The New Cook's Tour of Sonoma: 200 Recipes and the Best of the Region's Food and Wine [Paperback]

Michele Anna Jordan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 11, 2002

This completely revised edition of Michele Anna Jordans much praised cookbook features 200 recipes, touring information, and cooks sources, making it the definitive food lovers guide to Americas Provence.

Sonoma County stretches from the fog-cooled coast of Northern California to the Mayacamas Mountains in the east; it hangs like a plump grape cluster west and northwest of its neighbor, Napa. Less than an hour away from San Francisco, this celebrated region has become synonymous with good taste, high-quality culinary ingredients, and the best food in the world. Originally published in 1990 by Addison-Wesley, The New Cooks Tour of Sonoma includes 200 recipes, extensive sections on wine and the burgeoning olive oil industry, and engaging portraits of the regions cheesemakers, dairymen and women, breadmakers, farmers, and chefs. With sixteen pages of spectacular color photographs, this gorgeous cookbook shows how the place, its people, and its food are inextricably linked.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Award-winning chef Michele Anna Jordan is the author of ten books on food and wine, including Salt and Pepper. She writes for the Sonoma Press Democrat and the San Francisco Chronicle, and her articles have appeared in Appellation, Wine Enthusiast, Bon Apptit, and Food & Wine, among others. She lives in Sonoma County.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Sasquatch Books (January 11, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570612188
• ISBN-13: 978-1570612183
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,321,001 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brings Sonoma County Alive!, July 29, 2001

By 

Scott Loftesness (Menlo Park, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The New Cook's Tour of Sonoma: 200 Recipes and the Best of the Region's Food and Wine (Paperback)

Sonoma County, California is a very special place. From the Pacific ocean on the west to the ridgeline east of the Valley of the Moon, Sonoma County almost has it all.

Michele Anna Jordan helps bring this special place alive with this book. She's an extraordinary writer who infuses her stories and recipes with great commentary.

This particular cookbook is among my favorites -- because it's so much more than just a cookbook. The sidebar commentaries about places in Sonoma County help bring the area to life in my mind's eye.

Highly recommended!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars She's done it again, September 25, 2002

By 

Donna L. Rose (Santa Rosa, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New Cook's Tour of Sonoma: 200 Recipes and the Best of the Region's Food and Wine (Paperback)

I had my eyes opened when I purchased the original Cook's Tour many years ago. Being a native of Sonoma County, I was fascinated by all the things I didn't know about my home county. Michele gave a face to things I had passed by blindly for years...farms, cheesemakers, gourmet stores, festivals. In the new edition of Cook's Tour she presents us with an ever richer trip through the wonders of Sonoma. She teaches us about the wine appellations and what crops thrive right along with the grapes of that region. She includes political information that supports the farmer and sustainable agriculture. She updates us on new cheesemakers, new purveyors and celebrates the staying power of the old. Once again Michele gives a face to Sonoma County, but this time she introduces us by name and helps us start a conversation. Her recipes are wonderful, making use of all the bounty that is available locally. I feel the circle of belonging to a place close as I drive through the country she writes of with such affection and then buy produce and ingredients, ultimately cooking dishes that are truly local in origin and taste. "The New Cook's Tour of Sonoma" makes me grateful that I live in this magic place. Thanks to Ms Jordan for opening my eyes even wider.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This cook's tour, September 25, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The New Cook's Tour of Sonoma: 200 Recipes and the Best of the Region's Food and Wine (Paperback)

I received this book as a gift, and read it quickly, almost as a travelogue, wondering what it would be like to live in this vividly described area. Later, I visited Sonoma County and used the book as a guide. I visited a cheese factory, two farmers' markets, a small winery and an artisanal herb garden, led to each location by the informative guide with which I had been gifted. I used several of the clear, easy to follow-and execute-recipes with food bought from the sources suggested in The Cook's Tour. After returning home, I contine to read the book to remind myself of the glorious visit to Sonoma County, and as an inspiration for food purchases and discoveries I would normally have never attempted.