Pentagram has designed and produced Jack Allen's Kitchen: Celebrating the Tastes of Texas, the first cookbook from the popular Austin-area eatery. Distributed by the University of Texas Press, the book made its debut at the Texas Book Festival. Jack Gilmore, the restaurant’s colorful owner, is a bit of a celebrity chef, but he doesn’t look like one. With his tumbleweed mane, gray-streaked beard, and Cheshire Cat smile, he looks more like an unkempt Yosemite Sam than a culinary master.

The focus at Jack Allen's Kitchen is on three things—Southern hospitality, quality local ingredients, and great value. As a longtime chef in Central Texas, Jack Gilmore has learned a lot about the importance of relationships in the restaurant business. His guiding principals are: treat your customers like family; foster relationships with your staff to help them grow; and create meaningful connections with local farmers. This commitment shines through in the soulful, and delicious, Southern comfort food at Jack Allen’s Kitchen.

Jack Allen’s Kitchen, written by Gilmore and Jessica Dupuy, includes over 150 recipes that feature the bounty of each season, engaging profiles, and some “inside baseball” about preparing the recipes from the wild-man himself. Austin photographer Kenny Braun shot the lush, but unfussy and naturally lit dishes, portraits, and landscapes that make this more than just a cookbook. It’s a love letter to the farmers, fisherman and food purveyors of Central Texas who have made Jack Allen’s Kitchen what it is today.