Remembering Bill Neal

256 pp., 6 x 9, 11 illus., index

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4696-1496-0
Published: March 2014
E-book PDF ISBN: 979-8-8908-7763-5
Published: October 2009
E-book EPUB ISBN: 978-0-8078-8960-2
Published: October 2009

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A gifted chef, restaurateur, and writer working at a time when Americans were beginning to take a new interest in their culinary heritage, Bill Neal (1950-1991) helped raise Southern food to national prominence.

Having rescued spattered and faded recipe cards from the Chapel Hill restaurant they founded together, Bill's former wife and business partner, Moreton Neal, has compiled a book that embodies the diversity and range of his cooking and illustrates the aesthetic that he applied to making meals. Remembering Bill Neal features more than 150 recipes--most of them never published before--from all stages of Bill's career: classic French dishes from La Résidence, Southern traditional cooking from Crook's Corner, and fast and easy recipes from home. Moreton's introductory passages and headnotes introduce Bill to readers and put his recipes in the context of his career and his legacy as a chef.

Part cookbook, part memoir, this volume both instructs and entertains, showing the lasting importance of Bill Neal's influence in the American regional cooking movement as well as being a muse and a mentor to a generation of Southern home and professional cooks.

About the Author

Moreton Neal was married to Bill Neal for a decade and remained his friend until his death. With him, she was founder and co-owner as well as a chef at La Résidence in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Today, she is an interior designer in Chapel Hill and writes a regular column for Raleigh Metro magazine.
For more information about Moreton Neal, visit the Author Page.

Reviews

"Shows us how this gifted chef ignited America's interest in Southern regional flavors."--Chapel Hill Magazine

"Reflects the range, diversity and creativity that brought Bill Neal to prominence as an influential chef, writer, and restaurateur who helped introduce Southern regional fare to a national audience."--Chapel Hill News

"A bitter-sweet love story, filled with an emotional journey and tales of struggle and success. Add this book to your collection – read it and then splatter the pages cooking the recipes with a spirited love of food."--News & Observer

"This book is part memoir, part cookbook, collecting many of Bill's favorite recipes (including the famous Shrimp and Grits)."--Charlotte Magazine

"Neal approached the postlapsarian state of southern cooking as an anthropologist as much as a food writer."--Book Forum

"Buy it."--Charleston.net