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Title: The Zuni Cafe Cookbook: A Compendium of Recipes and Cooking Lessons from San Francisco's Beloved Restaurant by Judy Rodgers, Gerald Asher ISBN: 0-393-02043-6 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 23 September, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (20 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Wonderful reading and cooking
Comment: Zuni is one of the classic California cuisine restaurants in San Francisco, to my mind the main one. This book is a great encapsulation of it. I'm reviewing it because some of the other reviewers struck me as unclear on the concept. Firstly, it is A RESTAURANT'S COOKBOOK. One reviewer wrote a bad review because (s)he didn't like that kind of cookbook. The style of the restaurant's food suffuses the book. To me, that's wonderful; I have enough general cooking books already. Secondly, the amount of effort required for recipes is, as a result of the first point, a bit higher than for some books, but it's less work and the recipes are less precious than in, say, Chez Panisse Cooking (which I never use for that reason). The drool-inducing pictures are worth half the book's price; just seeing gougeres with bacon and arugula made me want to get in the kitchen.
Rating: 2
Summary: I'll Make 10% of These Recipes
Comment: I received this cookbook as a gift from someone who thought it was about Southwestern cooking (as in Zuni Indians - actually, the food is mostly Mediterranean). I am not in the restaurant or food business, nor am I a personal friend of the author's.
Undoubtedly, Zuni Café is a wonderful restaurant experience. But, if like me, you are a home cook with limited access to quail, various imported Italian goodies, and glasswort, etc., etc., etc., forget this book. Much of it is just too dang precious.
Precious also is the language. Like the author, I have spent significant time in France and speak French at near-native level. However, I really question her use of French (sometimes Italian)when English will do - example: "restes" for leftovers. The impression is one of insecurity or a need to elevate herself and her recipes.
The book is a giant step backwards to someone like Narcisse Chamberlain - eurocentric cooking for Americans.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Chef's Love Affair with a Remarkable Resaurant
Comment: "I was smitten on sight when I walked into Zuni in 1987." recalls Rodgers in her opening chapter, a sentiment many of her restaurant's patrons would be quick to second. "The crowd was eclectic -- young, old, middle aged, dressed up, dressed down, in noisy groups or quiet deuces. Some there for the place, some for the drinks, some for the food, some for each other. I took in the space and imagined you could eat as simply or as grandly as you wanted in this setting, and that the food would only be a part of the seduction."
The casual reader is thus warned, upfront that this is not merely a treasury of time-tested recipes from one of San Francisco's most popular and enduring restaurants. Rather, it is a chronicle of a chef's love affair with a restaurant and with the cooking and eating it has allowed within its two-story window walls.
Her "cooking lessons" impart her key theories on cooking and eating, such as the importance of salting early, and are full of colorful, practical technique. For instance, in her lesson on reducing stock for use in sauces, she directs the home chef to "simmer steadily and gently, uncovered, skimming impurities as they veil the surface of the reducing stock. The most efficient way to remove these evanescent "skins" is to rest the underside of a wide, flat serving spoon on them -- the veil will cling to the spoon. Lift the veil and gently pivot the spoon, so that the skin doesn't slide back into the reduction, then rinse the spoon clean. Repeat as needed. This way you discard only impurities, not precious reduction."
Each of the 250 recipes has been adapted for the home cook who lacks Zuniís signature wood-fired oven, with some recipes, such as the Zuni hamburger, providing detailed instructions for either grill, stovetop, or broiler to ensure best results for the cook who takes on the challenge of this "labor-of-love-intensive" dish. Each recipe is additionally paired with a wine suggestion (frequently for a lesser known, California wine) from Gourmet Wine Editor Gerald Asher. Rodgers includes the iconic roasted chicken and Caesar salad recipes, as well as directions for making the many house-pickled and cured pantry items that regularly show up on Zuni dinersí plates. When a recipe stars a seasonal item of produce, such as the "salami with raw favas" appetizer, Rodgers notes the time of year in which the produce is in season, thus saving a home cook from disappointment.
Rodgers goes out of her way to mention specific brands and resources for her less common ingredients, and includes 3-pages of resources for many of the pantry products she uses, plus a selected bibliography of food reference books. Unfortunately, neither the cheese course primer nor the resource list provides any leads for mail ordering cheese, which can be frustrating for a reader who, unlike Rodgers, doesn't live in a city with major artisanal cheese importers. The same disappointment holds true for the wine pairings, several of which are for small production Santa Barbara County wineries with very limited distribution. These complaints, however, are minimal in light of the scope of the technique and solid recipes within Rodgers first foray into cookbook writing.
Though many of the recipes may prove to be too time- or ingredient-intensive for a novice home cook, or someone looking for a quick way to recreate a memorable meal at Zuni, the Zuni Cafe Cookbook is well worth the time both as a culinary treatise on finding the best, most flavorful foods that are in season and available to you and how to prepare those culinary finds in a manner that highlights their specialness, and as a memoir of one woman's love affair with a very special restaurant.
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Title: Nancy Silverton's Sandwich Book: The Best Sandwiches Ever-From Thursday Nights at Campanile by Nancy Silverton, Teri Gelber, Amy Neunsinger ISBN: 0375412603 Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Pub. Date: 08 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Mustards Grill Napa Valley Cookbook by Cindy Pawlcyn, Brigid Callinan, Brigid Callanan ISBN: 1580080456 Publisher: Ten Speed Press Pub. Date: October, 2001 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
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Title: The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen : Recipes for the Passionate Cook by Paula Wolfert ISBN: 0471262889 Publisher: Wiley Pub. Date: 19 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
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Title: Amuse-Bouche: Little Bites That Delight Before the Meal Begins by Rick Tramonto ISBN: 0375507604 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 22 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Cooking by Hand: Paul Bertolli Executive Chef & Co-Owner of Oliveto Restaurant by Paul Bertolli, Gail Skoff, Judy Dater ISBN: 0609608932 Publisher: Clarkson N Potter Publishers Pub. Date: 19 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
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