‘Delicious Mischief Cookbook’ Now Available

Coming up on a quarter-century ago, John DeMers was just loosening his belt as a “food writer” (he had not known such a job existed in journalism, until he had it) when he received a remarkable proposition over lunch - and set about attempting to turn it down.

Would he, the radio station manager asked, be interested in hosting a show about food and wine? He was a writer, DeMers explained. He wasn’t a DJ or some other kind of radio personality. And besides, he apologized, he was much too shy. After assuring DeMers that none of that was true, the manager uttered the words that have always directed the writer’s life: “We’ll pay you.”

The Delicious Mischief Cookbook: 100 Favorite Recipes from 25 Years of Eating and Drinking on the Radio (Bright Sky Press, $29.95) has been published as a full-color 192-page hardcover book. In these lively, often-humorous pages, DeMers recounts how this “shy” writer became the radio host of a high-energy, irreverent, no-pinkie-raised food and wine show called Delicious Mischief years before its move from Louisiana to Texas - before it, as it were, traded jambalaya for beef brisket. And as the author of dozens of cookbooks over many years, DeMers also shares the top 100 recipes he’s learned how to make for his own friends and family from interviewing, cooking and tasting alongside chefs like Paul Prudhomme and Emeril Lagasse in New Orleans, Robert del Grande in Houston, Stephan Pyles in Dallas and Jimmy Bannos in Chicago.

“This book is kind of a love letter to everybody who ever taught me anything about food and wine, which is approximately everybody I’ve ever met,” John says. ”In addition to lots of photos that make me nostalgic and colorful food that makes me hungry, the big deal here is the recipes. They come from the modern Texas I know and love, whether that means families who’ve been here forever, immigrants who moved here last week or Texans who, like me, are lucky enough to travel to tons of wonderful places. These are the recipes I make at home for friends. Like the musician I always wanted to be, I really do take requests.”

A presentation of Spec’s Wines, Spirits & Finer Foods, Delicious Mischief is now heard weekly in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin. It has also managed to carry its host to culinary destinations around the world, from a Michelin three-star palace in Burgundy to an 11th-century villa in Tuscany to a shack in the middle of an avocado orchard near Uruapan, Mexico. He has cooked French with David Denis in Texas and Italian with Jani Lechtinen in Finland.

On the recipe front (with some great stories attached), this book describes John’s efforts to make his beloved chicken and sausage gumbo in the Far West Texas town of Marfa (pop. 1,980), his encounter with stone crab soup in Everglades City, Florida, the amazing salad dressing that’s apparently made only at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, and, of course, his day-to-day epiphanies within favorite world cuisines: Italian, Greek, French, Spanish, Tex-Mex, Latin American, and every conceivable version of Asian. He’s even hosted one show about Eskimo Cuisine, with some real Eskimos as guests, but none of those recipes made the cut.

Recipes include Roasted Raspberry Chipotle Barbecue Meatballs, Brisket-Stuffed 1015 Onions, Salsa Shrimp and Tex-Mex Cheese Grits, Grilled Shrimp Tacos with Peach Pico de Gallo, Jazzfest Crawfish Rotini, Moroccan Chicken Couscous, Shiner Bock Barbecued Cabrito, Texas Frito Pie Frittata, Hill Country Peach Biscotti Crumble, Flourless Chocolate-Pecan Cake and even rodeo-style Cheesecake on a Stick.

John DeMers is the author of more than fifty published books on food, drink, travel, history and religion, including four Texas-set novels, five plays and two musicals. He is a regular contributor to Houston, Prime Living and Arts + Culture magazines, in addition to lecturing on cruise ships in the Caribbean and Mediterranean. John lives in Houston and Marfa.