The New Portland, Maine, Chef's Table

Maine’s cultural and culinary heart, Portland is a buzzing and energetic food community. Widely considered to have one of the country’s most vibrant food scenes—named “Restaurant City of the Year” by Bon Appetit—the city offers a diverse culinary landscape, from classic seafood to Oaxacan to Korean to Milanese, and its devotion to farm-to-table cuisine and locally sourced ingredients is undeniable given that the Portland Farmers’ Market, the country’s oldest continually operating market of its kind, has thrived here for over 200 years. With more than 80 recipes from dozens of the city’s most celebrated restaurants, including Drifter's Wife, Rose Foods, and Chaval, and showcasing full-color photos of mouth-watering dishes by James Beard nominated chefs, and lots of local flavor, Portland’s dynamic food scene is celebrated in all its gustatorial glory.

Margaret Hathaway is the author of The Year of the Goat, Living with Goats, and Food Lover’s Guide to Maine. Her husband, Karl Schatz, is a photographer and leader of Slow Food Portland. They live with their three children on a small farm in southern Maine, where they raise dairy goats, tend a large garden and a small orchard, make cheese, and teach workshops on homesteading.