Real Maine Food

Down-home recipes from the best restaurants, food artisans, bakeries, and farmers across the state. Eating a hot buttered lobster roll is like taking a mini-vacation: it conjures the scent of salt in the air and the crash of waves on the rocks—the essence of a day at the beach in Maine. Now, with Real Maine Food you can re-create this humble delicacy as well as more than 100 other Maine dishes at home. Maine has developed its own distinctive regional cuisine, characterized foremost by the excellent seafood caught off its pristine coast but also by the wild blueberries, potatoes, and other produce from its rich soils. The authors take a ride on a nineteenth-century schooner, build a beach clambake, and judge a pie-eating contest at a state fair—all in search of the best recipes from accomplished small-town home cooks as well as renowned restaurants and food artisans. Among the dishes are Smoked Haddock and Leek Pie, Lobster Gruyere Grilled Cheese, Crab and Corn Frittata, Blueberry Pancakes, and Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies. Real Maine Food taps into the magic that draws visitors to the state year after year.

Ben Conniff, cofounder of Luke’s Lobster, has written for publications such as Playboy, Smithsonian, Yankee, Saveur, and Tasting Table. Luke Holden, the son of a Maine lobsterman, operates Luke’s Lobster, a casual restaurant with ten locations in New York, Philadelphia, D.C., and Bethesda, Maryland. Luke’s Lobster has been featured on The Today Show, the Food Network, Epicurious, and CNN, as well as in The Wall Street Journal, GQ, The Washington Post, and Condé Nast Traveler.