Son of a Southern Chef: Cook with Soul

With a personality and presence as bold as his food, Lynch, a two-time winner of Food Network’s Chopped, here offers a bevy of dishes with Southern roots (his father is from Alabama and ran a soul food restaurant in Queens): corn and green onion fritters with red pepper sauce; skillet turkey chili with cheesy jalapeño cornbread crust; blackened salmon burger with cucumber sauce; and maple bourbon buttermilk fried chicken are just some of the dishes readers will want to bookmark. Lynch has a gift for combining flavors, as seen in his curry lamb meatballs in coconut sauce; lime, rum and coconut bars; and Coca-Cola- BBQ chicken, a riff on classic Beer Can Chicken (Lynch uses the soda as a marinade, to steam the chicken, and to craft a quick barbecue sauce to serve alongside). The one downside is the number of similar images devoted to Lynch rather than to his creations. Nevertheless, this is an exciting, approachable collection of recipes perfect for entertaining. (June)