American Regional Cooking for 8 or 50

"After 200 years of evolution, American regional cooking stands strong and tall and is able to challenge the international cuisines in the arena we call the Culinary Olympics. Over the past 20 years, American chefs have competed with European chefs and have won countless awards. Surprisingly enough, American food prepared by American chefs has won more gold medals than any European cuisine. It is time we revere American regional cooking with the same enthusiasm so often held for European cuisine. The time has come for us to spotlight American cooking traditions, styles, and innovations. Why should we make pilgrimages to Europe in search of the latest food trends, when we have exceptional cuisine right here in the United States?…American chefs should be commended for their freedom of expression. It is this freedom of expression, this imagination and creativity, which has propelled American regional cooking into the forefront of the great world cuisines and shifted the center of gastronomy away from Europe to the United States." —from American Regional Cooking for 8 or 50