Foodie Friday: Kevin Gillespie's New Cookbook and Restaurant

I'm starting a new weekly feature here at Ivory Owl Reviews: Foodie Fridays

Each Friday I will be featuring a review of a food-themed book, cookbook, or a recipe. 

Today's post is a spotlight on chef Kevin Gillespie. I reviewed his first cookbook, Fire in My Belly, for Buckhaven Lifestyle magazine in 2013. 

My review of Kevin Gillespie's new cookbook, Pure Pork Awesomeness, which releases at the end of March, appears in the February issues of Perimeter North Lifestyle and Buckhaven Lifestyle magazine. Below I've repeated the review and added the press release announcing his newest restaurant.  

Title: Pure Pork Awesomeness: Totally Cookable Recipes from Around the World
Author: Kevin Gillespie and David Joachim
Publisher: Andrews McMeel
Publication Date: March 31, 2015
ISBN: 9781449447076
Number of Pages: 240
How I Got It: Amy Geismar at Melissa Libby& Associates
Format: PDF

Loved locally since his early days at Woodfire Grill, Kevin Gillespie won America’s hearts and stomachs as a finalist and fan favorite on Bravo’s Top Chef in 2009. Since his appearance he has received numerous distinguished national and local awards as well as opened Gunshow in Glenwood Park in the summer of 2013. Gillespie’s first cookbook, Fire in My Belly, introduced readers to his passion for cooking and provided personal background into his culinary past and his recipes. Returning now with his second cookbook, Pure Pork Awesomeness, Gillespie continues to promote his farm-to-table agenda, this time specializing in pork. Beginning from a wish to have a pet pig as a child, Gillespie has always had a preference for a particular protein, pointing out how “everyone who knows me knows I am crazy about pork.” Wanting to share his knowledge and inspire others, he compiled his latest cookbook because “to be able to put it all down on paper was really important to me. I’m really proud of it, and I hope it’ll inspire people to try new things with pork.” In Pure Pork Awesomeness, Gillespie educates readers on making informed choices when selecting pork, such as the differences between commodity pork and pastured pork, explains the difference in breeds, and gives advice for selecting different cuts and types of pork. But this cookbook is not just packed with every aspect of porcine information, it also features 100 mouth-watering, pork-praising recipes from across the globe, You’ll learn how pork is prepared and enjoyed in China, Germany, Mexico, Vietnam, Korea, Cuba, Thailand, Greece, Italy, Spain, France, Austria, Scotland, and the United States with recipes including: Coca-Cola Glazed Pork Shoulder, Sour Orange Carnitas, Slow-Cooked Pork Barbacoa, A Really Good Cuban Sandwich (including a recipe for mojo mayonnaise), Cottage Bacon Croque Monsieur and Grilled Pork Banh Mi. Divided into chapters specializing in different cuts, this cookbook covers everything any cook would ever need to know about pigs, from snout to tail. Gillespie explains that Pure Pork Awesomeness “is the culmination of my passion for pork and an exciting opportunity to share all I’ve learned about it over the course of my career.” He shares the personal backstory for several of his recipes, just as he did in his first cookbook, with his trademark friendly and engaging style. Reading this cookbook will make you feel like you are in the kitchen swapping stories and cooking secrets with a buddy…it’s just that your buddy is Chef Kevin Gillespie, The Professor of Pork. 
Gillespie is opening a second restaurant in 2015, Terminus City, which currently offers onsite catering and pick-up from the Gunshow location. Visit  ChefKevinGillespie.com to keep up to date with all of our city’s most beloved chef’s activities or to order a signed copy of Pure Pork Awesomeness: Totally Cookable Recipes from Around the World ($30)  releasing March 31, 2015.

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Melissa Libby & Associates Official Press Release Announcing: Kevin Gillespie's Newest Restaurant: Revival

KEVIN GILLESPIE STAGES A RESTAURANT “REVIVAL”
New Decatur Meat-and-Three to Serve a Fresh New Take on Family-Style Dining

ATLANTA (January 20, 2015)–Atlanta-based chef, restaurateur, and author Kevin Gillespie, the man behind the nationally recognized Glenwood Park restaurant Gunshow, is taking aim at a beloved Southern institution with his newest project. Revival, located on the site of the former Harbour House Pub in Decatur, promises a fresh take on the traditional, family-style Sunday dinner, with a focus on farm-raised and artisan-prepared ingredients.

“I have fallen back in love with the traditional dishes I grew up eating, and those that represent the beautiful culinary traditions of the Deep South,” Gillespie says. “Inspired by the cooking of my grandmothers and the history of our region, I want to breathe new life into that classic family-style restaurant, or ‘meat and three.’ We hope to showcase the dishes with a passion and precision that is largely unavailable currently.”

Revival’s menu will offer a blend of meats, fish, and fresh vegetables, with seasonal options that change daily. Lunch will be served a la carte, while supper, Gillespie says, “will more closely resemble a classic Southern family-style spread served in your grandmother’s home. Revival will be like going to your grandma’s on Sunday—except every day.”

The setting even promises to echo a visit to your grandmother’s house, with a lush garden in the front and a spacious yard in the rear. Revival will be located at 129 Church Street in Decatur and is scheduled to open in early June.

About Chef Kevin Gillespie
Chef Kevin Gillespie's true passion lies in incorporating fresh, organic and sustainable ingredients in all of his dishes. After graduating with honors from the Art Institute of Atlanta, the Georgia native worked in top restaurants in Atlanta and Oregon before opening his first restaurant, Gunshow, in May 2013. Gillespie was one of the final three cheftestants on the sixth season of Bravo’s “Top Chef” and was voted “fan favorite.” He has been named a semi-finalist for the James Beard Foundation’s Rising Star Chef of the Year award for three consecutive years, nominated for Food & Wine’s People’s Best New Chef and named Forbes’ 30 Under 30 for his outstanding accomplishments in the restaurant industry. As a rising young culinary star who was bringing more than just good food to the table, Gillespie was named one of Mother Nature Network’s top “40 Chefs Under 40” in November 2009 for linking farms to forks and promoting better health for people and the planet. In February 2010, he was honored as one of Gayot.com’s “Top Five Rising Chefs.” In February 2014, Gunshow earned the seventh spot on GQ magazine’s list of “12 Most Outstanding Restaurants” and in October 2014, Gunshow was honored as one of 12 restaurants on Esquire’s “Best New Restaurants of 2014” list. Gillespie is set to release Pure Pork Awesomeness: Totally Cookable Recipes from Around the World on March 31, 2015, a follow-up cookbook to Fire in My Belly, which was selected as a James Beard Award Finalist. Gillespie is a member of Slow Food Atlanta, Southern Foodways Alliance, Chefs Collaborative, Community Farmers Markets Chefs Advisory Board, Georgia Organics and the Society for the Preservation of Traditional Southern Barbecue. For more information, please visit chefkevingillespie.com.