Just A Few Miles South: Timeless Recipes From Our Favorite Places

I have known and admired Ouita Michel as a chef for years. I first met Ouita when I was part of the Woodford Reserve Bourbon Academy about 20 years ago. She always made great food for the lunch at the academy. Rosemary and I have eaten at her Holly Hill Inn restaurant in Midway, Kentucky and enjoyed the food there as well. When I saw this book for sale, I had to have it. Sara Gibbs worked as a chef at the former Lynn’s Paradise Café and at Brown-Forman’s corporate kitchen before joining Ouita at Woodford Reserve. Genie Graff joined Ouita as a project director at her restaurants. She has worked as a copy director, designer and section editor for several newspapers before she joined Ouita at her restaurants. Together, they have created a great cookbook.

Just a Few Miles South: Timeless Recipes From Our Favorite Places. Ouita Michel, Sara Gibbs, Genie Graff. Lexington, Kentucky, University Press of Kentucky, 2021. Contents, Forward, Introduction, Index, Illustrated, pp.183.

The authors of this cookbook have created an excellent volume of recipes. Each recipe has a preface telling where the recipe comes from and a bit of history of the recipe. Not all the recipes use Bourbon, but a great many do. The one recipe I was very happy to find was for the Bourbon Sorghum Vinaigrette Ouita used for the Woodford Bourbon Academy lunch. Bourbon and sorghum are a match made in heaven, as I found out at the academy. The recipes are easy to follow and well written. Many of them include a sidebar with additional information about the recipe’s history. There are many pen and ink illustrations throughout the book that add to the ambiance of the book. The book is well designed and attractive,

This cookbook is a welcome addition to my whiskey library. I will turn to it for many recipes not just for dinner, but also breakfast and lunch. Ouita Michel remains one of my favorite chefs in Kentucky.