Gumbo Love

The newest cookbook from Lucy Buffett, owner of LuLu's restaurant in Gulf Shores, is a love letter to Southern, coastal cuisine.

The way cookbook author Lucy Buffett writes about her coastal Alabama upbringing would make anyone want to pack up her wooden spoons and move to the Gulf to put down roots.

It is "the place of my birth, the place where generations of my people walked the sandy shores, frolicked in the salty waves, sailed the crystal green waters, and cooked pots and pots of seafood gumbo long before I was even a notion," she writes in the introduction to her newest book.

Owner of LuLu’s restaurant in Gulf Shores―and, yes, sister to Jimmy―Buffett grew up in Mobile and learned the secrets of Southern, coastal cuisine from her Mississippi grandmothers. Her new book, Gumbo Love: Recipes for Gulf Coast Cooking, Entertaining, and Savoring the Good Life, is filled with more than 100 old and new family favorites along with life lessons she's learned along the way.

Below, read our Q&A with Buffett, a list of her favorite local farm-stands and four recipes from her book: spicy shrimp ceviche, watermelon and feta cheese salad, summer seafood gumbo and classic Southern pound cake with strawberries and fresh whipped cream.

Find Gumbo Love on Amazon, at LuLu’s gift shop or at a local bookshop near you.