Susanna Foo Fresh Inspiration: New Approaches to Chinese Cuisine

by Susanna Foo

Susanna Foo, the leading Chinese chef in America and the winner of two James Beard Awards, has been hailed as an innovator by Gourmet, Food & Wine, Esquire, the New York Times, and many other... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0618393307
• ISBN13: 9780618393305
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 10.0" x 10.2"

Customer Reviews

Susanna Food Fresh Inspiration: New Approaches to Chinese cuisine

Although I live in Los Angeles now, I remember an exquisite dinner at Susanna Foo's restaurant in Philadelphia, PA, years ago. This book is not a surprise. She is an ace at creativity with fresh ingredients and this cookbook with its fascinating recipes is an exceptional work. I am so pleased that I discovered it.

Superior celebrity chef cookbook. Good tips. Luscious recipes.

`Susanna Foo Fresh Inspiration' is the second book by Chinese-American Restaurateur / Chef Susanna Foo who has some James Beard awards to her credit plus the usual celebrity chef endorsement blurbs on the back of her book from the likes of Charlie Trotter, Daniel Boulud, Jacques Pepin, and Lidia Bastianich. One thing which impressed me is that in spite of the oversize format, the book's list price is no more than the standard $35. As the author makes clear in her introduction, this is not a book on standard Chinese cooking technique. And, her suggestions on wok cooking early in the book also make it clear this is not traditional fiery hot carbon steel wok cooking. Rather, it is adapted to the familiar western flat bottomed wok which I suspect most purely Chinese cooks would consider not a wok at all. It took me no more than reading two recipes to sense that this book is mostly a fusion of Chinese and Mediterranean ingredients and techniques. The very first `dim sum' recipe had western ingredients portobello mushrooms, extra virgin olive oil, shallots, Parmesan cheese, and truffle oil paired up with Oriental ingredients shiitake mushrooms, dumpling skins, soy sauce, and cellophane noodles. This dish could be billed just as accurately as a ravioli or empanada dish as a dish of dumplings. Except for the terms `Dim Sum' and `Tofu' in the chapter titles, this would look for the entire world like a typical western cookbook. All the chapters are: Dim Sum and first Courses - Not too much different from antipasto dishes. Soups and Stocks - Oddly, no chicken stock, but just about every other kind, plus tofu recipes. Salads and Cold Vegetable Dishes - Again, evenly divided between Asian and European ingredients. Fish and Shellfish - Mostly worldwide ingredients such as shrimp, scallops, salmon, and black sea bass. Poultry - Finally a primarily oriental recipe selection of duck and chicken, plus roasted Poussin. Meats - Primarily oriental dishes, including Korean grilled dishes. Noodles, Rice, and Other Side Dishes - Total mix of east and west with soba noodles to chestnuts. Tofu and Eggs - this may be the most oriental chapter of all, as most of the recipes involve frying or braising tofu. Vegetables - A very western group of recipes. Condiments and Relishes - More western pickling than Korean or Chinese fermented preparations. Desserts - Very, very western selection. The placement of recipes in chapters is sometimes illogical, but you will hardly notice or be annoyed by the fact. The value to people with few cookbooks is that for a standard price, you get a very nice selection of recipes from around the world. The value to people with lots of cookbooks is that this is a better than average read as `celebrity chef ` cookbooks go, and it has several excellent refinements on tips which are not shortcuts but the kind which arise from a monomaniacal devotion to doing the very best cooking you can possibly do. While many of the tips may be just a bit too e

Chinese with a French/American Slant

One trouble with a lot of Chinese (or other ethnic for that matter) cookbooks have is that they often call for items that might be readily available in Hong Kong but which are very difficult to find in you local supermarket -- expecially if you live in a small town like I do. Susanna Foo on the other hand is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and had developed a series of dishes that: taste better to American palates use commonly found ingredients are simple to make. The resulting dishes are lighter, fresher tasting and all around better than you find in other Chinese cookbooks. She even adds that you don't have to be a slave to her recipies. Cooking should be fun and it should please your and your families tastes. This is a large cookbook. 352 pages and the book is of large format. There are a lot of recipies, a lot of things to try that are different that what you've seen before, a combination of Chinese with French, molded to fit America. Maybe that's why her two restaurants have been such a success.