LaBelle Cuisine: Recipes to Sing About

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"From the time I was a little girl, I knew there were two things in this world I was born to do: sing and cook. I ve spent my life developing my voice and my recipes, and to tell you the truth, I m hard pressed to say where I m happiest--in concert or in the kitchen, making music or making meals."

For Patti, cooking is about love. Taught by the great Southern cooks in her family--her mother, father, and aunts Hattie Mae and Joshia Mae--Patti LaBelle has kept these family heirlooms close to her heart. But now, she invites you into her kitchen and serves up more than 100 of her favorite recipes, from treasured down-home favorites--Say-My-Name Smothered Chicken and Gravy, Fierce Fried Corn, and Aunt Hattie s Scrumptious Sweet Tater Bread--to good-enough-for-dinner-parties dishes--Shrimp Etouffée, Roast Leg of Lamb with Rosemary-Lemon Rub, and Aunt Mary s Philadelphia Buttercake.

Wherever Patti goes, so do her electric frying pans and bottles of hot sauce. After her raise-the-roof shows, she often goes back to her hotel room and whips up a meal for her band or celebrity visitors. When she s home--at holiday time and at family gatherings--or just after one of her sold-out concert tours, Patti likes nothing more than to head for her kitchen and cook her Geechee Geechee Ya Ya Gumbo, Pass-It-On Pot Roast, or Burnin Babyback Ribs. And like her bestselling memoir, Don t Block the Blessings, her accompanying personal reminiscences will fill your heart just as her recipes will fill your stomach.

Patti LaBelle s LaBelle Cuisine has the recipes you ll want to cook, eat, and share with friends. Filled with the legendary diva s favorite dishes and step-by-step instructions on how to prepare them, LaBelle Cuisine makes you feel like Patti s in the kitchen with you, demonstrating the recipes and techniques that can turn anybody into a fabulous cook."From the time I was a little girl, I knew there were two things in this world I wanted to do: sing and cook." So says singer-diva Patti LaBelle, whose first cookbook, LaBelle Cuisine, confirms her passion for good food and her skill at producing it. A truly devoted cook (she travels with pans and hot-sauce stashes), LaBelle offers more than 100 recipes in the great Southern soul-food tradition--homey dishes such as Say-My-Name Smothered Chicken and Aunt Hattie s Scrumptious Sweet Potato Bread. LaBelle fans and those seeking simple yet savory fare for everyday and casual entertaining will relish the book.

In chapters including "Sensational Salads," "Soups and Sandwiches," "Perfect Poultry," and "To-Die-For Desserts and Bread," LaBelle weaves easy-to-do recipes with warm food reminiscences. Whether describing a backstage barbecue resulting in a building-wide fire alert, her undying love of canned sardines, or the soulful Sunday dinners of her youth, LaBelle s voice is, as ever, memorably her own. The recipes, many of which include tips called Patti s Pointers, represent not only a personal culinary heritage, but also a kind of cooking in danger of dissolution. LaBelle s Over-the-Rainbow Macaroni and Cheese, among other recipes, should remind readers that that heritage is alive, well, and in very good hands. --Arthur Boehm