Product Description

When Jeremiah Tower started cooking in California in the 1970s, fine food in America was typically a pale imitation of French haute cuisine. Taking the reins at a small Berkeley restaurant named Chez Panisse, Tower looked around at the extraordinary fresh ingredients available from local producers, began experimenting with a cooking style that emphasized pure flavors and inventive combinations...and changed the face of American cooking. In a few years, he went on to open San Francisco's glittering Stars restaurant, becoming this country's first celebrity chef and winning two James Beard Foundation awards, including one for best chef in the U.S. Without debate, Tower is one of the country's greatest cooks. In this extraordinary new cookbook, he presents over 250 recipes representing the last fifteen years of his creative cooking. More than a cookbook, however, Jeremiah Tower Cooks reveals Tower's extraordinary gift as a writer and storyteller. The result is a book of exceptional delights from a marvelous writer and a brilliant cook.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #942283 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

From Amazon.com
As founding chef at California's famed Chez Panisse, chef at San Francisco's Stars, and author of the award-winning New American Classics, Jeremiah Tower is a forefather of New American cooking. His culinary signature is pristinely flavored food made with the freshest seasonal ingredients. Jeremiah Tower Cooks presents 250 recipes for dishes like Chilled Mushroom Soup with Spiced Crab, Ricotta Dumplings with Fava Beans and Savory, and Spiced Duck Sichuan Style. Though dishes like these can demand a shopping and cooking commitment, there's nothing difficult about putting them together. For cooks interested in simple yet refined cooking that veers to the deluxe (Tower's favorite hamburger is made with truffles), this cookbook is a must.

Organized by courses and food categories, the book begins, provocatively, with "Delights and Prejudices," a compendium of often-wry observations. (Tower favors using a microwave, for example, but only for reheating food--"[so used] it changes the food less than any other method," he says--but is against the pervasive roasted garlic purée, which he finds "indigestible.") Tower is also a culinary reader and dishes like English Autumn Salad (adapted from Robert May's 1685 Accomplisht Cook) and The Anchovy Toasts of Austin de Croze (from his 1931 What to Eat and Drink in Paris), among others, reflect that pursuit. A selection of mostly simple, mostly fruit desserts includes New Summer Pudding, "Burnt" Passion Fruit Curd, and Black Bottom Pie, which Tower says "needs no comment. Or rather, I can't think of any that would do justice to this perfect pie." With many more opinions, and illustrative paintings that are a welcome change from the usual food photography, the book will fill many hours with good reading as well as superior cooking. --Arthur Boehm

From Publishers Weekly
Like a culinary Zelig, Tower seems to have popped up during key moments in modern food history. He was chef at Chez Panisse in the 1970s and is often credited with inventing "California cuisine." This Renaissance man of the culinary world (he's also the author of New American Classics and a columnist for the San Francisco Examiner) has an opinion on everything, from frying eggs to aging game birds. An initial chapter of basic instructions is appropriately titled "Delights and Prejudices." Tower is admirably specific, even when it comes to something as simple as a Chicken Club Sandwich, yet not afraid to suggest shortcuts, as in Spit-Roasted Chinatown Suckling Pig Pizza, where he tells the reader simply to purchase the pre-cooked pig. Occasionally recipes veer into fussiness, as with Rich Mussel Bisque with Shrimpmeat Garlic Toasts and Nasturtiums, and Tower is not immune to the author-chef curse of calling for highly specific ingredients that mere culinary mortals may have trouble laying their hands on, as in Figs with Wild Thyme Honey in Red Wine and Lapsang Souchong Custard. On balance, however, exciting, innovative recipes such as Leatherwood Honey- and Sichuan Pepper-Glazed Rack of Lamb with Eggplant Pasta and Green Goddess Olive Oil and Lemon Sauce dominate. Donald Sultan's vivid still-life paintings are a perfect match to Tower's lively style, and if sometimes recipes get out of hand, well, that's to be expected from this kind of creative mind. (Oct.)Forecast: It has been 16 long years since Tower's New American Classics won a James Beard Award, but he returns with a bang here. Exceptionally attractive art, including an eye-catching cover, is sure to promote sales.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
As the original chef at Alice Waters's Chez Panisse and then the chef/owner of San Francisco's acclaimed Stars restaurant and its offshoots, Tower greatly shaped what came to be known as California/New American cuisine. His first cookbook, New American Classics, was published 15 years ago; his new book is a celebration of "the new American culinary tradition." Tower includes favorite recipes from throughout his career, chosen from both the contemporary dishes he is known for, such as Green Zebra Heirloom Tomato Salad and Sea Urchin Souffl‚, and his interpretations of some "enduring classics," like Poached Turbot with Oyster Hollandaise. A witty and erudite writer, Tower is a man of strong opinions; "Delights and Prejudices," the first chapter, presents his philosophy on food and cooking, and recipe headnotes and other reflections throughout the book expand on that introduction. Although he has been less visible since he closed his restaurants (he is currently the host and writer of the PBS series America's Best Chefs), anyone interested in American cooking will want to read this. For most collections.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.