PEPPERS OF THE AMERICAS

From a three-time James Beard Award-winning author and chef comes a beautiful culinary and historical survey of the punch-packing ingredient central to multicultural palettes around the world.

As the popularity of peppers expands, as well as recognition of their health benefits, on-trend cooks want to know how to utilize the many varieties found in farmer’s markets and on menus. PEPPERS OF THE AMERICAS is the definitive guide for these pepper lovers, beginning with the fascinating history of how they have spread throughout the world since pre-Columbian times, influencing cultures and cuisines everywhere.

Nearly 200 fresh and dried peppers are described, including tasting notes and recommended uses, with photographs showing each one's natural beauty. Information on how to buy, store, process, and cook with peppers, plus 40 pepper-forward recipes for dried ground pepper blends, piquant vinegars and bright sauces, lively salads and sides, and robust main dishes highlight the big flavors and taste-enhancing aspects of peppers. There are also detailed instructions for creating and maintaining a pepper garden of your own.

Cooks and gardeners will be inspired by the vibrant colors, diverse forms, and complex flavors detailed in this artfully designed reference, replete with botanical illustrations and 250 color photographs.

MARICEL PRESILLA is the chef-owner of two pan-Latin restaurants (Cucharama and Zafra) and a cooking atelier (Ultramarinos), president/founder of Gran Cacao Company (a cacao importer), a frequent contributor to Saveur, and a former medieval Spanish history professor (Rutgers). She has been profiled in the New York Times and Washington Post, and led the White House's Latin culture showcase in 2010. She was named the James Beard Best Chef Mid-Atlantic in 2012; her opus, Gran Cocina Latina: The Food of Latin America, won the James Beard Book of the Year in 2013; and she was inducted into the Beard Foundation's Hall of Fame in 2015.