The Blue Zones American Kitchen: 100 Recipes to Live to 100

My very first impression when opening and fanning the pages of Dan Buettner’s The Blue Zones American Kitchen is how wide ranging and deeply diverse the food culture in our country actually is. And this is completely due to the folks, chefs, behind these food recipes. These people’s stories are peppered throughout the book. Food always tastes better to me when I know some interesting historical facts about the chef. The food presentations are a delight to behold and the photography is spot on. Its exciting just to turn each page!No matter what taste profile you are looking to find for your next meal, it is captured in this book. Take for instance the recipe in the Indigenous, Native, and Early American chapter from Sous Chef Matt Johnson titled The Three Sisters Cherokee Succotash. I love the word Succotash! This recipe looks to me to be very tasty and crunchy. This recipe hails from the Smoky Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains area. The folks in this area grew up eating squash, corn and beans aka The Three Sisters.Next I came across two compelling recipes by Chef Claudia Lopez in the Latin American section.The first one is Mama’s Zucchini Pupusas recipe. Pupusas are delicious savory pancakes stuffed with zucchini filling, then grilled and served with hot sauce, salsa and pickled cabbage. Can’t wait to make this.Second is Chef Lopez’s Salvadoran-Style Tofu Scramble. I am going to make this recipe first. I love Tofu Scramble. Both these recipes stood out for me.Moving into the Asian American chapter I came across Chef Hao Tan and the recipe titled Brown Rice Pudding with Nuts and Cardamon. Doesn’t that sound delicious. I will make this just because of the Cardamon influence (I am grateful that I enjoy cardamon every day. It is an amazing spice) and I could not be more happy with cardamon’s fellow ingredients in this recipe.Tomato, Eggplant, and Sweet Potato Pasta Sauce recipe found in the Regional and Contemporary really caught my eye. After a few moments reviewing the very flavorful ingredients list I notice that the Chef is non other than Roger Buettner, Dan’s dad. That makes this recipe double compelling to me. I love it when the family is involved! And these ingredients might be in your kitchen right now. I am a spice girl. I am always looking for the spice and herb additions to a recipe. This recipe brings it with spices, herbs and flavors.Being true to my hometown and my grandfather who taught me to love, love, love hot sauce, I bring your attention to Muhammara (Red Pepper Dip) by Chris Debarr who is Executive Chef of a Secret Dinner Club in New Orleans. All I can say is that this will become a staple in my kitchen. I love dips with flat bread or planked veggies. I am 100% all in for a recipe that also goes by the name pomegranate molasses!Thank goodness there are so many people in this country who have honed a fine skill in the kitchen. We all love to eat, we all love variety, and we all love a good story. Thank you Dan Buettner for seeing the world through the Blue Zones lens that you do and thank you for bringing these deeply interesting folks and their recipes directly to us, into our homes, so that we might make amazing, nutritious, delicious recipes to share with our family and friends! I will tell everyone I know to pick up a copy of this incredible book and to share it with as many people that they can. What a treasure trove of recipes!

Great recipes!!!

I’m sure the recipes are good. Just watched the Blue Zones documentary on Netflix and I’m excited. I bought the spiral bound version so it could open flat during cooking. Unfortunately, the print company that produced this didn’t properly set the the margins so the quantities of the ingredients are often cut off when they fall on the inside margin. The outside margins are cut off so the chef names/restaurants are often cut off. Tried to upload a pic but Amazon’s media uploaded kept failing.**UPDATE**I contacted the seller who was very responsive and sent me a new book promptly. The holes punched for the spiral no longer cuts off recipe measurements. So it is fine now. The names of the chefs (printed vertically on the right margins) are cut off so not great for them, but no issue for me. Adding another star for resolution.

I've been a huge fan of the original Blue Zones Kitchen cookbook for a few years (I've gifted it to nearly everyone) so as soon as I saw this one was coming out, I pre-ordered immediately. It did not disappoint; as if I had much doubt!This version stayed true to the original with the large gorgeous photographs, informative science-based introduction, and personal family stories/history. The stories of the families included in each of these books is what makes it extra special. They are heart-warming and encouraging. I always love reading them.The recipes in this book are new and exciting, most of which I've never heard of before. There is even a chapter that contains some contemporary american dishes that include plant-based meats such as seiten and dishes like buffalo cauliflower tacos, which I find to be practical as a vegan living in Northern America.Some notes:-I'd consider the blue zones recipes to be a very-slightly relaxed version of a WFPB diet. Some recipes call for white sugar, oil, white flour, etc. However, they can be easily adapted and there are lots of recipes true to WFPB if that's your preference.-The introduction in this book provides a comprehensive analysis of what makes up a blue zones diet with a greater concentration on the history of the american diet, which I loved.-The original included a page that used bullet points to highlight the main do's/don'ts of the diet which could be helpful for a beginner trying to switch over. I think it would of been nice to include that summary in this book too, though I don't find it a necessity.-Lastly, the original had smooth and shiny coated pages throughout, where this one has a bit more of a paper feel. Not any issue to me whatsoever, it's still very nice quality with thick pages but thought I'd mention.I'm super excited to dive into these recipes! Thank you for making this! I look forward to more recipes you guys may come up with in the future :)