Southern chef Regina Charboneau often says she has Mississippi River water running through her veins. A seventh-generation native of Natchez, Miss., Charboneau grew up on the banks of the river and so was an ideal choice to serve as culinary director for the American Queen paddleboat when it started sailing again in 2012 on the Mississippi and its tributaries.
As she researched the cuisines of the Mississippi River, she was struck by how the food differed among the various regions. "I grew up on the river, so it's always been so much a part of my life," Charboneau said. "I was so connected to one part of the river, but my husband grew up in Minneapolis, and it was just day and night. We have the same river, but the cuisine, customs and people are so different."
Now Charboneau has written a cookbook reflecting the varied regional fare of the 10 states bordering the Mississippi River. The 320-page "Mississippi Current Cookbook: A Culinary Journey Down America's Greatest River" will be released on May 4 by Lyons Press, an imprint of Globe Pequot Press. It's already listed on Amazon.com for a discounted price of $35.96. (Travel agents might consider giving the cookbook to their riverboat clients.)
Although she is primarily viewed as a contemporary Southern chef, Charboneau went to cooking school in Paris and has run restaurants in Anchorage and San Francisco (the famous Regina's at the Regis and Biscuits & Blues in the latter) before returning to Natchez in 2000. Today, she runs a small inn called Twin Oaks with her husband, Doug. More recently, the couple and one of her two sons bought the oldest building in Natchez, the supposedly haunted King's Tavern, renovated it and now operate it as a highly rated restaurant specializing in wood-fired flatbreads and hand-crafted cocktails. (The tagline says the restaurant offers "Spirits of All Kinds.")
The new cookbook will be divided into three sections, each reflecting a different region of the Mississippi River. The first section focuses on the headwaters and features recipes from Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa, including a pierogi dinner, a fish fry, a Native American wild rice harvest dinner, and a Scandinavian summer's end crayfish party.
The second section features food in the middle Mississippi River region, from Hannibal, Mo., to the confluence with the Arkansas River. Recipes are supplied for a dinner honoring Mark Twain, a St. Louis Italian spread featuring the city's famous toasted ravioli, a farmer's market lunch, and an Arkansas farm supper.
The third section features recipes from the Lower Mississippi region, from Memphis, Tenn., to the Gulf of Mexico, reflecting Charboneau's roots in Natchez. There's an outline for an American Queen christening luncheon, breakfast for supper at Twin Oaks, a gulf seafood dinner and a blessing of the fleet dinner inspired by the Vietnamese fisherman who shrimp at the mouth of the river.
The book will include Charboneau's famous recipe for biscuits. (Bonus: you can find it here! She likes to serve them with orange marmalade butter - she gave me the recipe when I visited Twin Oaks in January 2012, just prior to the re-launch of the riverboat. Simply whip two tablespoons marmalade into a half-pound of softened butter.)
Scattered throughout the book are sidebars on such topics as how the paddlewheel steamboat came to ply the Mississippi River, the traditional canoe method of harvesting Minnesota wild rice, and the 3,000-mile River Road lining the waterway. The book also will feature more than 150 pictures taken by renowned food photographer Ben Fink on the American Queen and at farms, historic homes and towns along the river. In all, there are 200 recipes for 30 meals and celebrations.
As a native Midwesterner who grew up eating pierogi made from scratch by my grandmother, I can't wait to browse through the book and try the recipes. It'll also bring up warm memories of my visit to Charboneau's inn in Natchez and her Southern hospitality.
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