Chef John Besh at the Crescent City Farmers Market - MY FAMILY TABLE | Octavia Books | New Orleans, Louisiana

Start: 12/10/2011 9:00 am

End: 12/10/2011 11:00 am

Please join us at the Saturday Crescent City Farmers Market for a special signing and recipe tasting with New Orleans' own James Beard award-winning chef John Besh featuring his new book, MY FAMILY TABLE: A Passionate Plea for Home Cooking.

Chef John Besh invites us into his home and shows us how we can put good, fresh, healthy food on the table for our families every day.

In MY FAMILY TABLE, the Iron Chef champion makes a case for the importance of home-cooked meals. "If I can help make a difference by cooking simply and sharing what I love to cook, I can possibly help us all use our passions and skills to make our lives better at almost every meal."

From organizing your kitchen and stocking your pantry to demystifying fish cookery, John Besh shares his favorite recipes he cooks with his family every day. Master recipes Risotto of Almost Anything and Creamy Any Vegetable Soup show you how to make the food without worrying about having the right ingredients or mastering complicated techniques. Filled with mouthwatering photographs of each recipe as well as showing John in his kitchen with his wife and four sons, MY FAMILY TABLE captures the spontaneity, intimacy, and fun of home-cooking and will inspire the nation back to the family table.

Chef Besh's Italian Wedding Soup

As a special treat, Chef Besh will treat us to a tasting of his Italian Wedding Soup from the new cookbook.

Chef John Besh John Besh is a chef and a native son dedicated to the culinary riches of southern Louisiana. In his restaurants, entrepreneurial pursuits, and public activities, he preserves and promotes ingredients, techniques, and heritage one mouthwatering dish at a time.

Besh grew up in southern Louisiana and has set the benchmark for fine dining in New Orleans. Each of his eight acclaimed restaurants (August, Besh Steak, Luke, La Provence, American Sector, The Soda Shop, Domenica and Luke San Antonio) celebrates the bounty and traditions of the region.

From the outset of his career, Besh's talent and drive have earned kudos: Food and Wine magazine named him one of the "Top 10 Best New Chefs in America," and his flagship restaurant, August, was featured in Gourmet magazine's "Guide to America's Best Restaurants" and "America's Top 50 Restaurants." Besh won the James Beard Award for Best Chef of the Southeast in 2006 and received Food Arts' Silver Spoon Award in 2009 for revitalizing the culinary legacy of New Orleans.

Besh's devotion to local ingredients and cuisine also extends to his entrepreneurial projects, including the creation of Besh Restaurant Group Catering; a line of gourmet products; the publication of his first cookbook, My New Orleans.

Besh is a frequent guest chef on NBC's Today Show and has appeared on top programs on The Food Network and the Sundance Channel.