Food Between Friends

by Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Julie Tanous

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

The hilarious star of Modern Family is a big foodie and loves to cook. That's clear if you follow him on social media where Jesse often invites family and friends over and cooks for them. In this book, Jesse teams up with his writer/foodie friend, Julie Tanous to create recipes that feel very Californian, but with a twist. Jesse is originally from New Mexico and Julie is from Alabama so the recipes have some Southern and Southwestern flair. An unexpected combo for a celebrity cookbook. It's great fun from cover to cover.

Best friends Jesse Tyler Ferguson, star of Modern Family, and recipe developer Julie Tanous pay homage to their hometowns as they whip up modern California food with Southern and Southwestern spins in their debut cookbook.
 
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR BY TIME OUT

Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson and chef Julie Tanous love to cook together. They love it so much that they founded a blog, and now put all their favorite recipes into a cookbook for you to dig into with the people you love.
 
In Food Between Friends, they cook up delightful food, spiced with fun stories pulled right from their platonic marriage.

Drawing inspiration from the regional foods of the South and Southwest they grew up with, Jesse and Julie put smart twists on childhood favorites, such as Hatch Green Chile Mac and Cheese, Grilled Chicken with Alabama White BBQ Sauce, and Little Grits Soufflés.
 
So come join Jesse and Julie in the kitchen. This book feels just like cooking with a friend—because that’s exactly what it is.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593136546
Publisher:	Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed
Publication date:	03/09/2021
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	143 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Jesse Tyler Ferguson is a celebrated actor with a passion for cooking and entertaining, best known for his lead role in the TV series Modern Family. He lives in Los Angeles with his husband, Justin Mikita, and their baby, Beckett.
 
Julie Tanous is a private chef, recipe developer, and writer. Her recipes have been featured in Food & Wine magazine and annual cookbook, as well as People, InStyle, LA Weekly, Bake from Scratch, and Taste of the South. She was born and raised in Alabama, but now lives in Los Angeles with her husband, their two children, and their French bulldog.

Read an Excerpt

Jesse

I have always enjoyed creating meals for my friends and family. (Especially now that I’m a new father!) Maybe it’s the need to find a creative outlet that isn’t memorizing words and pretending to be other people. My favorite way to spend a free day is to crack open a few cookbooks and create a whole menu full of new recipes. I know what you’re thinking and, yes, I acknowledge that my husband Justin is very lucky to be married to me. Thank you for thinking that. And you should see me in my apron embroidered with my nickname: Jesse Stewart. It was a gift from my mother-in-law, who thought I was just as good as Martha.

But let’s face it, mothers-in-law are easily impressed. And the truth is, I haven’t always been good at cooking. We don’t need to talk about my legendary meltdown after my sixth consecutive attempt at piecrust. (You could earn an Oscar for re-creating it, though. Piecrust hates me! It really, really hates me!) Can we forget about the time I cooked my Thanksgiving turkey with the bag of giblets still in the bird? Or the Christmas my mother told me my homemade vanilla bean ice cream tasted like a candle?

As much as I’ve loved cooking, I’d always felt there was a limit to what I could do. I wanted to be one of those people who isn’t intimidated about making poached eggs. I knew there must be a better way to dice an onion than the “just keep chopping it until it looks smaller” method, which I employed. And for the love of God, a piecrust really shouldn’t make me cry THIS hard, should it?

It was always a dream of mine to go to culinary school, but I had this thing called a fulltime job and that job was something that I not only loved but also was actually good at. (Good enough to receive five Emmy Award nominations. No wins, but, whatever, I’m not supposed to care about that.) I set this dream aside, a sacrifice that seemed reasonable given how truly blessed and full my life was.

Then one summer night about seven years ago I attended a friend’s dinner party. Well, it wasn’t just a dinner party. It had a name: “The Spring Street Social Society.” As much as I wanted to support my friend, I was having a hard time getting behind this “interactive gathering” that was also short on specific details. It was being thrown at an undisclosed location; the secret address being emailed out the morning of the dinner. (Already annoying.) There was a theme. (Nope!) There was a performance. (A ukulele!) And worst of all, there was a required socialinteraction element. Many things are my jam. This was not it. No, ma’am, not my jam. I settled in at the end of one of the long tables, making certain I was still within sprinting distance of the nearest exit. The Spring Street Social Society. Ay, yi, yi.

I eyed the vacant chair sitting across the table from me, praying for it to remain empty, when sure enough, right as dinner was starting, a cute girl with bangs slid into the seat. She reached a bangled hand out to me and said . . .


Julie

“Hi, I’m Julie and I have Spring Street Social Anxiety.” Those were the first words out of my mouth when I met Jesse. To my relief, he laughed. Hard!

My husband, Will, had encouraged meto attend this strange little dinner party. Our daughter Josephine was eight months old, and I was still struggling with postpartum depression and anxiety. The love I once had for cooking, eating, and meeting new people lay dormant in me, and with Will’s encouragement, I was ready to shake free from it and rejoin the human race. I decided to break the ice with the redheaded human sitting across from me. Yes, I was a Modern Family fan and, yes, I recognized him, but in the interest of not scaring him off (he seemed just as dubious of this dinner party as I was), I played it cool. His laughter put me at ease.

We bonded over our love for food and our passion for cooking. I talked about my time at culinary school, and he asked me about my experience of being a private chef and recipe developer. We learned we both share a passion for cookbooks and we confided in each other that we each dreamed of writing our own one day. While our fellow party guests were being forced into “conversation starter” games and singalongs, Jesse and I were plotting our first date—to cook together. Jesse had no idea what he was signing up for that night when he decided to put all his contact information in my phone.

Over the next few months we became close friends and eventually cooking partners. (We may even become lovers one day if our husbands get sick of us.) I brought my Southern roots into his kitchen with my love of sorghum syrup and passion for butter, and he brought the joys of Hatch green chiles and the art of making the perfect sopaipilla into mine. Sharing the ingredients we were raised on not only cemented our devotion to those ingredients but also cracked open a desire to learn more about their history and origins. We swapped family recipes and used them as inspiration for our own creations. I became an unpaid culinary tutor in a way, helping Jesse when he had questions about knife skills or cooking techniques. Well, I guess I was paid in amusing stories. I helped Jesse up his game in the kitchen . . .

Jesse

. . . and I taught her how to be funny on Instagram.


Julie & Jesse

And that’s basically how this book began. So, I guess the joke was on us: the Spring Street Social Society achieved just what it set out to do. Tricky bastards!

But here’s the bigger thing we’ve discovered in our years of cooking together: anyone can learn how to cook, but cooking with someone else is a really intimate thing. It requires mutual respect, trust, and most important, chemistry. (Um, sort of like being lovers!?) It also requires a sense of humor, especially when you’ve reached the end of a day in the kitchen together and all you have to show for it is a wildly burnt chicken. But, hey, that’s what the wine is for.

Editorial Reviews

01/04/2021

Actor Ferguson and his best friend Tanous, a private chef, celebrate food and friendship in their entertaining debut. Many of the dishes are inspired by Ferguson’s childhood in New Mexico, such as biscochito cookie bars, Christmas chilaquiles (“Christmas” coming from the red and green chiles used in the dish), and sopaipillas (a fried bread that can be sweet or savory). Tanous, an Alabama native, shares plenty of Southern-inspired dishes, among them grouper and grits, chicory salad with benne croutons, and biscuits with cracked peppercorn gravy. In addition to the classics, there are inventive dishes such as potato-parsnip “hash-kes” (a combination of hash browns and latkes), an asparagus and leek galette, and tiramisu tres leches. The duo pepper the recipes with humor (“Yes, boneless, skinless chicken breast is about as exciting as waiting in line at the post office,” reads the introduction to tarragon chicken with caper wine sauce) and celebrate their friendship by swapping family recipes and “ them as inspiration for our own creations.” This will surely inspire home cooks to grab some friends and start making memorable meals. Agent: Jennifer Joel, ICM Partners. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 02/01/2021

Actor Ferguson (Modern Family) and chef Tanous share their friendship and beloved meals in this vibrant cookbook. The text is conversational, incorporating personal stories, kitchen banter, and meals central to their backgrounds and friendship. Recipes include punch-ups of familiar favorites and odes to the pair's Southwestern and Southern roots. The book is arranged around classic categories—such as brunch, starters, sweets—but each section is a unique compilation of regional dishes and twists on classics. Ferguson and Tanous have an evident love for the dishes they share, and their personal histories. They range from a Chile Relleno Meatloaf to Eggplant Chips and Gas Station Cherry Hand Pies. Featured sections are dedicated to staples such as butter and tacos. Recipes are concise and would fit well in a family breakfast or dinner party. A handy section on serving pairings allows home cooks to mix and match meals as they like. VERDICT An effervescent, accessible cookbook bolstered by a joyful friendship. Fans of comedy-infused cookbooks and festive, lighthearted cooking will enjoy these creative meals.—Kate Bellody, SUNY New Paltz

Library Journal