Bourbon Land: The World of Bluegrass Whiskey Plus 50 Recipes

In his highly anticipated follow-up to the James Beard Award-winning Buttermilk Graffiti, Edward Lee examines his favorite libation--bourbon--with recipes, essays, history, profiles, distillery tours, and more. * Named a Best New Cookbook of Spring 2024 by Eater, Epicurious, and Food & Wine

Knowledgeable, entertaining, and more than a little infatuated with his subject, award-winning food writer and chef Edward Lee gives us his insight into bourbon, telling us everything we should know about the mellow honey-brown treasure that’s put Kentucky on the global map: How bourbon is made. Its history. How to read a label. A look inside the famous distilleries. The influence of oak. Tours of Kentucky’s bourbon regions. How to taste bourbon like a professional. And, in the most delicious surprise, how to cook with bourbon, with 50 recipes from Bourbon-Glazed Chicken Wings and Blackened Salmon with Bourbon-Soy Marinade to a Bourbon and Butterscotch Pudding. Plus the best Old-Fashioned you’ll ever mix.

Edward Lee is the chef/owner of 610 Magnolia and Nami in Louisville, Kentucky, and the culinary director for Succotash Restaurants in Washington, DC, and Maryland, for which he was awarded a Bib Gourmand from the Michelin Guide. He is also the cofounder of the LEE Initiative, a nonprofit dedicated to diversity and equality in the restaurant industry. He operates the non-profit restaurant M. Frances in Washington, DC, as part of the LEE Initiative’s overall mission. He was awarded the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award in 2021. Chef Lee was the recipient of the 2019 James Beard Foundation Award for his book Buttermilk Graffiti: A Chef’s Journey to Discover America’s New Melting Pot Cuisine. His first book was Smoke & Pickles. He was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for his role as host of the Emmy-winning PBS series TheMind of a Chef. He has hosted and written a feature documentary called Fermented.