Martha Hall Foose

I found my next must-have cookbook: A Southerly Course, by Martha Hall Foose.

This is Mississippi Delta-native Foose’s second cookbook, and from what critics are saying, a wonderful follow-up to her successful Screen Doors and Sweet Tea.

Foose has an acclaimed background, as noted in her bio, available on Octavia Books’ website:

Martha Hall Foose is the James Beard Award–winning author of the bestselling cookbook Screen Doors & Sweet Tea. Born and raised in Mississippi, she attended the famed pastry school École Lenôtre in France. She returned to Mississippi and opened Bottletree Bakery—a Southern institution in Oxford—and later, with her husband, Mockingbird Bakery in Greenwood. The former executive chef of the Viking Cooking School, Martha was a food stylist for the movie “The Help,” based on the bestselling novel of the same name. She makes her home on her family’s farm in Tchula, Mississippi, with her husband and their son.

Food stylist for "The Help" - how cool is that?? (Actually, I 'm probably the only person in the northern hemisphere who hasn't read “The Help." My mom has promised to lend it to me.) And, this is one of several references I’ve seen lately to the Viking Cooking School. Have you seen this place featured in other blogs, such as Urban Grace or Kendall Boggs (who, by the way, is friends with Ms. Martha)? My gosh, what a place! For foodies looking to take a cooking class, to those wanting to browse their in-house gift shop, Viking appears to be the Valhalla for cooks.

Anyhoo, back to Martha Hall Foose. She also was featured in the most recent issue of Garden & Gun, which is what got this whole cookbook-lust started for me in the first place. Check out the article about her, her family and the farm they live on in Mississippi. Life is good down on the farm.

Hmm, I think I need to take a food tour of the South. I may come home 20 pounds heavier and in need of a visit to the cardiologist, but it would be worth it, right? Who’s with me?
Images from marthafoose.com and Octavia Books.