The Blackberry Farm Cookbook

• 288 pages, 11 1/4 x 11 1/4
• full-color photographs

“The food and wine program at Blackberry Farm is unrivaled by any other property in the United States.”—Gourmet

“Like Blackberry Farm itself, this book is a celebration of the South and a family dream, deliciously realized. It will take you in, enfold you in a warm embrace and bring you home again to the nurturing hills of Tennessee.”—Patrick O’Connell, The Inn at Little Washington

“Sam Beall’s heartfelt words and the beautiful images took me back to my first visit—to the Bealls’ incredible hospitality and the delicious meals they nurtured us with. I am excited that Blackberry Farm continues to evolve into an idyllic destination, grounded by its own sense of place and history.”—Thomas Keller, The French Laundry

California has the French Laundry, Virginia has the Inn at Little Washington, and Tennessee has Blackberry Farm, where the indulgences of a small luxury inn are woven together with odes to nature: fly-fishing, hiking, foraging, bird-watching, and heirloom gardening. Nestled in the mists of Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains, the nine-thousand-acre bucolic refuge houses one of the premier farm-to-table restaurants in the country.

To Blackberry Farm’s food artisans and chefs, meals are an opportunity to express not only the earth and the culture of this southern destination but also its spirit. On a spring day this might mean Rye Whiskey-Cured Trout with Fresh and Pickled Fennel; the summer garden might inspire a tomato terrine. In cooler weather, Cider-Basted Venison and Bourbon Apple Fried Pies keep conversation in front of the fire lively. For all its artfulness, however, Blackberry Farm’s garden-to-table cooking tends to be a testament to a well-loved cast-iron skillet, a backyard smoker, or a wood-fired grill. This sumptuous cookbook offers a collection of more than one hundred recipes that are as inspired by the traditional rustic cooking of the mountainous South as they are by a fresh, contemporary sensibility. Some of the dishes are robust, others are astonishingly light, all are full of heart and surprise and flavor—and every one of these recipes is well within the reach of the home cook.

Woven through the recipes are stories of the people who practice the traditional mountain food arts—the bacon man, the heirloom gardener, the cheese maker, and the sausage man—and breathtaking photographs capture the magical world that surrounds the table: the hills and rushing creeks, the lights and shadows of the forest, the moods and moments of the garden.

A member of Relais & Châteaux, Blackberry Farm consistently wins awards for food, wine, service, and general excellence, including honors from Zagat, Travel + Leisure, Condé Nast Traveler, and Southern Living, and is frequently ranked the number one small hotel in the United States. Proprietor Sam Beall grew up on Blackberry Farm. He apprenticed at the French Laundry, the Ritz-Carlton, Cowgirl Creamery, and Château Potelle. Beall oversees the entire farm, from its restaurants to its heirloom gardens to its honey house.

One of the most recognized and respected food writers today, Molly O’Neill, long the food columnist for the New York Times, is the author of three cookbooks and a memoir. She hosted the PBS series Great Food. Twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, she has won the Julia Child/IACP Award for cookbooks and was awarded four James Beard citations, including the Lifetime Achievement Award.