The Complete Tassajara Cookbook: Recipes, Techniques, and Reflections from the Famed Zen Kitchen [Hardcover]

Edward Espe Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 8, 2009

Tassajara, the California spa/retreat center, has long been renowned for its gourmet vegetarian cuisine. In this comprehensive book, one of Tassajara’s most well-known and beloved cooks, Edward Espe Brown, presents hundreds of recipes using fresh, whole foods; detailed notes on preparing seasonal ingredients; and, perhaps most important, inspiration for cooking with joyful intention and attention. Presented with humor and warmth, this book is full of wonderful insights into living a life that celebrates simple food.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Edward Espe Brown is as important to the history of California cuisine as Alice Waters.  But it’s Brown’s Zen message of living in the moment that makes it unique. Anyone interested in flavorful vegetarian meals should look into it.”—Irene Sax, WeightWatchers.com

“How could you not love a cookbook with a recipe for beet soup that “‘emphasizes the beetiness of beet’?”—from “The Chef is Talking to You: A good number of first-person narratives make our list of favorite cookbooks of 2009” in the Calgary-Herald

“An insightful guide, replete with more than just recipes, The Complete Tassajara Cookbook blends 35 years of work and food-writing with well-explained cooking techniques.”—Yoga + Joyful Living


"Brown is a true teacher, providing lots of basics.  He also serves up a great deal of thoughtfulness."—The Bloomsbury Review

“A graceful tome . . . an extended meditation on food preparation as spiritual journey.  It represents a new wave of interest in conscious cooking.”—Edible East Bay

“A thoughtful tutorial. The detailed recipes that follow are eclectic and at times unusual but all celebrate vegetarian cuisine and the art of improvisation.”—San Francisco Chronicle


“The book reads like a script from a (good) cooking show. The recipes are nicely simple and easy to follow. This cookbook should be on any cooking enthusiast’s shelf, whether you’re a vegetarian or not.”—Elephant Journal


“A baking Zen priest after [our] own heart!”—O, the Oprah Magazine


“With profound-yet-playful regard for his subject matter, Ed Brown has consistently graced us with the practical poetry of his delicious cooking.  This tome ties it all together beautifully, bringing new meaning to the word essential. In our modern era of rapid media images and flashing-light information, The Complete Tassajara Cookbook will provide a glowing sense of calm—hefty with substance, light with spirit, and rich with the experience of a master.”—Mollie Katzen, author of Moosewood Cookbook

About the Author

Edward Espe Brown began cooking and practicing Zen in 1965. He was the first head resident cook at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center from 1967 to 1970. He later worked at the celebrated Greens Restaurant in San Francisco, serving as busboy, waiter, floor manager, wine buyer, cashier, host, and manager. Ordained a priest by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, he has taught meditation retreats and vegetarian cooking classes throughout North America and Europe. He is the author of several cookbooks and the editor of Not Always So, a book of lectures by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. He is the subject of the critically acclaimed 2007 film How to Cook Your Life.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Shambhala; 1 edition (September 8, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590306724
• ISBN-13: 978-1590306727
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 1.6 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #667,414 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cook what you know, December 1, 2009

By 

drfleming "DF" (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Complete Tassajara Cookbook: Recipes, Techniques, and Reflections from the Famed Zen Kitchen (Hardcover)

This is not a traditional cookbook. No pictures, lots of essays, some poetry, and basic recipes. What distinguishes it are Espe Brown's pontifications about cooking, zen, life. Like the movie, How To Cook Your Life, this book is an expression of Espe Brown's personality rather that his cooking expertise. The recipes are very basic - but I guess that's the point. He wants readers to cook by feel, by what they already know, rather than by measure and specific instructions. As I read many of the recipes, like the one for kidney bean chili, I thought, Wow, I already know how to do that.

I was also surprised that this wasn't a vegan or a health cookbook. Lots of the recipes call for eggs, milk, cheese, and oil. Not very au courant (the Engine 2 folks would have a fit), but I kind of like that about EB - he's got an acerbic (but loving) sense of humor - he can throw jabs at macrobiotics, and I'm sure at veganism. He's community-conscious and compassionate, but no food purist. Lots of vegan cookbooks seem rather self-righteous and humorless. EB's cookbook is imperfect, but meandering and fun.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Love it!, October 24, 2009

By 

Anaya "god is an atom" (new york) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Complete Tassajara Cookbook: Recipes, Techniques, and Reflections from the Famed Zen Kitchen (Hardcover)

the book is wonderful for those wanting to easy quick, healthy meals. It has a good mixture of recipes which range from very quick and easy to relatively complex. the book has two parts-
1) basics- how to cook, working with your ingredients, entering the kitchen( basics such as what knives, what equipments to use etc.) 2) recipes- divided into sections on breads, salads, soups and stocks, sauces spreads butters relishes, tofu entrees, entrees with a crust, breakfast and vege grain potato dishes.

the recipes are very 'zen', they use fresh healthy ingredients and they are pretty quick. Some recipes use approximate measures and often he mentions things like " use lentils" but dosen't specify which kind. So this ambivalence and be slightly confusing, but overall its great, very different and original.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I appreciate this reference, February 16, 2010

By 

Robert Fred Flannery - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Complete Tassajara Cookbook: Recipes, Techniques, and Reflections from the Famed Zen Kitchen (Hardcover)

"My Zen teacher, Suzuki Roshi, would buy the worst-looking vegetables. 'Who would use them if I don't'".

The cookbook is synthesized from several sources. Besides a thorough introduction to using a kitchen, the utensils, and a walkthrough many ingredients (cabbage, carrot, asf), the book contains over 300 recipes. Scattered through the pages are one or two page stories from EB's experience, "The Sincerity of Battered Teapots" for example. Insincerity can create a kind of paralysis, exhaustion from constantly hiding who one is.

There are vegan recipes. EB likes dairy, however.

It turns out EB also likes Rumi: "What was said to the rose that made it bloom is being spoken to my heart now."

EB also composed a prayer for waiters to be said silently (he is one): "Here is your food, my heartfelt offering for your well-being. May your heart beat peace, and may you grow in compassion."

Yes! I bought the book and it's a loved member of our household. I recommend it for a reference and for a beginning cook , since it has detailed guidance.

peacefulseasangha has news of the latest EB happenings.