Deep South Staples is a cookbook for the generation who wasn’t paying attention while their grandmother slaved over the stove making chicken and dumplings, corn bread and banana pudding.

Building upon the overwhelming success of his first foray into cookbook publishing, Mississippi restaurateur/writer Robert St. John is going back for seconds. St. John is soon to release Deep South Staples or How to Survive in a Southern Kitchen without a Can of Cream of Mushroom Soup

“Deep South Staples is a cookbook for Southerners who wish to recapture the tastes, smells and senses of their youth,” said St. John. “We’re handing down the cast iron skillet from one generation to the next through this collection of over 130 southern standards.” Each recipe has been updated for modern tastes and cooking styles. Throughout Deep South Staples, St. John balances the flavor of his recipes with dashes of Southern wit, wisdom and culture, as told through essays of his youth and present life in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

Deep South Staples is divided by categories of Southern foods — such as cocktail party fare, main courses, desserts, etc. — and also contains over 100 cooking tips. Interspersed throughout the book is vintage food-related photography from the 1950s.

Deep South Staples Book Tour

No tour dates are available at the moment.

Deep South Parties Buzz

“Robert has great balance in the writing of this book. Like his great recipes, you have buttermilk and like his great tales, you have chicken. All true southerners know, that’s the beginning to something really good. ”
- Marvin Woods, Home Plate

“Robert St. John has truly captured a Southern era with Deep South Staples. From funeral food like deviled eggs to the school carnival cakewalks, this book is a hilarious blast from the past and full of updated oldies but goodies. I am reminded of my own index cards full of down-home family recipes and heart-warming memories. A true gem of a book!”
- Cat Cora, Food Network Iron Chef

“Robert St. John is able to appreciate the simplicity of a southern kitchen. All the while, he’s approaching its cooking with the precision of an accomplished chef and the passion of a genuine southerner. I am sure he had a wonderful mother, like mine, who kept an over-stuffed scrapbook of her favorite southern recipes compiled through the years. In fact, this could be an updated version of my mother’s most coveted recipe book… just without the worry of all of the newspaper, magazine, and soup-can cutouts falling to the floor.”

“With each page of this brilliant book, I am reminded how the creamy creation of mushroom soup has been used in so many recipes throughout my life. Deep South Staples, it’s the collection I’ve wanted to put together, but never found the time.” Robert St.John has beaten me to the punch but done so in a way that the scents of mama’s kitchen prevail and I can return for a short while.”
- John Besh, Restaurant August, New Orleans

In Dixieland, he'll take his stand. He is Robert St. John, chef/owner of two fine restaurants in Mississippi, author of a syndicated food column and a very funny man, and his stand is that "the problem with a lot of Southern cooking is the ever present can of cream of mushroom soup." So adamant is he on this point that he made it the subtitle of his new cookbook, Deep South Staples: How to Survive in a Southern Kitchen Without a Can of Cream of Mushroom Soup. He was originally moved to write this book when he discovered that there are many Southerners who can prepare hip, trendy dishes but can't fry chicken or make creamed corn, not to mention that true Southern basic, biscuits.

To rectify this sorry state, St. John gathered this group of recipes for the comforting, heritage "foods of our grandmothers," added a dash of his restaurant know-how adjusted for home cooks, and updated where necessary. Sandwiched among the hush puppies, corn fritters, buttermilk chicken, fried okra and banana pudding, are samplings of his food essays that ponder the possum predicament, funeral food, sweet tea, chitlins and more. But first, turn to page 241 and make his sensational cream of mushroom soup substitute; now you'll have a true taste of Mr. St. John's South.
- Southern Comfort, BookPage Review

Deep South Press Release

By Robert St. John, With foreword by Carol Puckett Daily

In DEEP SOUTH STAPLES: How to Survive In A Southern Kitchen Without A Can of Cream of Mushroom Soup (Hyperion; May 9, 2006; Hardcover; $19.95) Mississippi food personality Robert St. John offers modern home cooks updated versions of hand-me-down Southern recipes. Using classic cooking principles and time-proven restaurant techniques, St. John has intensified the flavors of traditional recipes in a way that will resonate far beyond their region of origin. Best of all, every recipe can be prepared with ingredients from the local grocery store.

A Mississippi food writer and restaurant owner, St. John is refreshingly selective in his choice of classics: he intersperses his recipes with humorous essays on why he can’t abide chitlins, would never eat possum, and refused to allow carrot salad, marshmallow-topped sweet potatoes, or aspic into his cookbook. His 18 years in the kitchen and lifetime as a devoted eater result in unusual cooking tips such as:

• States with two teams in the Southeastern Conference make the best sweet tea.
• To avoid deviled eggs that are too large for the mouth, use the smallest eggs possible.
• To create ideal hair for gingerbread people, press a tiny ball of gingerbread through a garlic press.

That St. John writes the way he would speak to someone standing at his elbow in the kitchen—offering practical tips as he goes—will endear him to readers at all levels of culinary experience. Most Southern cooks make a pot of beans by filling the pot with water, dropping in a piece of bacon, and turning up the heat. DEEP SOUTH STAPLES takes that preparation one step further by adding a pork stock to the beans. The final result is well worth the extra step. Similarly, when making the ever-present green-bean casserole, St. John recommends discarding the usual can of gloppy cream of mushroom soup in favor of a flavor-rich Mushroom Béchamel Sauce. Again, one extra step, infinitely more flavor.

For more information, contact:
Allison McGeehon, allison.mcgeehon@abc.com or 212-456-017