Chez Panisse Cafe Cookbook

by Alice Waters

Book Overview

We hung the walls with old French movie posters advertising the films of Marcel Pagnol, films that had already provided us with both a name and an ideal: to create a community of friends, lovers, and relatives that span generations and is in tune with the seasons, the land, and human appetites. So writes Alice Waters of the opening of Berkeley's Chez Panisse Café on April Fool's Day, 1980. Located above the more formal Chez Panisse Restaurant, the...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060175834
• ISBN13: 9780060175832
• Release Date: August 1999
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 2.22 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 7.3" x 10.3"

Customer Reviews

A good exposition of Alice Waters' work

Alice Walters is well known for her "philosophy" of cooking, as exemplified in her restaurant "Chez Panisse." She emphasizes top quality ingredients and fresh foods. For example, she developed a network of local producers of vegetables to provide the best quality and freshest raw materials for her restaurant's menu items. She speaks of how (page 3) "central the quality of produce is to our cooking. Because the food we cook is simple and straightforward, every ingredient must be the best of its kind." Since most of the growers that she has worked with sell at local farmers' markets, she suggests that readers of this cookbook use local farmers' markets as a source of vegetables--not your average supermarket. The cookbook illustrates her ideas pretty well. There are simple recipes; there are others that (despite her words above) aren't. The very first recipe, on page 7, is a simple garden lettuce salad. And she notes that (page 6) "a restaurant is only as good as its simplest green salad." On page 55 is another salad recipe, one of only two recipes that have been continuously on her menu since the day her place opened--Baked goat cheese with garden lettuces. There are nice hints for cooking, such as her description on page 44 about how to make a perfect hard-cooked egg. Other recipes that strike me as interesting--Crostata de perrella (the other item that has been on the menu since Day One), a calzone; Yellowfin Tuna with coriander and fennel seed; Salted Atlantic cod baked with tomatoes; Roast pork loin with rosemary and fennel; Red-wine braised bacon; Grilled chicken breasts au poivre. And so on. This represents, first, a good cookbook, with quite a few interesting recipes. It also represents a view of how to get the best quality out of one's cooking. For both reasons, this is a good buy for those interested in acquiring worthwhile cookbooks.

Great book for the serious cook

I had made many things out of the book, and all have turned out delicious. The success of the dishes depends completely on having the highest quality, freshest ingredients available. If you can't get a hold of any pancetta or prosciutto, you're going to be really limited in what you can prepare from this book. The cookbook is definitely for a serious home cook, who's interested in spending time in the kitchen, making homemade sausages, experimenting with homemade pancetta, etc. If that's you, you will love it!

Another excellent book from Alice

Just bought the book and it's wonderful. It's filled with delicious recipes and the beautiful illustrations that all her cookbooks have become known for. Alice is so cool, I saw her at a book signing and she is as warm as you might expect. and also found out that she has a website where she answers questions.

A fun, inspiring cookbook!

Although some of the recipes are a little intimidating, this is a fun cookbook that makes you feel like you are cooking like one of the best chefs of the bay area.