Holiday Gift Guide - Pelican Publishing

The story of the Cvitanovich family, the founders and proprietors of Drago’s Seafood Restaurant, which opened its first location just outside New Orleans, Louisiana, in the 1970s, is the story of a family living the true American dream: two immigrants from Croatia come to the United States with little money in their pockets and forge a seafood restaurant empire known throughout the world. With hard work, fierce tenacity, and the willpower to seize opportunity where they could find it, Drago and Klara Cvitanovich turned their small family restaurant into a Crescent City icon. And there, they invented a New Orleans staple, the charbroiled oyster, a dish that nearly every seafood restaurant in the country tries to emulate. This inspiring and uniquely American story validates the power of hard work, perseverance, faith in family, and generosity. Their post-Katrina emergency food distribution, fueled by firsthand experience of hunger during World War II, fed thousands and created an unbreakable community bond.

Award-winning journalist Peter Finney Jr. is a former sportswriter for the New York Post and New York Daily News and the recipient of the St. Francis de Sales Award from the Catholic Media Association. He has served as the executive editor and general manager of the Clarion Herald, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, since 1993.

Chef Jason Smith is back at it, providing you with more of his one-of-a-kind Country Bling recipes. The Kentucky native, known for his glitzy wardrobe, colorful expressions, and award-winning recipes, is thrilled to present his second cookbook, which focuses on decadent confections, using eight ingredients or less.

The recipes in this book have been developed to encompass everything that makes a decadent dessert; whether you like sweet, salty, tart, savory, silky, crunchy, chewy, creamy, frozen, fried, or chilled; you are promised to have a lip-smackin’, eye-rollin’ experience with each recipe.

It was Chef Jason’s flair for taking all of the above considerations when making tasty confections that shot him into the national spotlight, when he competed on and won Food Network’s Holiday Baking Championship, season 3; and Holiday Baking Championship—Kids vs. Adults, 2016. He continued to parlay his talents in the sweet and savory, by competing on and winning Food Network Star, season 13. Chef Jason has appeared as a judge and competitor on several national network food shows, and has had the honor of participating on The GOAT, an Amazon Prime reality show.

With all his accolades, he considers the privilege of sharing his love of food through his cookbooks to be his greatest accomplishment.