Just Got My Hands on a Hard-to-find Local Cookbook!

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What is your most coveted cookbook?

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This changes throughout the years but my current favorite is Under Pressure by Thomas Keller.

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What is your most coveted cookbook?

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I already own it.

In the 60s my father and his father were fishing down off Blood River. My dad said they got back to the landing, and while he was loading stuff in the truck he noticed my grandfather talking for a while with a man holding a notebook. They talked for about 10 minutes before my grandfather got back into the truck and headed home. The man told my grandfather he was about to come out with his first cookbook soon and wanted to know if he was interested in receiving a copy. Grandfather gave the man his name and address, along with an alligator snapping turtle they caught that day. Several months later a package came in the mail. Inside the front cover it read "To the Tenfoe family, thank you for the turtle, God Bless. - Justin Wilson"

When my grandmother died I took the cookbook. Front cover was gone by this time. It's Justin Wilson, so it's not like an original signed Johnny Cash album, more like an original signed Luke Bryan album, but special to me nonetheless.

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it's a book that means nothing to anyone but me, but my grandmother is a very good cook, and particularly skillful at making candies. Several years ago, I asked if I could have her recipes, but that I'd like them written in a book, because she has beautiful handwriting. After many months, she had added all the recipes she thought I'd like and gave it to me.

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Awesome. My grandparents passed away within about 8 months of each other, with my grandpa going last. My mom and sisters found a bunch of old index cards of hand-written recipes, stuffed into various cookbooks. There were also some post-it notes on recipes in the books that were nice. One of them said something about my grandfather liking it, and she would fix it again. Yes, fix, not cook. We are old southerners after all. What's funny to me is there wasn't much the old man wouldn't eat. He used to shoot squirrels with a .22 and ask her to fry them up for him. I think my older sister has all of the cards they found and is going to make copies for all of us.

This story is from that cookbook (paraphrased)-

Dom Deluise was in town one time and he had heard so much about blackened redfish he wanted to give it a try. He decided to prank Chef Paul by showing up dressed just like PP. His plan was to call out the chef as being an imposter.

Chef Paul got wind of the visit and invited TV crews to be present. Wish I could see that tape. I bet it was a riot.

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Dom Deluise was in town one time and he had heard so much about blackened redfish he wanted to give it a try. He decided to prank Chef Paul by showing up dressed just like PP. His plan was to call out the chef as being an imposter.

Chef Paul got wind of the visit and invited TV crews to be present. Wish I could see that tape. I bet it was a riot.

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Frank Brigtsen wrote that story up on Facebook when PP passed away. He was working there at the time. He tells it differently. He says PP got Dom to come to restaurant, dress up like PP and sit at the back table in the restaurant where PP would sit each day. Dom did it and signed cookbooks all day long in addition to talking to customers who came back there. No one ever knew he wasn't PP.

Maybe there was more than one occasion. Either way, either story is good.

In his book, DD definitely makes it sound like it was his idea. The truth is probably a mix of the 2 stories. But yes, great story either way.

Here are the only ones that seem close to your description:

Thanks - those are not them. BTW - where did your wife finally find a copy? I have searched the internet and I am REALLY REALLY good at finding things and I can't find a single copy anywhere.

It was dumb luck she found it on Amazon. Good luck in your quest.

I'm not sure I'm up to copying or scanning the whole book manually right now. I'll have to see if I can feed that size page through the auto feed.

But if there are any recipes you want that you can describe, I'd be happy to check for you.

Rat - D.H. Holmes was my mother's favorite store, so I have a lot of memories of shopping with her at the Canal St. store and also Bon Marche. We ate lunch at the Canal St. store often (can't remember if it was a restaurant or cafeteria), but they had the best vegetable soup. Any chance that recipe is in the book? Thanks!