MEALS, MUSIC, AND MUSES by Alexander Smalls - Esquire 'The Best Cookbooks (and Cocktail Books) of 2020'

Esquire | December 17, 2020

If this year in cookbooks could be summed up in one neat phrase, we'd have to say it was the year of origin stories. We interpret that broadly. The books we devoured in 2020 retread ancient history, revisited homegrown habits, and reexamined roots. These books gently reminded us that looking backwards isn't a foolish endeavor, especially when the rest of the world is stuck in this horrible present. Sometimes, a good memory is the best meal prep. That and a deep breath, especially when you're standing in the kitchen with a slew of ingredients in front of you and a hungry table awaiting your final dish.

Meals, Music, and Muses
Smalls began his adult life by tearing it up onstage as an opera singer (a baritone) and then pivoted to an illustrious career as a chef and restaurateur in New York. Quite the journey, no? His newest cookbook reflects it, leaning on stories and recipes from his early years in the South, as well as his musical heritage. Put more plainly, each chapter's recipes, from okra skewers to roast quail in bourbon cream sauce, is themed around a genre of music and the tales Smalls can tell about it—gospel for greens and serenades for dessert, for example.

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