Cafe Max and Rosie's: Vegetarian Cooking With Health and Spirit [Paperback]

Max Beeby (Author), Rosie Beeby (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2000

When Max and Rosie first opened their café, it had four booths, a counter with no stools, and a makeshift kitchen. They stuck to their then-novel notion that the natural, vegetarian food they served nourished a healthy and soulful life, and it was only a matter of time before Max and Rosie's Café and Juice Bar became one of the hottest spots in Asheville, North Carolina. CAFÉ MAX AND ROSIE'S serves up a tantalizing recipe collection featuring scrumptious overstuffed sandwiches, tasty international dishes, and an imaginative selection of fruit smoothies, freshly squeezed juices, and healing tonics that have locals and out-of-towners alike lining up at the door. Beautifully accented by Max's illustrations, CAFÉ MAX AND ROSIE'S is destined to become a treasured kitchen companion.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Cooking and eating vegetarian doesn't mean just dropping meat from your diet, it means "mak[ing] a nutritionally complete meal so that you are eating for optimal health." Max and Rosie Beeby, proprietors of Asheville, North Carolina's Café Max and Rosie's, have been serving up healthy and delicious vegetarian fare to locals and visitors since 1992 and proudly claim to have served over 80,000 veggie burgers. In Café Max and Rosie's: Vegetarian Cooking with Health and Spirit, the duo teaches you to cook tasty meals the whole family will eat and reveals some of their most popular recipes while encouraging you to consider the nutritional and social benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle.

Vegetarian fare has come a long way since the days of rice and beans and steamed veggies. Try whole grains like quinoa, amaranth, spelt, and millet in your meals. Millet Mashed Potatoes are healthier and more interesting than their plain counterparts (serve with a savory Mushroom Gravy). Since soy products have become mainstream, more options are available to the vegetarian cook. Tofu chili is just as hearty as the meat dish and has an extra zip from the addition of tamari and tahini. Try Braised Tempeh and Cabbage over rice or Japanese noodles. Substituting nutritional yeast for Parmesan cheese in Fettuccine with Vegan Pesto Sauce adds a "delicious but strong" flavor (adjust accordingly). The chapters on soups and salads are mouthwatering--the Garbanzo Cilantro Soup being particularly enticing. Rounding out Café Max and Rosie's are sections on making your own vegetable and fruit juices and smoothies, both for taste ("Georgia Peach") and for health ("Cure the Cold").

Max and Rosie are dedicated vegetarians who want to spread the word that "becoming a vegetarian does not mean being deprived of good-tasting food, it means stepping strongly in the direction of good health." Testimonials by friends and family are interspersed among Rosie's recipes and Max's artwork. If you aren't going to be near Asheville any time soon, pick up Café Max and Rosie's for the next best thing. --Dana Van Nest

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press (October 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580082378
• ISBN-13: 978-1580082372
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,494,325 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cafe Max and Rosie's: spirited nourishment at many levels!, March 1, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Cafe Max and Rosie's: Vegetarian Cooking With Health and Spirit (Paperback)

I am returning to order my sixth copy of this inspiring and entertaining cookbook for a Vegan friend. My kids (7 and 9 years old) even love the fare, and that's a blessing to a single, working parent with little time and very picky eaters. Ten Speed Press scores again -- who wouldn't want to devour these deliciously clever dishes sourrounded by the tale of Max and Rosie's timeless love? Spirited, playful, and best-of-all yummy, healthful eating. Congratulations Max & Rosie -- your family is about to get much, much bigger!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cafe Max and Rosies, January 21, 2001

By 

Elizabeth A. Secrist (Lummi Island, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cafe Max and Rosie's: Vegetarian Cooking With Health and Spirit (Paperback)

What a fabulous book! It magically creates a whole ambiance around healthful eating, from the gorgeous illustrations to the mouthwatering recipes and delightful, insightful commentary that both captivates and educates. Also, as a practising Nutritionist, I really appreciate that these recipes are truly healthy and not dairy or wheat dependent. A perfect companion for those new to a naturally healthy lifestyle, and those seeking new inspiration in an established natural foods diet.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Real Thing..., November 16, 2001

By 

Virato "Virato" (Asheville. NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cafe Max and Rosie's: Vegetarian Cooking With Health and Spirit (Paperback)

It was October 1994 that I took those first steps into Asheville's vegetarian food grotto. You actually step down a few steps to get into Max & Rosie's Café, and most always greeted by a happy face behind the counter. It has the feeling of some Sufi café in London (if indeed there is such a place). Maybe that's because Max (that's not his really name by the way) follows the Sufi path, and IS from London. He's Rosie's husband. She's from Miami (and Rosie's not her real name either). She'll tell if you ask...

When you buy their book you'll learn more about their names and how they got started. It's a little bit of a mystery.

This is a review of Max & Rosie Beeby's first book.
 
It wasn't long after visiting the café that first time, that Rosie shared with me her desire to write a book. Our heritages both stem from New York City so she was easy for me to love immediately! She had already been a Macrobiotic food teacher back in Florida, and now serving the public she was ready. It made sense. However, being an active and dutiful mother, and Max doing his artwork (which the book and cafe is filled with) there was little time for book writing (and Rosie would like to stay away from the computer as much as she can.

However they were determined, and 7 years later Ten Speed Press published the book. Named after their restaurant (as in the tradition of Moosewood and other best-selling cookbooks), Cafe Max & Rosie's is a delightful and creative 178 pages of, not only recipes, but short statements of some of the people who have worked and visited the café, sort of like their guest book.

This book is a great "table top" addition. You can "feel" not only the essence of the food, but can also get the same "feel" of Max's artwork. Ah, Max, quite a mystic himself. With the rugged look of an English pub bouncer, he exhibits the gentleness of a Buddhist monk. I've spent a couple of nights talking with him late at night in their log cabin in the mountains.

Their book is divided: Part one called "Rosie's Cooking Classes," and part two "Just Juice It!" 

So, what distinguishes one cook book from another? Is it the amazing dishes? I think not, for as I have said of their restaurant, I say also of their book, "As Japanese culture has shown, how we eat--the ambience--is as important as the food itself."
 
The heavy parchment paper on which the words and artwork are reproduced can best be described as a table setting worthy of the love and purity contained within the recipes. And if you are indeed a food aficionado, page 56 offers a "Linguini with Fresh Garlic and Asparagus" recipe with tempeh, Portobello mushrooms, and spinach, that will soothe your senses, titillate your palate, and nourish you body. 

Is this the best cookbook I have read? I can't say, because I don't "read" cookbooks, I sense them. My sense of the Cafe Max & Rosie's book is that it is very "edible." It is a book worth having in your home....

Sw. Virato is editor and producer/publisher of New Frontier Magazine, Asheville Magazine, and Chattanooga Spirit, Bliss Magazine.