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473rd out of 696 books
—
663 voters
A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes
by
David Tanis
Forget about getting back to the land, David Tanis just wants you to get back to the kitchen
For six months a year, David Tanis is the head chef at Chez Panisse, the Berkeley, California, restaurant where he has worked alongside Alice Waters since the 1980s in creating a revolution in sustainable American cuisine. The other six months, Tanis lives in Paris in a seventeent...more
For six months a year, David Tanis is the head chef at Chez Panisse, the Berkeley, California, restaurant where he has worked alongside Alice Waters since the 1980s in creating a revolution in sustainable American cuisine. The other six months, Tanis lives in Paris in a seventeent...more
Hardcover, 294 pages
Published
October 1st 2008
by Artisan Publishers
(first published September 1st 2008)
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1,206)
Jan 18, 2009
Michele
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Enthusiastic home cooks who like to entertain
The very first page of this award winning cookbook from Chef David Tannis (of Alice Water's famed Chez Panisse restaurant) tells you alot about his approach to this book. He explains why he chose the title, and goes on to talk about why to serve a platter of figs you need to know about what season they are ripe, how to judge the ripeness, and then what to do with the fruit - and all of these lead you to whether you serve them as an appetizer, as part of the main dish, or as dessert.
A Platter of...more
A Platter of...more
The first time I saw this cookbook I dismissed it as coffee table cookery only - pretty pictures, unattainable froufrou recipes. A week later, a friend professed a love of cookbooks with an emphasis on food photography and I thought I'd check it out for future gift options. The book is structured around seasonal menus that each serve 8-10 so it makes for a nice reference for entertaining too.
I was blown away by the quality of food writing - every anecdote, description and explanation made me wan...more
I was blown away by the quality of food writing - every anecdote, description and explanation made me wan...more
This is not a cookbook for your-meal-in-thirty-minutes. This is like a book format of that lovely-and-yet-slightly-unrealistic-fine-cooking-magazine. Most people do not have the time and inclination to spend part of their day - everyday - at the farmer's market to buy the freshest produce and products. As much as we'd like for that to happen, this is just not a reality in most people's lives and those who say otherwise are either naive or simply arrogant.
That being said, this is a gorgeous, gor...more
That being said, this is a gorgeous, gor...more
One of my favorite cookbooks. Tanis combines a lush narrative style with delicious recipes. Half the time I pick the book up just to read through his culinary adventures.
I found the recipes fairly easy to follow. A few had ingredients that are hard to come by in the rural South, but could be made with a little ingenuity and adaptation. All the recipes lend themselves to a style of evolutionary cooking (for those of us who can't help but fiddle with a recipe this is a very good thing).
I highly re...more
I found the recipes fairly easy to follow. A few had ingredients that are hard to come by in the rural South, but could be made with a little ingenuity and adaptation. All the recipes lend themselves to a style of evolutionary cooking (for those of us who can't help but fiddle with a recipe this is a very good thing).
I highly re...more
Usually I wait until I have cooked from a cookbook before I rate it. With Tanis, I don't need to. I know it will be great. He is a master of creating lovely and interesting menus. By interesting I do not mean outré which is too often the goal of modern chefs, but interesting in the subtlety complexities he creates. I love his style, I love his writing, I love his commitment to quality, purity and food as am expression of community. Granted some of the ingredients, but not many, maybe hard to fin...more
The author´s writing about food is charming and inspirational - this is something much rarer than what you would think it would be! The photography is beautiful in a minimalist honest-food way. The menus for the most part seem like things I would like to eat.
why just 3 stars then? well, there is potential for 4 stars, I think the one true test of a cookbook is after you cook from it and I have not done it yet. Maybe the one true test of a cookbook is if you still cook from it 20 years after you...more
why just 3 stars then? well, there is potential for 4 stars, I think the one true test of a cookbook is after you cook from it and I have not done it yet. Maybe the one true test of a cookbook is if you still cook from it 20 years after you...more
Beautiful, simple, seasonal. This is a well-written cookbook that is divided into seasons, and then provides several full menus for 8 people. So far I have made several of the individual recipes, mostly for the sides and desserts. All of them were delicious and uncomplicated. The Italian Plum Cake is cooling downstairs at the moment and was a snap to make. I look forward to making my way through the book. I might even be tempted to try the Pig Ear salad.
Ok, this isn't really literature but I loved this book. It has wonderfully scrumptous recipes with three course meals already planned for you. David's philosophy is that meals should be simple and the flavors of the ingredients should be combined to enhance the experience of eating. I loved his short personal stories before each meal. None of the recipes disappoint. Note if you are into elaborate marinades this book is not for you. :)
I know it's a cookbook, but I'm giving this one out as gifts, I enjoyed it so much. It's organized by season, and within each season, has different meal ideas. David Tanis, a chef at Chez Panisse, emphasizes simple, non-fussy food served family-style, and I was extremely skeptical that any recipes with so few ingredients could taste good, but everything I've made has been incredible. The wine might have contributed to this, though. :)
This is more then a 'cookbook'.. Yes, all the recipes I've made from this book are incredible, I really enjoy the range of recipes, from difficult (squid ink paella) to 'suggestions' (pears and parmesan, yum). The almond biscotti is one of my favorites. This is a cookbook you'll want to read all the way through, David Tanis is a very entertaining writer. His stories(and taste for the finer things in life) are outlandish in the best way possible.
This is a cookbook you can read. Informative and entertaining stories from the author's cooking and life experience begin each new section. I don't eat meat but there are plenty of veggie recipes here, and good ones at that. Lots of tips on how to cook/prepare food that can carry over into your cooking in general. The book is simply and beautifully designed, nice typography, great photos.
Extremely readable, beautifully designed cookbook by the former Chez Panisse chef. Though one might expect Tanis' recipes to be either expensive or to contain difficult to find ingredients, they are mostly simple yet sophisticated spins on readily available items for every day consumption. Beautiful photographs and Tanis' anecdotes make this both a usable and pleasurable read.
I would consider adding this to my extensive cookbook collection, even though I haven't actually tried any of the recipes yet. It's mainly a "how a chef thinks" book, very enjoyable to read. Do you need a recipe for a platter of figs? No, yet Tanis can tell you multiple inventive ways to serve it depending on the season and occasion. A "Gourmet Cook Book club Selection."
This book made me long for the time that C and I will have a large kitchen with a beautiful dining table to entertain our friends and family and feed them all well.
Instead of recipes Tanis presents seasonal menus. A brilliant idea if you regularly throw dinner parties but not so much when contemplating dinner for 2. I did find points of inspiration throughout and the photos are beautifully rendered.
Someday I hope to need a cookbook like this, but for now it is not relevant to my life.
Instead of recipes Tanis presents seasonal menus. A brilliant idea if you regularly throw dinner parties but not so much when contemplating dinner for 2. I did find points of inspiration throughout and the photos are beautifully rendered.
Someday I hope to need a cookbook like this, but for now it is not relevant to my life.
This book is pure, unadulterated food porn. The pictures are extraordinary, the recipes are amazing on the surface. I've only given it three stars because the recipes and methodologies are all but inaccessible to the majority of home cooks. As an inspirational book, the book is outstanding. As a practical book; it is completely impractical for anyone living outside of food Meccas like NYC. But it is gorgeous and well written and a joy to flip through and read.
I hate to say it, but I found this cookbook to be really boring. The meals that result from these recipes would be delicious, I’m sure, especially if you have access to the finest ingredients, but I need something more imaginative and extraordinary to get excited about a cookbook—and about cooking something new. (I kept thinking of David Chang’s recent, controversial comment about how restaurants in SF are just serving figs on a plate.)
Great if you have access to tons of fresh asparagus you can go through to find the best, and free range chicken, and humanely raised veal (?!?). But really you have to live in Paris or Northern California or New York to make this stuff the way the author anticipates, I think.
Some nights I lay in bed and lick the pages of this book. It's that gorgeous. And the writing? It's beautiful. This is a coffee table cookbook with recipes that are inspired, but at the same time practical. If you like Alice Waters, you will like David Tanis.
Very rustic, I like several of the recipes but I can't stand a cookbook where the pictures don't go with the recipes on the page, very confusing, and some of the pictures I couldn't find page numbers to recipes, irritates me.
Beautiful book, but I couldn't find more than two or three recipes that appealed to me. It's too bad - I really wanted to like it, but the "simple food" presented here was just too Out There for this picky eater.
The main problem with this book is that there's no reason for its existence. All the recipes in here, by and large, are well-known ones decades or even centuries old. You don't need this book to acquire those recipes.
Any cookbook that is arranged by season is a friend of mine. Super simple ("Arrange several varieties of sliced tomato on a pretty platter. Serve with salt."), and all about letting food shine as it is, rather than torturing it into absurdities. Yum.
Catchy title, catchy cover, but all he really did is give recipes for 5 or 6 complete dinner parties, based on season. I've made two recipes out of here and they were very good.
eh. very pretty but very very simple and only minimally inspiring. i did love the dinner that was all shades of yellow with undertones of orange and green.
2.5 stars
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Beautiful writing, but I found the dead animals (especially the seafood carnage at the end of the book... poor squids and octopi) to be off-putting. I don't usually read omnivore cookbooks but I knew this one would be peppered with food writing, which I did enjoy.
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Beautiful writing, but I found the dead animals (especially the seafood carnage at the end of the book... poor squids and octopi) to be off-putting. I don't usually read omnivore cookbooks but I knew this one would be peppered with food writing, which I did enjoy.
A mix of stories, cooking techniques and recipes, this finely designed book will keep you salivating from the first page to the last.
Good book. I still think anything having to do with Alice Waters is so pretentious I vomit.
I didn't find this interesting at all. The recipes were not user-friendly.
I could eat this book. I might, actually.
Simple and lovely. Daring enough to inspire.
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