San Francisco Flavors: Favorite Recipes from the Junior League of San Francisco

by Jonelle Weaver (Photographer), Kelli Bailey (Illustrator)

Enjoy a little bit of San Francisco wherever you live. Following on the runaway success of their previous two recipe collections, the Junior League of San Francisco is back with San Francisco Flavors, an all-new cookbook of Junior League favorites. Packed with tips from San Francisco's most celebrated chefs and sommeliers, San Francisco Flavors captures all the excitement of eating around the Bay Area. From appetizers to entrees to brunch and dessert, here are classics updated with a San Francisco twist, as well as sophisticated contemporary creations, and a wide range of recipes influenced by San Francisco's vibrant ethnic communities. With an introduction by Alice Waters of the legendary Chez Panisse restaurant, this beautifully photographed book evokes the vitality of this endlessly diverse and food-loving city. THE JUNIOR LEAGUE OF SAN FRANCISCO is an organization of women committed to promoting volunteerism, developing the potential of women, supporting families, and improving the community through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. All of the proceeds from this book go to support this charitable work.

Genres: Cookbooks

320 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1999

Reviews

[Kerri]

I probably wouldn't have picked this up if it weren't on sale, but I'm glad I did. I just got it and finished skimming through all of the recipes, so I haven't had a chance to test any of them out, but they (all in all) sound delightful -- simple and fresh with a few unexpected ingredients that still sound perfect. They're dishes that are familiar but with enough of a twist to make them new again.

I can see why Alice Waters endorsed this cookbook with a foreward, as they seem like her kind of recipes: simple, comfortable with fresh ingredients at the forefront. The recipes aren't arranged seasonally, but individual recipes do seem to stick to ingredients that are all in season at the same time. There are also some good tips peppered throughout from Bay Area chefs.

I think the whole "San Francisco" flavors thing is a bit of a conceit... there's nothing particularly SF except possibly a few dungeoness crab dishes, but I guess it is reminiscent of the types of foods you might find in the gourmet ghetto, and the overall focus on fresh ingredients reflects, I suppose, the Bay Area origins of the Slow Food movement, Waters and the like.

[Jenny]

I bought this book while we were on vacation and the things I've tried turned out great. The recipes call for fresh ingredients and a lot of them are simple or call for few ingredients so they aren't that hard to make.