Welcome to Buttermilk Kitchen
Restaurateur Suzanne Vizethann’s cookbook, Welcome to Buttermilk Kitchen, is garlanded with breakfast and brunch dishes that showcase sophisticated Southern comfort foods from a renowned Atlanta eatery.
This work has zero tolerance for scrimping on using premium ingredients, or on not taking the time to fresh grind nutmeg or make sauces, jams, pickled vegetables, and textured toppings from scratch to enrobe its dishes. Vizethann is an able guide through the best types of ingredients and kitchen equipment, work done before she launches into her calorie-unconscious, belt-loosening, dizzyingly decadent recipes.
While it contains both breakfast standards and token healthy options, Buttermilk Kitchen-style means that the flavors are kicked up to the moon. The signature O.G. Buttermilk Biscuits are the base for her customers’ favorite Chicken Biscuit—a sweet tea-brined, dredged, and fried chicken breast slathered with homemade red pepper jelly and cucumber pickles. And making the restaurant’s weekly stash of sixty pounds of pimento cheese still requires homemade mayonnaise and hand-massaging before it is tossed into grits, omelets, and sandwiches.
The book’s many boozy brunch drinks start with fresh squeezed fruit juices; its desserts wear a crown of pie crumb or crackly feuilletine shards; and the lox plate starts with salmon cured in a glorious and colorful beet brine. Sweet and affectionate nods to Atlanta’s hometown cookie appear in recipes for vanilla wafers and mason jar banana pudding, while a tribute to Vizethann’s late father comes in an amped-up recreation of Ray’s Waffle Burger.
The book’s large and airy format, ethereal food photos, and sturdy binding that enables easy opening and propping make it accessible and inviting for home cooks. Welcome to Buttermilk Kitchen is a paean to Southern flavors and culinary traditions that will no doubt have you scheduling a brunch for your best beloveds pretty darn quick.
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.
