Holidays are ripe for generating food memories kinfolk love to rehash year after year.
For Andy Murray, one that particularly stands out is the Christmas meal he made at his brother Brian’s 200-year-old home in Connecticut in 1981. His mom showed up, along with five of his eight siblings — including Billy, better known by “Saturday Night Live” fans as Bill.
That year, temperatures plunged to minus 15 degrees, requiring several of them to stay up all night stoking the fires in the fireplaces and wood-burning stove. The next morning, Andy prepared turkey and stuffing, green beans amandine, pies and quiche on that stove.
“That Christmas was when I think my family discovered I could actually cook,” he writes. In the foreword to “Eat, Drink and Be Murray: A Feast of Family Fun and Favorites” (Dey Street Books, $27.99), Bill Murray credits his younger brother, a professionally-trained chef, with preserving those memories around the dinner table with “so many lovely, lovable brothers and sisters.”
While several of his brothers pursued acting careers, Andy worked his way up from bussing tables in the Chicago suburb of Wilmette where they grew up, to cooking in some of New York’s busiest kitchens — most notably Mortimer’s, Manhattan’s fabled celebrity hot spot.
As teenagers, the six Murray brothers spent summers working as caddies at a local country club. All became avid golfers, and that experience inspired Brian to write the 1980 classic comedy, “Caddyshack,” starring Bill, with several other brothers popping up in cameos. In the late 1990s, Andy partnered with a friend to build a restaurant around the movie theme, which he runs today at the World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Florida.
Recipes within this charming little volume are as nostalgic as the snapshots and stories surrounding them: the family favorite party dip called “Hot Nuts” (cream cheese, chipped beef, and pecans); the fried chicken his mom Lucille made for John Belushi and the rest of the Second City comedy troupe; the peachy 19th Hole signature cocktail of his restaurant and his libation of choice to serve at a pool party.
Collectively, they support his life’s motto: “Food really is the glue that brings us all together.”
Susan Puckett is a cookbook author and former food editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Follow her at susanpuckett.com.
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