American Palate

Richmond's culinary history spans more than four hundred years and includes forgotten cooks and makers who paved the way for Richmond's vibrant modern food scene. The foodways of local Indian tribes were pivotal to the nation. Unconventional characters such as Mary Randolph, Jasper Crouch, Ellen Kidd, Virginia Randolph and John Dabney used food and drink to break barriers. Family businesses like C.F. Sauer and Sally Bell's Kitchen, recipient of a James Beard America's Classic Award, shaped the local community. Virginia Union University students and two family-run department stores paved the way for restaurant desegregation. Local journalists Maureen Egan and Susan Winiecki, founders of Fire, Flour & Fork, offer an engaging social history complete with classic Richmond recipes.

Raise a glass to Virginia, birthplace of American spirits, and its long history of distilling and imbibing.

Colonist George Thorpe first crafted "corn beere,'? an ancestor to bourbon, in 1620 at Berkeley Plantation, and George Washington once operated one of the nation's largest distilleries. Icy mint juleps were first served in Virginia until the state was one of the first to enact Prohibition. That dark period gave rise to bootlegging, moonshining, and even NASCAR.

Through well documented research, interviews with key stakeholders, and plenty of cocktail recipes for the reader to shake and stir at home, author Patrick Evans-Hylton showcases the rich history of 400 years of drinking in the Commonwealth.

The culinary history of Myrtle Beach reflects a unique merging of Native American, European, African and Caribbean cuisines.

Learn the techniques used by enslaved Africans created vast wealth for rice plantation owners; what George Washington likely ate when visiting South Carolina in 1791; how the turpentine industry gave rise to a sticky sweet potato cooking method; and why locals eagerly anticipate one special time of year when boiled peanuts are at their best. Author Becky Billingsley, a longtime Myrtle Beach-area restaurant journalist, digs deep into historic records and serves up both tantalizing personal interviews and dishes on the best local restaurants, where many delicious farm-to-table heritage foods can still be enjoyed.

The roots of Maryland winemaking are surprisingly deep. The state's first known vines were planted in 1648, and a later Marylander, John Adlum, established his place as the father of American viticulture. In the twentieth century, post-Prohibition pioneers like Philip Wagner and Ham Mowbray nurtured a new crop of daring and innovative winemakers who have made the state an up-and-coming wine region. Author Regina Mc Carthy travels through the red tobacco barns of southern Maryland and the breezy vineyards of the Eastern Shore all the way to the Piedmont Plateau and the cool mountain cellars of the west in search of the state's finest wines and their stories. Join Mc Carthy as she traces over 350 years of the remarkable and robust history of Maryland wines.