CNYEats.com announces its release of its first-in-a-series of cookbooks featuring homegrown recipes posted on its web site. “A Taste of Utica: Recipes & Memories” is filled with 300 recipes that were originated in the kitchen of Central New Yorkers.
 
Web site creator Joseph Mezzanini of Utica, says that even though the book was assembled by himself and CNYEats.com Editor Jeanann Murphy, the real credit goes out to all the members who shared their family secrets.
 
The spiral-bound book contains 300 recipes as well as personal memories inspired by some of the recipes and the mothers that created them.
 
Mezzanini created the CNYEats.com web site in 2000 to offer a forum where Central New York residents could post their own restaurant reviews and share recipes.
 
“It was a slow start in the beginning, but then after being featured in the Syracuse Post Standard, BOOM!” Mezzanini said. “It was unbelievable.”
 
Besides reviews and recipes, the forum also fosters other discussions such as who created Chicken Riggies, the Hemstroughts vs. Holland Farms half moon debate and how do you get the “Utica” in “Utica Greens.”
 
All profits from the book will be donated to the Compassion Coalition, an organization that distributes food directly to food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, halfway houses, community associations, and inner city churches that are located primarily throughout the Mohawk Valley.
 
To purchase “A Taste of Utica: Recipes & Memories” visit http://CNYEats.com for ordering information. Volume II of CNY Eats is already in the works.  If you have a recipe that you would like to donate to the book you can post as many as you would like on the web site.