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9th out of 59 books
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50 voters
The Zuni Cafe Cookbook: A Compendium of Recipes and Cooking Lessons from San Francisco's Beloved Restaurant: A Compendium of Recipes and Cooking Lessons from San Francisco's Beloved Restaurant
by
Judy Rodgers
In The Zuni Café Cookbook, a book customers have been anticipating for years, chef and owner Judy Rodgers provides recipes for Zuni's most well-known dishes, ranging from the Zuni Roast Chicken to the Espresso Granita. But Zuni's appeal goes beyond recipes. Harold McGee concludes, "What makes The Zuni Café Cookbook a real treasure is the voice of Zuni's Judy Rodgers," whos...more
Hardcover, 552 pages
Published
September 17th 2002
by W. W. Norton & Company
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*Swoon* If I were traveling and could take only one book with me, I would have to choose between Don Quixote, The Gourmet Cookbook, and The Zuni Cafe Cookbook. Zuni Cafe strikes a balance between storytelling and instruction- gorgeous recipes, each worth lingering over in the text and over the stove (or chop block). Ms. Rodgers sometimes makes recipes more complicated than they might be, but the improvement in taste and texture validate her suggestions and make the extra time and effort complete...more
This is quite the tome, both in size and quality of content. A veritable bible of cooking, this is the long-anticipated accumulation of years of cooking knowledge, beginning in France and extending to years working as a chef in the Bay area, including time spent at Chez Panisse and then of course, in developing the menu at the Zuni Cafe to reflect Judy Rodgers' own personality.
We made the Roast Chicken with Bread Salad for Valentine's Day. The recipe was several pages long, took 3 days to make,...more
We made the Roast Chicken with Bread Salad for Valentine's Day. The recipe was several pages long, took 3 days to make,...more
In May 2010 I had the pleasure of eating at Zuni Cafe in San Francisco. Our meal was truly memorable for several reasons. The food was delicious, visually lovely & Impeccably served. One homeless person stood starring in at the diners, another homeless person received money from a diner who had chosen to sit outside to enjoy her meal. Eating such lovely food felt like a guilty pleasure. As for the cookbook, it is not one I would choose to own. The recipes such as Roasted Guinea Hen with Bay...more
SO GOOD. We've made a bunch of stuff out of this and it's great. The roast chicken with bread salad recipe is transcendent. Her philosophy, which I thought I would hate but which I actually love, is "how can I make this more complicated?" So, you soak the currants in a mixture of warm water and red wine vinegar, for example. Which makes a subtle but stunning difference! Anyway, it's a great cookbook, check it out. Kasia got it really cheap on amazon ($7! new!)
I borrowed this book from the library because I had heard good reviews about it and was considering purchasing it, but after spending some time with it I have decided not to add it to my personal library. The author does offer some good insight into cooking technique and sizing up ingredients, but the recipes themselves are just not practical (nor economical) for everyday use, by calling for things such as white truffle oil, duck eggs, and fresh sardines. Great for planning a special meal, not f...more
Another library read, I ended up copying half the book to my online recipe archive. Zuni Cafe is a San Fransisco hot spot. The first recipe I tried was shrimp romanesco, which is an Provencal Italian dish. You make a paste of crusty bread, toasted ancho chiles and a plethora of spices. After baking this paste,you toss in the shrimp and saute. Scrumptious. The seafood and vegetable dishes sound divine.
The recipes in this book are delicious. I made some of them for my friends. The cookbook got great reviews for its recipes. The book will teach you how to cook the Standard American Diet and you will follow principals that will be detrimental to your long-term health.
My review is based not on the recipes in this book (I've only tried a couple of them so far), but just on its quality as a "reading cookbook". The beginning gave me high hopes that it would be a great cover-to-cover read like Shizuo Tsuji. But aside from a couple of short sections, it's basically just recipes--decidedly not my favorite part of a cookbook.
Elise and I have made the fried eggs with breadcrumbs a couple of times and really like them. They are about twice as fun as normal fried eggs...more
Elise and I have made the fried eggs with breadcrumbs a couple of times and really like them. They are about twice as fun as normal fried eggs...more
Jul 29, 2011
Catherine Woodman
added it
The restaurant is outstanding and the cookbook does it justice--a beuatiful volume, produced long after they were established, and the simple approach to cooking is very appealing--and delicious
I LOVE this cookbook! (In it is my favorite pie crust recipe.) It is brilliant and full of local, fresh flavors and useable techniques. The photos are magical.
I love to curl up on a rainy day with
This one -- the Caesar salad recipe
Will inspire you! Oh & I'm still searching for chicken feet for my next stock
This one -- the Caesar salad recipe
Will inspire you! Oh & I'm still searching for chicken feet for my next stock
While I enjoyed the writing, I would have rather had a quarter of the recipes, with pictures of each one. Just can't do the cookbooks with no pictures!
Judy Rodgers is amazing. Every recipe contains at least something that was totally surprising and new to me.
I used to eat at the restaurant when I lived in San Francisco. I love their food.
The roasted chicken recipe in this book is a classic.
only a couple of good recipes that I have found.
All-around best cookbook I own.
Yummy!
All the food we cooked from this was great.
more narrative than recipe, the author is deft at combining a wholesome american sentiment into pretty upscale food. every recipe is replicable, which is why i would give this 4 stars, but none are terribly necessary...though i'm sure they're all delicious. who has pickled zante grapes on hand? ever? (though the recipe is in there so you can). but very well written and if you don't already own 40 cookbooks, or just like reading cookbooks, this is definitely worthwhile.
I am only giving this 4 stars because I haven't the wherewithal to know if this should get 5 stars. Of course, I think it should have five stars. I got this after years of hearing about the restaurant and going to SF last year. It was a dream come true in some respects. I ate my last supper there before travelling home the next day. You can get lost in this book. Actual recipes I will make are not numerous but this is an education, like college is an education.
A GR recommendation.
A comprehensive guide for serious cooks. Instructions on tool selections, helpful tips and food guides are meticulously thought out (it even suggests wine for each dish - how superb!). The recipes "represents [The Zuni Cafe's] entire repertory" so if you love the restaurant...The recipes sounds delicious; however, one small criticism: being a dessert-lover, I was also hoping for better and unique recipes.
Overall, worth a look!
A comprehensive guide for serious cooks. Instructions on tool selections, helpful tips and food guides are meticulously thought out (it even suggests wine for each dish - how superb!). The recipes "represents [The Zuni Cafe's] entire repertory" so if you love the restaurant...The recipes sounds delicious; however, one small criticism: being a dessert-lover, I was also hoping for better and unique recipes.
Overall, worth a look!
By now, we've all had some variation of most of the recipes in this book. Along with Chez Panisse and Oliveto, Zuni Cafe helped bring rustic Mediterranean cuisine into the forefront of American consciousness. Some of the recipes are amazing, but it's the basic stuff that I found most useful and applicable--and that is the stuff that will change your cooking . . . it's all about technique, people, not recipes.
Not enough pictures.
Great pie crust instructions X 3.
Great pie crust instructions X 3.
This is more than a cookbook. It's a compendium of philosophies with contextual stories and recipes to back them up. I don't even know if there's a single reciple in the first 50 pages. Judy Rodgers is so opinionated and so passionate about her subject that every time I get near this book, it's hard not to cancel all my plans for the night, grab a box of salt, and cook all night long.
Jun 23, 2007
Rachael Richardson
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
folks who like to cook.
Shelves:
cookbooks
Learned: how to prepare all kinds of vegetables and meats. How to choose vegetables at the store. How to use less seasoning to make more flavor. Mmmm. A whole bunch of delightful dishes.
My review: If you have time on your hands and like to cook, check it out.
My review: If you have time on your hands and like to cook, check it out.
The introduction of this book will convince anyone, cook or not, that being in the kitchen and creating food will change your life.
That said, this is the hardest and most precise cookbook ever written, I would recommend it more for reading and not use.
That said, this is the hardest and most precise cookbook ever written, I would recommend it more for reading and not use.
i haven't even read this whole book but the recipe for zuni roast chicken w/ bread salad alone is worth the price of this book. once you've read this book and tried salting meats early before cooking, you'll never go back.
This has a some gorgeous, stunning, complicated recipes. I don't reach for it often but when I do, I have never been sad. I can only give this a three though because of the complexity of the recipes.
This book fundamentally changed how I cook. The recipes are somewhat lengthy and insane but the ones I have made have been very worthwhile (the chicken stock alone is an education.)
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“Raw ingredients trump recipes every time; farmers and ranchers who coax the best from the earth can make any of us appear to be a great cook.”
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Sep 20, 2011 11:27am