The Bookshelf: The Charleston Chef's Table

by jbfauthor on May 10, 2010

As we scanned the names and dishes that fill the pages of food writer and critic Holly Herrick’s new cookbook, The Charleston Chef’s Table, something struck us: the city of Charleston, where Herrick works and lives, boasts three back-to-back medals for Best Chef: Southeast, with Robert Stehling, Mike Lata, and Sean Brock winning in 2008, 2009, and 2010, respectively. If that streak doesn't convince you to hightail it to the Lowcountry culinary mecca, perhaps Herrick’s book will: it profiles more than 60 of the city’s restaurants, complete with beautiful photography, appealing regional recipes, and bits of local culinary history. To entice you even more, Herrick is sharing this recipe from chef Lata: it’s a warm shrimp and radicchio salad that has remained on his menu since he opened FIG in 2003. You’ll know why once you taste it. (The chef uses local white shrimp, but substituting any fresh shrimp from your neck of the woods works just as well).