Food is central in the picturesque plantation country along the Mississippi River in Louisiana between Baton Rouge and the Gulf of Mexico. In addition to wonderful local recipes, this cookbook includes history, humor, people, and places. Vintage photographs of the area and its citizens help make this much more than a cookbook. A trip down the River Road immerses visitors in the spirit of Louisiana, introducing them to the characters who populate the region, the elegant architecture of the old plantation homes, and of course the food. In this historical and culinary guidebook, the life of each home is told through fascinating text, vintage and contemporary photographs, and recipes representative of the traditional fare and evocative of the life once led along the Great River Road. "Anne Butler's series of cookbooks contains much more than recipes. Anne is a raconteur who weaves history, customs, architecture, photography, people, and recipes into intriguing tales of Louisiana lore. Her most recent addition to the series is a tour of the River Road plantation country in words and pictures. You don't need to be a chef to like this book." -Lloyd Sensat, tour guide, artist, educator, and preservationist "Anne Butler lives the life that she writes about: excellent historian, chef, host, and keeper of the secrets of life on the great Mississippi River Road. Her cookbooks present the complete experience." -Eugene D. Cizek, F.A.I.A., Richard Koch Chair in Architecture and director, preservation studies at Tulane University School of Architecture "River Road Plantation Country Cookbook is a wonderful book with a most misleading title. I opened the first pages expecting the typical Louisiana recipes, but what I found was anything but typical. Each chapter of the book tells a part of Louisiana's rich history or traditions and then cleverly segues into companion recipes. What a unique concept for a cookbook!" -Jane Thomas, chairman, Friends of Magnolia Mound Plantation, Inc. Whether culled from treasured plantation family recipes or provided by professional chefs such as Leah Chase of Dooky Chase or Jeremy Langlois of Latil's Landing Restaurant at Houmas House, the recipes in this book reflect the proud heritage along Louisiana's River Road. Together, the recipes, stories, histories, and vintage photographs provide a deeper understanding of the culture that is as rich as the river waters that gave rise to it. There is nothing quite like it. Back Flap Wishing to share the history of Louisiana and of her own family, Anne Butler operates a bed and breakfast on the Butler Greenwood Plantation, which dates to the 1790s. She claims to now know "just about everything there is to know about the area" and is spreading her knowledge farther through her award-winning children's books, travel books, and cookbooks. Her first cookbook, Audubon Plantation Country Cookbook, named Best New Cookbook of the Year by Louisiana Life magazine, includes history, humor, people, places, vintage photographs, and, of course, delicious recipes to create a wonderful view of life in Audubon plantation country. Louisiana Life describes her work as "an illustrated gastronomic tour of this area's society, culture, and economics . . . a veritable social history in the guise of a cookbook." This is the fourth in Anne Butler's popular series of tour books on Louisiana's culinary culture, which also includes Bayou Plantation Country Cookbook and Acadian Plantation Country Cookbook. Butler is the author of the memoir Weep for the Living. As much a state of mind as a place in time, this magical meandering roadway follows the mighty Mississippi River and connects Louisiana's two most significant-and most diverse-metropolitan areas. Only a book like this, celebrating the region's unique culture and characters, crops, and cuisine, can give the reader a taste of what life has been historically and still is today along the River Road. And only a historian and storyteller such as Anne Butler, who lives this life in one of Louisiana's early plantations, could do it justice. Butler's lessons in history and heritage are leavened by a dash of humor as she tells of the crown prince whose aversion to bathwater was matched by his daring in dining, serving turkey buzzard stew and fried toadstools to his horrified dinner guests. There's even a recipe for Buggy Banana Bread, a specialty of one of the state's newest and most popular attractions, the Audubon Insectarium-and yes, it does contain crunchy crickets, an important source of protein in many communities worldwide. This is the fourth in the popular series of gastronomic tour books on Louisiana's culinary culture by Anne Butler. The others are Audubon Plantation Country Cookbook, named a Best New Cookbook of the Year by Louisiana Life; Bayou Plantation Country Cookbook; and Acadian Plantation Country Cookbook, all published by Pelican. Anne Butler has led a life of diversity, with interests ranging from criminology to