Johnnie Gabriel • Thomas Nelson
By By Dane Roberts Wans On Bookreview
This book has a forward by Paula Deen who is the first-cousin of Johnnie Gabriel, the owner of Gabriel’s Desserts. Foodies know Deen as the top chef in southern cooking. When Deen speaks, people listen.
This cook book is the collection of recipes served in the restaurant in Marietta, Ga. by the same name.
Gabriel has been baking since she was a little girl and has been making cakes professionally for nearly 20 years. It was in 1996 that she opened the restaurant and catering company, Gabriel’s Desserts, and soon after that she started serving lunch and dinner.
These are delectable, enticing southern dishes covering appetizers, beverages, breads, sandwiches, salads, soups, and so on. It is a full service cook book.
For those with a sweet tooth the dessert section contains cheese cake recipes and pound cake recipes along with toppings and ice cream and so on.
Deen has long been known as a southern cook of note. Now we have her cousin who joins her in the upper echelon of southern cuisine. It is nice when a successful restaurant shares the recipes that are served.
What is good about this collection is that there are also personal essays among the recipes concerning highlights into the daily running of the organization. There is even an essay on grilling tips, Ed’s Grilling Tips, inserted before the collection of grilled entrees. Another great essay is on learning the ropes with friends by your side.
Reviews of cooking books would not be complete without a few recipes. So I will give you some.
Grits are big in southern cooking. There is a raspberry grits recipes which calls for a pint fresh or frozen raspberries and 1 cup sugar with 3 1/3 cups cooked grits. A tip is given at the end of the recipe that suggests you stir the raspberries into the grits before eating, adding more sugar to taste. It can be served with meats and seafood.
Another recipe, this one found in the soup and chili section, is the tomato basil soup. This is made with 2 Italian tomatoes, 1 cup chicken broth, 1 teaspoon dried basil, salt and pepper, to taste, and 2/3 cup heavy cream.
“Pour the tomatoes into a four-quart saucepan. Crush the tomatoes into small pieces using your hands. Add the chicken broth, basil and salt and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer over low heat for 20 to 30 minutes. Lower the heat and whisk in the heavy cream, heating thoroughly but not boiling.”
Round about Thanksgiving we all have turkey. There is a recipe here for smoked turkey. You would take your 10 to 15 pound bird, thaw it and clean it, keeping the skin on. You would put this over a fire comprised of 10 pounds of charcoal and three or four fistfuls of hardwood chunks which you have soaked for at least one hour in water. You then dry off your turkey and use a 9 ounce jar of yellow mustard that you smear all over the bird. Once covered, put the turkey on the grill rack and smoke it for eight hours with the lid down.
This book is a must have to add to your cookbook shelf.
Good eating and good reading go together. Please, don’t eat and read a book at the same time. The food and drink may spill on the book and ruin it. For more interesting discussion contact me at
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 29, 2008. Read the original PDF.