as does a cross-dressing mayoral candidate, and a warm weather competitor called the Ice Cream Man. The “slow and difficult” in the book’s title is a jab at our ubiquitous fast-food culture. In stark contrast, the Soup Peddler supports the slow food movement, and embraces environmentalist ideals such as recycling, reusable packaging, healthy seasonal ingredients, and sustainability. He provides recipes for such toothsome creations as Smoked Tomato Bisque, Chompy-Chomp Black Bean Soup, and Armenian Apricot Soup. Whimsically illustrated by Liza Ferneyhough, The Soup Peddler’s Slow and Difficult Soups is a charming tribute to the art of making soup, and the joy that results from sharing it with others.

Fonda San Miguel: Thirty Years of Food and Art commemorates the thirtieth anniversary of Fonda San Miguel, the beloved Austin eatery that is renowned for its diverse regional Mexican cuisine. The beautiful volume showcases many of the Austin restaurant’s signature recipes, as well as much of its stunning Mexican art. Compiled and written by restaurant founders Tom Gilliland and Miguel Ravago, and Austin Chronicle Food Editor Virginia B. Wood, the book features full color photographs that illustrate special dishes such as a classic tortilla soup and a mouth watering chicken mole. Culled from Fonda San Miguel menus over the years, many of the recipes have been expertly enhanced by the inspiration and consultation of the legendary Diana Kennedy, the woman responsible for documenting hundreds of authentic interior Mexican dishes in her seminal books about Mexican cuisine.  Fonda San Miguel: Thirty Years of Food and Art invites its readers on a colorful and memorable culinary journey across Mexico.

Finally, if you like sweet endings, check out Rebecca Rather’s The Pastry Queen: Royally Good Recipes from the Texas Hill Country's Rather Sweet Bakery & Café. Rather, owner of The Rather Sweet Bakery and Café in Fredericksburg, TX, takes the best of the Lone Star state and turns out gorgeous desserts that often taste better than homemade. Her colorful book offers recipes for signature sweets such as crunchy Texas pralines, Texas Big Hairs Lemon-Lime Meringue Tarts, and a sumptuous Fredericksburg Peach Cream Cheese Tart. The Pastry Queen lives up to her name in this beautiful book that is guaranteed to make your mouth water.