Take Your Memorial Day Weekend Home with “The Jersey Shore Cookbook”

Deborah Smith, author of “The Jersey Shore Cookbook”

For a beach read that is far more appetizing than the newest Nicholas Sparks novel, pick up a copy of The Jersey Shore Cookbook. Highlighting recipes from Keyport to Cape May, the newly released book offers a taste of the shore that will last long past your next weekend down the shore.

Written by Deborah Smith, founder of JerseyBites.com, the book includes recipes from 50 of the shore’s best restaurants. Smith, who grew up on the shore, captures not only the flavors of the beach towns but the backstories of establishments that have become landmarks in their own right.

Smith said the book is culinary guide, “with every recipe comes a story.” “People love to get that insider info like where the best seat is or what regulars know to ask for when they go.”

“People love food and people are passionate about the shore,” said Thomas Robert Clarke, who captured all the photos for the cookbook. “This book is a great way to bring those two things together.”

Clarke said getting to try all the food he photographed was an amazing “perk.” He recommends the Lobster Thermidor from the Knife and Fork Inn in Atlantic City as a “bucket list item.”

Now you can cook up all the best the shore has to offer from Jersey Cakes at The Chicken or the Egg in Beach Haven to the Creamy Crab Soup from Marie’s Seafood in Sea Isle City to the Peach Panna Cotta found at Porta in Ashbury Park.

And if you prefer eating to cooking, use it as your “foodie treasure map” and see how many of the shore-based gems you can cross off the list this summer.

The Jersey Shore Cookbook ($22.95) can be found at regional Barnes & Nobles, Whole Foods, Costco, and on Amazon (of course).

For more on the Jersey Shore, check out our guide to the Best Eats at the Shore.