Chile pepper aficionado, Dave DeWitt, updates the ol’ cookbook in this virtual "entertain me" world. "Cuisines of the Southwest: An Illustrated Food History with More Than 160 Regional Recipes" is much more than a cup of this and a teaspoon of that.

DeWitt, affectionately known as "The Pope of Peppers," is prominent in the Southwest as co-producer of the National Fiery Foods & Barbecue Show, a 20-year Albuquerque tradition. "No one knows more about fiery foods than Dave DeWitt," says Steven Raichlen, author of The Barbecue Bible. DeWitt’s Cuisines of the Southwest ($16.95, Golden West Publishers) is released just in time for the 2008 Feb 29-Mar 2 show. A listing of food festivals joins DeWitt’s Glossary of Southwestern Food Terms and Ingredients, and complements the Pepper Primer that spices up his latest recipe book.

Page-turning cookbooks still fill kitchen shelves, but virtual recipes are popular, and it is no longer enough for a cookbook to list ingredients and explain the dry nuances of stove to table preparation. DeWitt’s Cuisines of the Southwest entertains with down-home prose as it provides recipes fit for exquisite dinners, Cinco de Mayo backyard barbecues, and weekday family meals. Celebrate Tex-Mex, New Mexican and Sonoran cooking with unique specialties such as Julio’s Salpicón (a shredded beef brisket salad) and Piñon Flan with Caramel Sauce, and quintessential recipes of enchiladas, chili con carne and other standards of Southwest cooking.

For those seeking to escape kitchen duty, DeWitt, author or co-author of 33 books typically devoted to spicy delights, serves up lively Southwestern restaurant recommendations for the major cities of the region. Austin, San Antonio, El Paso, Las Cruces, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Tucson and Phoenix are a road map of delectable Southwest dining.

Cuisines of the Southwest is just in time for summer picnics and zesty pool parties. It feeds the mind as well as the stomach, with history, trivia, homilies and images that invoke the spirit and flavors of the American Southwest. Historical photos selected from museum and university archives reach beyond savory dishes and honor the Southwest’s vivid ancestry.