Kitchen Conversations: Robust Recipes and Flavor Secrets from One of America's Best Chefs [Hardcover]

Joyce Eserky Goldstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1997

The author of The Mediterranean Kitchen shares some of her secrets, as well as 160 innovative recipes for such delicacies as roast duck with caramelized turnips and parsley and escarole salad. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This cookbook goes well beyond being a remarkable collection of recipes for magnificent Mediterranean dishes. The reader also benefits from Joyce Goldstein's experience as a chef and world traveler and her passion for teaching. Her focus is on expanding your understanding of how the flavors and textures in a recipe work. She talks about this in both the descriptions before the dishes and in Kitchen Conversation--a detailed section accompanying every recipe that engages you in the how and why of what you are doing. If you are interested in wine, the detailed recommendations by Goldstein's son, Evan, are as valuable as the recipes in this unique book.

From Publishers Weekly

Reading this new volume from the author of Taverna (1996) and Mediterranean: The Beautiful Cookbook (1994) is indeed like sitting at a kitchen table listening to an authoritative and articulate chef discuss her trade. Goldstein, who recently closed her San Francisco restaurant, Square One, aims to help the home cook become "a culinary juggler, playing with the balance of flavors." In an eloquent introduction as well as in the short "conversations" that accompany the recipes, she instructs on using the basic tastes of sweet, sour, salt and bitter to create boldly flavored Mediterranean dishes. She explains why adding anchovy and lemon zest brings out the sweetness in spinach and suggests that an oregano- and garlic-spiked Pork Souvlaki profits from the addition of allspice and honey for "a subtle play of sweet and sour." In chapters from Appetizers to Desserts, Goldstein encourages creative thinking in rearranging flavors: Greek-Inspired Ouzo, Fennel, and Orange-Marinated Fish is a harmonious balance of bitter and sweet; Ciceri e Tria, (fresh pasta with chick peas and arugula from Apulia) is given a kick with hot red peppers. Evan Goldstein, the author's son and the family wine consultant, provides a creative introduction that adds wine to his mother's discussion of basic tastes and offers wine suggestions for nearly every recipe. Author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 378 pages
• Publisher: Cookbooks; 1st edition (January 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688138667
• ISBN-13: 978-0688138660
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,285,458 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Background info good, ingredients....??, January 23, 2001

By 

Raymond Chan (Willowdale, on canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kitchen Conversations: Robust Recipes and Lessons in Flavor from One of America's Most Innovative Chefs (Paperback)

For those who want to know why and how a dish tastes good, balanced, etc. there are snippets of information scattered about the book. This is one of the rare books that EXPLAINS the WHYS instead of showing you just the HOWS. The wine matching sections were particularly informative. Unfortunately a lot of recipes use ingredients which a common home kitchen probably won't have and may have trouble procuring. Read this book for the information but not for the recipes.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars how to make meals simple and delicious., July 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Kitchen Conversations: Robust Recipes and Lessons in Flavor from One of America's Most Innovative Chefs (Paperback)

i saw the quilt/chef show at the oakland art museum, and knew that i had to buy joyce goldstein's book. i love to cook, but can never determine how to just rustle something together with products that i bring home. her book really puts all those things together. she explains how we taste, and, therefore combining ingredients to make it delicious in a very simple way. the section on wine selection will appeal to everyone. if one decides to make a dish, it will explain how to put things together so that the food will taste good.