Brunch Season
A Year of Delicious Mornings from the Buttermilk Kitchen
The flavors of Atlanta’s Buttermilk Kitchen—famed for its dazzling breakfasts and lunches—shift to coastal Maine in Suzanne Vizethann’s Brunch Season, an inviting cookbook.
Puzzled by brunch’s unpopularity at culinary school, Vizethann sought out a restaurant apprenticeship where her favorite meal was given five-star status by “chefs with striped aprons, tweezers, and tattoos.” This training and passion for culinary experimentation is exemplified in her elevated takes on brunch staples, like fruit salad zhuzhed up with vanilla-bean syrup and oven-crisped candied bacon. There are approachable instructions for making delectable baked goods from scratch, eggs for a crowd, and standout cocktails and mocktails. Seeking out top-caliber ingredients is stressed as the key to recreating these intermediate-level dishes.
The recipes are organized by season and shimmer with fresh produce and flavor vibes. Spring’s tender vegetables are well represented by Asparagus Grits cooked in asparagus-bottom broth and garnished with butter-sauteed tips. Tart rhubarb stars in a cobbler, and frizzled green garlic and radishes top focaccia. Summer’s bounty features in Vizethann’s favorite recipe, Pancake-fried Squash Blossoms with Blueberry Compote (others may fancy a pairing of peach hand pies and basil sugar). Swapping crispy eggplant for the traditional English muffin in the book’s take on Eggs Benedict is also hard to resist.
Suggesting that brunch is coziest and most decadent in the cooler months, the book introduces layered and complicated creations like Short Rib Hash with sweet potatoes, ginger mayonnaise, and a fried egg crown. Still, all seasons can be brunch season with this soulful, satisfying cookbook, and Indulgent Chocolate Crepes with homemade raspberry jam and whipped cream are also featured. Buttermilk Kitchen’s flagship dishes have cameo roles in these comfort foods, too, whether their elements are folded into dressings or baked into golden sweets and savory biscuits.
Reviewed by
Rachel Jagareski
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
