A Classic You Must Have, January 7, 2001

There’s a special reason we go to the books of the great chefs. It’s not to throw a meal together in 2 minutes, or to make sure we will find a dish we can cook with no trouble in two pans in our kitchens at home. It’s to look inside an imagination and see what someone can achieve with ingredients and passion when it’s what they do all day, every day, with devotion.

As Nigella Lawson said about another writer, “I often cook, if not directly from it, then inspired by it (which is more telling)”. This is a truly inspiring work, one you will go back to again and again. From the buckwheat crepes with glaced fruit and eau de vie, to the amazing amazing fish soup, simple dishes with corn and over the top reworking of french classics, the judgement of flavours and textures is perfect. Ignore Water’s fetish about perfect lettuce, read it, and just go to the kitchen. 10 stars out of five, the best of all the Waters books.

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]]> https://recipetrezor.com/chez-panisse-menu-cookbook-reviews/comment-page-1/#comment-1084 Mon, 16 May 2011 05:09:45 +0000 https://recipetrezor.com/chez-panisse-menu-cookbook-reviews/#comment-1084

not your run of the mill cookbook, December 27, 2002

By 

Norman Hanson (New York City, New York USA) –

  

This is one of Alice Waters’ early books, and it shows, as compared to the later ones. Many of the recipes are complicated, and involve ingredients that are not easy to come by, even in NYC. I read it more for amusement. The later books (Vegetables, Fruit, Cafe), are much more user friendly and result in great dishes. I wouldn’t recommend this to someone new to her philosophy of cooking, or who doesn’t have serious kitchen experience.

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]]> https://recipetrezor.com/chez-panisse-menu-cookbook-reviews/comment-page-1/#comment-1083 Mon, 16 May 2011 04:47:42 +0000 https://recipetrezor.com/chez-panisse-menu-cookbook-reviews/#comment-1083

A good idea book, April 2, 1998

I enjoy reading this cookbook more to gather ideas than to find recipes I want to cook. Alice Waters describes how she and her team at Chez Panisse created many of their memorable meals, what inspired them, the problem that arose, and how they worked around those problems. What she doesn’t write about as much is the actual process of preparing the food–the recipes. Of course, for some of these menus, it would be virtually impossible to create in a home kitchen, or to have access to the ingredients (a pig feed a diet heavy with garlic comes to mind). Good ideas for the knowledgable cook.

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