Get a taste of Texas culinary history with this quirky, diverse community cookbook from Austin’s nineteenth-century residents, plus photos and informative essays. Tacos and barbecue command appetites today, but early Austinites indulged in peppered mangoes, roast partridge, and cucumber catsup. Those are just a few of the fascinating historic recipes in this new edition of the first cookbook published in the city. Written by the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in 1891, Our Home Cookbook aimed to “cause frowns to dispel and dimple into ripples of laughter” with myriad “receipts” from the early Austin community. From dandy pudding to home remedies “worth knowing,” these are hearty helpings featuring local game and diverse heritage, including German, Czech and Mexican. With informative essays and a cookbook bibliography, city archivist Mike Miller and the Austin History Center present this curious collection that's sure to raise eyebrows, if not cravings.

As food communities around the world reinvented themselves through social media, some of the savviest online taste buds of one noted food capital banded together in 2010 to form the Austin Food Blogger Alliance. Through their blogs--and now their first-ever cookbook--these culinary enthusiasts share images of favorite dishes, stories of life in Texas and, of course, recipes. From Persian stew to Czech kolaches, Greek phyllo wraps and good old Texas sheet cake, each dish illustrates the diversity of the city and tempts even the most discerning of palates.

Austin is an oasis of creativity in Texas. Food ranges from mom-and-pop eateries and eclectic food trailers to high-end, chef-driven restaurants, and all of them have received a warm welcome from the community. East Austin is home to taquerias and barbecue joints, while north Austin claims some of the city's best Vietnamese and Korean cuisine. Austin Chef's Table is the first cookbook to gather Austin's best chefs and restaurants under one cover. Including a signature "at home" recipe from more than fifty iconic dining establishments, the book is a celebration of the city's creative food scene. Full-color photos throughout capture Austin's eclectic eateries and highlight fabulous dishes and famous chefs.

Matt Martinez, Jr., has his paternal grandfather to thank for his culinary success. A soldier in Pancho Villa's army, Delphino Martinez was captured by the Federales, but managed to escape across the Texas border, and eventually open, in 1925, Austin's first Tex-Mex restaurant, called El Original. The Martinez family has been in the restaurant business ever since. In "Matt Martinez'S Culinary Frontier, Matt has gathered all of the recipes that are closest to his heart, for cooking "the way it's been done in the Southwest since the days of the vaqueros and real cowboys, whose cast-iron skillets were used and used and used some more." Here you will find classics for every time of day, from breakfast Huevos Rancheros (as they were served to young Matt in the kitchen by his maternal grandmother) to Matt's Competition Chili (Chili, he claims, originated in San Antonio in the 1900s, and he has the story to prove it.), to Chile Rellenos (Lyndon Johnson's favorite), to Standard South Texas Fried Chicken (which his mother served at Matt's El Rancho from the day it opened in 1952) to Early Texas Chicken Fried Steak. And for each recipe there's a story, of Matt, his family, or of the dish itself. Not only are Matt's recipes easy and delicious, they are authentic and untouched by modern trends. As Matt says, "Dancing with the one that brung us has always been a rule of thumb in Texas. Staying close to what you hold dear, to what makes your little ol' heart pitter-patter, is what this cookbook is all about."

"Serving up the American dream one plate at a time!"