BOOK REVIEW

“Just a Few Miles South: Timeless Recipes from our Favorite Places” by Ouita Michel, Sara Gibbs and Genie Graf. Illustrated by Brenna Flannery. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2021. 187 pages, $24.95 (hardcover).

Ouita Michel is a six-time James Beard Foundation Award nominee who is connected to a family of restaurants and sandwich shops in Kentucky’s Bluegrass region that includes Holly Hill Inn and Midway Bakery in Midway, Wallace Station in Versailles and Windy Corner Market, Smithtown Seafood, Honeywood and Zim’s Cafe in Lexington. Her co-authors are chef Sara Gibbs and Genie Graf, special projects director at the Michel Family of Restaurants.

In his Foreword, Kentucky author Silas House calls the book “a tour of Kentucky and a praise song for place. It’s a meditation on the importance of food in our lives and the importance of being a good neighbor in ways big and small.” In her Introduction, Michel says this about her work: “I wanted to express my love for Kentucky with ingredients that are locally produced by our farming community. I wanted to express it through location and setting – siting my restaurants along scenic byways where thoroughbreds frolic in vibrantly green paddocks and housing them in old buildings, some plain and simple and others crafted of grand limestone in the heart of downtown. I wanted to express it with recipes that are time honored – some so old that they are new to young folks, and some that Kentuckians are lucky enough to eat nearly every day.”

The book is divided into eight chapters: Breakfast, Building Blocks for Sandwiches, Wallace Station’s Famous Sandwiches, Windy Corner’s Famous Po-Boys, Burgers, Soups, Stews, and Salads, Brownies, Bars, and Cookies, and Pie Supper. Michel explains that at all of her restaurants they use only Weissenberger Mill stone-ground grits, produced just down the road from Midway. Other breakfast items include red-eye gravy, buttermilk biscuits, sorghum butter, and sandwiches and omelets, such as Ouita’s Sardou Panini and Bluegrass Benedict. Topping off the breakfast section are sweet potato streusel muffins, sour cream coffee cake and zucchini bread. Many of the recipes are supplemented with commentary about where the dish originated or at which restaurant it has been a big hit.

Building blocks for sandwiches include feta walnut spread, bourbon white cheddar cheese spread and cranberry mustard. Shady Lane chicken salad is named after the Old Frankfort Pike, where Wallace Station sits. Michel explains that she uses dried cranberries in her chicken salad instead of the more traditional green grapes because the salad holds better with them. Along with the recipe for bourbon-brined roasted turkey breast, the chef explains that roasting large cuts of meat in-house for sandwich fillings is more economical and provides customers with a healthier alternative to deli meats, which are often injected with curing solutions. In her introduction to Wallace Station’s famous sandwiches, Michel says that the location was named after Caleb Wallace, a judge who settled in the area around 1785 and who was an advocate for religious freedom and public education in Kentucky.

Among Windy Corner’s famous po-boys is its fish and seafood po-boy. Michel comments that most catfish eaten in the U.S. is from Vietnam or China, but her restaurants serve Kentucky Proud channel catfish and blue catfish from Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake. She of course recommends serving fresh catfish rolled in Weissenberger Mill breading. She also explains that Kentucky Proud products are “grown, produced and processed by in-state farms and related farm businesses and that the Buy local program connects chefs and restaurants to local growers. In the Burgers chapter we hear about the Big Blue Burger, featuring pimiento blue cheese, and the Thirty-seven Burger, which utilizes Lisa’s Remoulade and was named in honor of American Pharoah’s Triple Crown victory ending 37 years without a Triple Crown winner.

In the chapter on Soups, Stews, and Salads we find recipes for Smithtown Seafood Clam Chowder, developed by a chef who came from Boston, and Holly Hill Inn’s Butternut Squash Bisque, made with homemade chicken stock. Also included is Wallace Station Burgoo and 1812 Potato Salad, created for Woodford Reserve Distillery’s bicentennial celebration in 2012.

Ouita and her husband, Chris, both graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and she explains that her recipe for Glazed Lemon Bars is inspired by Chris’ childhood favorite Lucy’s Lemon Squares that he found in the Peanuts Cookbook he had purchased at a Scholastic Book Fair while he was in elementary school. Another mouthwatering dessert is Danger Brownies, which contained almost a pound of chocolate and had a bourbon truffle on top. Michel explains that Stella Parks, the original creator of the recipe, was the first pastry chef at Wallace Station and later produced a book, “BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts,” that won the Beard Foundation’s Book Award for Baking and Desserts in 2018. Other yummy recipes in the last two chapters include Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie Bars, Mabel’s Lemon Cake Pie, Apple Cranberry Bourbon Crunch Pie, and Blackberry Crumble Pie.

“Just a Few Miles South” is an interesting book that should please any foodie who appreciates classic Kentucky dishes. Readers who have patronized some of the Michel Family of Restaurants may of course relate to the authors’ comments in a special way, but any cook/baker can profit by the detailed recipes for each dish and enjoy the cultural insights provided along the way.

– Reviewed by Richard Weigel, Western Kentucky University History Department.