Tasty cookbook flavored with travel guide

I’m not sure if this should be taken literally or figuratively, but Amelia Levin knew she was biting a bit more than she could chew when she decided to write her second cookbook.

Author of Chicago Chef’s Table: Extraordinary Recipes from the Windy City, Levin decided to embark on a culinary road trip to produce her second cookbook, The Lake Michigan Cottage Cookbook, which was released by Storey Publishing on April 1.

In offering this tour, Levin uses an already established trail, the 1,100- mile Lake Michigan Circle Tour that provided far too much inspiration. As it was, she concentrated on some of the drive’s most popular vacation locations and others that stand out from a culinary standpoint.

“I was surprised to find that there was no cookbook for these iconic dishes,” explains Levin, who effectively blends recipes (and recreated recipes) from popular restaurants, markets and shops. There are nearly 120 in all.

“As a child, my family took vacations to Lake Michigan from our home in the Chicago area,” writes Levin in the introduction to her book. “One of my earliest food memories comes from the crunch of crispy fried perch, its steaming hot-tender flesh falling apart with every bite and every dip into my jar of tangy tartar sauce. Another memory stems from cherry pie – that craveable contrast of sweet and tart cherries in a buttery crust, flaking with every stab of my fork.”

The perch and pie hint that many of those trips were to Door County, and it is here that she begins the tour. It should then come as no surprise that the book’s first recipe is for a home-style fish boil.

An attractive aspect of the cookbook is that it isn’t all recipes, as the 288 pages also contain a nice helping of editorial content, making the piece part travel guide as you page your way around the lake.

It’s something she references in the “How to Use This Book” section when she writes, “You can read about and remember those favorite places that have stood the test of time while discovering newfound treasures.”

No place is this more evident than in the Door County section as esteemed locales such as Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant (with meatball and pancake recipes inspired by her many visits there) and Wilson’s Ice Cream Parlor and Restaurant.

“Then I think it was in Edible Door that I noticed Waseda Farms, and we went to the farm and nearly bought the store out,” she said with a laugh. Waseda shares a couple of recipes, as does Janice Thomas at the Savory Spoon Cooking School in Ellison Bay and nearby Wickman House restaurant. Seaquist Orchards north of Sister Bay also contributed, while other recipes were inspired by stops at The Cookery in Fish Creek, Egg Harbor’s MacReady Artisan Bakery and the Alpine Resort’s The Hof Restaurant, as well as Charlie’s Smokehouse in Gills Rock and Town Hall Bakery in Jacksonport.

Heading south out of Door County, Levin makes stops in Sheboygan and neighboring Kohler with another layover in Milwaukee.

A regular contributor to Edible Chicago, she knows the culinary scene there and gives it ample room before the tour swings north.

Levin is also familiar with the eastern stretch along the lake having graduated from the University of Michigan. While Door County serves as the start for this tasty culinary tour, it is bookended by the Traverse City area in Michigan, a similar vacation destination.

“There’s a lot out there which opens it up to explore more areas,” she adds, hardly dismissing the possibility of further installments of the tour. In the meantime readers will have plenty to munch on as they experience this collection of recipes, many having been influenced by the lake and by her own desire to reintroduce some older recipes using fresh and local produce.

“Those of us who live in the Upper Midwest know we share traits, foods and cultures unique to our region and far different from those states like Kansas and Ohio,” said Levin, dismissing coastal attitudes toward a vast area they see as the Midwest. “The closer to Lake Michigan you go, the more similar we become bonded by this source of drinking water, food, happy memories and peace.”

Or is that a “piece” of cherry pie. — Jon Gast