The Foster's Market Cookbook: Favorite Recipes for Morning, Noon, and Night [Hardcover]

Sara Foster (Author), Sarah Belk King (Author), James Baigrie (Photographer), Martha Stewart (Foreword)

Book Description

Release date: April 30, 2002

For more than a decade, Foster’s Markets have been cooking and baking foods made fresh each day from ingredients picked locally at the peak of flavor. Now Sara Foster shares more than two hundred delicious recipes, providing modern takes on favorite home-style classics.

The Foster’s Market Cookbook features old-fashioned ideas about how good food should taste and new-fashioned ideas about prep times and the use of high-quality prepared ingredients. Filled with eighty color photos, this is the perfect cookbook to refer to over and over again for everyday meals or for entertaining, whether it be for two or for twenty.

Before moving to Durham, North Carolina, Sara worked alongside Martha Stewart in the kitchen of Martha’s catering business. When she opened her own catering company, Sara kept her food simple yet soulful, trusting the complex flavors of seasonal ingredients. This same basic principle guides the daily offerings at Foster’s Markets in Durham and Chapel Hill. Each week the markets serve nearly a thousand customers hungrily searching out Sara’s innovative, new-style home cooking. And now food lovers everywhere will be able to prepare with ease sumptuous dishes such as Roasted Chicken, Sweet Potato, and Arugula Salad; Herb-Grilled Salmon with Fresh Tomato-Orange Chutney; and Risotto Cakes with Roasted Tomatoes and Foster’s Arugula Pesto. Also featured are a host of wonderful desserts, such as Lemon Chess Pie with Sour Cherries and Chocolate Espresso Layer Cake with Mocha Latte Frosting.

Featuring mouthwatering favorites from the market and dozens of helpful sidebars that discuss ingredients, techniques, and make-ahead tips, The Foster’s Market Cookbook provides all you need to know to make the most of every season’s finest offerings.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1 edition (April 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375505466
• ISBN-13: 978-0375505461
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 0.9 x 10.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #258,653 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Since 1990, Sara Foster has been delighting the patrons of her two North Carolina gourmet takeout food stores with refined yet unpretentious fare that reflects her Southern upbringing and years as a professional cook on the East Coast. The Foster's Market Cookbook, penned with food writer Sarah Belk King, collects dozens of Foster's most popular recipes, beloved for their use of high-quality seasonal ingredients and rich, imaginative flavor combinations. As with Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa Cookbook and myriad tomes by Martha Stewart (for whom Foster worked in the 1980s), Foster's debut provides both advanced and fledgling home cooks with impeccably tasteful dinner-party menu ideas and creative weekday meals.

Starting the book as you might your morning, Foster offers tantalizing breakfast possibilities such as Sticky Orange-Coconut Pinwheels and traditional-with-a-twist brunch dishes such as Mushroom-Risotto Hash with Fried Eggs and Grilled Ham. Next come more than 15 soul-warming soups, stews, and chilies (Corn and Roasted Red Pepper Chowder is just one of many must-make entries); sandwiches and snacks; salads and sides; entrées; and desserts. Main-dish highlights include Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Prosciutto and Sun-Dried Tomatoes (they're so good and so easy to make!), Grilled Eggplant Parmesan with Fresh Mozzarella and Zesty Tomato Sauce, and Pan-Seared Sea Scallops with Tom Thumb Tomatoes and Foster's Pesto (a perfect quick spring meal). The desserts are divine, including chic confections such as Four-Layer Blueberry Gingerbread Cake with Mocha Cream, a collaboration with Durham pastry chef Kathy Edwards, as well as old-fashioned treats like strawberry shortcake and pecan pie (nicely jazzed with bourbon). Throughout, sidebars and tips on techniques give cooks additional opportunity to learn from Foster's fine food sensibility. For connoisseurs of simple yet sophisticated cuisine, The Foster's Market Cookbook truly titillates. --Rebecca Robinson

From Publishers Weekly

In the tradition of the Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, Foster has put together favorite recipes featured at her two Foster's Markets (where she prepares and sells seasonal dishes) in Durham and Chapel Hill, N.C. Much of the food is simple and depends on fresh, quality ingredients enhanced by herbs and spices for its success. Starting with a wide selection of muffins and breads, such as the moist Granny Foster's Banana Walnut Bread, the book covers a range of breakfast and brunch dishes before moving on to soups, stews, chilies and the more traditional sandwiches, spreads and snacks of a gourmet market store. The Provencal White Bean Dip is given an unusual twist with sun-dried tomatoes and capers, and the Curried Chicken Salad is paired with whole-grain or pumpernickel bread for a savory combination. The salads, sides and entrees such as the Mediterranean-inflected Sauteed Chicken Breast with Artichokes, Lemons and Capers or the Roast Leg of Lamb Stuffed with Italian White Beans and Spinach show influences from other cultures from Italy to Asia. Old-fashioned desserts like Chocolate Chip Cookies and Chocolate Pound Cake round out the book. Enhanced with photos and scattered sidebar tips, the book is well designed and user-friendly, making it a welcome addition for those who plan their meals with the seasons. (On sale Apr. 23)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1 edition (April 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375505466
• ISBN-13: 978-0375505461
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 0.9 x 10.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #258,653 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great recipes and easy-to-read layout make this a winner September 28, 2002

By Catherine S. Vodrey

Format:Hardcover

Sara Foster's "Foster's Market Cookbook" is a hands-down winner. She combines a comfortable manner with comfort food galore--usually comfort food with just enough of a twist to make it new and interesting. Granny Foster's Refrigerator Rolls (which keep for an amazing two weeks in the fridge if you want to put off baking them) are highly recommended!

In addition to featuring terrific, simple, delicious recipes, the layout of the book makes it a breeze to read. It's amazing to me how many cookbooks are actually sort of hard to follow when it comes to the directions, but this one isn't. The design is attractive and the font easy to read. Each recipe direction is numbered--a wonderful thing if you happen to look away and lose your place. For the most part, each recipe is complete on a single page and when this is not the case, the recipe is usually complete on the facing page. This makes following the recipes a breeze. This one is a keeper.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Foster's Market Cookbook is Absolutely Fabulous! May 20, 2002

By Maggie Radzwiller

Format:Hardcover

As both a professional Chef & a faithful patron of Foster's Market, my expectations have been exceeded by The Foster's Market Cookbook.

Not only does the book seem to give away all of Sara's favorites- from her Tarragon Chicken Salad with Granny Smith Apples & Grapes (this might possibly be the BEST chicken salad i've had anywhere in the world), to the Roast Pork Tenderloin with Dried Cherries & Rosemary, to the ultimate cookie- The Chocolate Whopper- but she does so with refreshing ease. Where most "Celebrity Chef" cookbooks are filled with multi-task & complicated recipes, the ones in this cookbook are very simple- yet produce real food with real flavors that fit with today's real work schedules & culinary skill levels.

The Cookbook is the same as her Market- warm, informative & friendly. This is a book that i will cherish using for the rest of my life.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Casual Dining Cookbook. Yay! August 13, 2002

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

I recently received my copy of Foster's Market Cookbook and have already moved with lightening speed through a number of the recipes, and they are excellent! The recipes are not too complex, or fussy and at the same time each one is a great combination of fresh ingredients. The comfort food section of the book is alone worth the price. The Chicken Salad with a honey mustard mayonaise was a big hit, paired with a great orzo salad. My family is in love with the Risotto cakes. This is a great cook book for casual great-tasting food. It will be tough to find one cookbook with as many great recipes. Gotta go Cook!

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The best cookbook I own (and I'm PICKY)! June 27, 2002

By JKC

Format:Hardcover

The criteria I set forth for an ideal cookbook is that the recipes must be relatively easy to make (but the food has to be outstanding), it has to be beautifully organized, and the ingredients must be easy to obtain. The magic touch of this cookbook is that it not only meets all of these criteria, but you can use it for weekly family cooking *and* for entertaining. The recipes are simple and affordable enough to work for nightly home cooking but tasty enough to feed guests for special occasions. What a star you are, Sara Foster, for sharing these lovely recipes with all of us! The Foster's Market Cookbook will be my number one gift for fellow home cooks and food lovers from now on and I'll continue to use it each week in my own home.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Good Collection of Comfort Restaurant Food April 30, 2005

By B. Marold HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

`The Foster's Market Cookbook' by Sara Foster, with Sarah Belk King, I bought in my `buy everything I saw on the Food Network' phase, especially after I saw Sarah Foster demonstrate her killer sticky bun recipe on the Food Network's `In Martha's Kitchen' show. This was also in my sticky bun-baking period, before I gave it up as too much work and went back to straight breads.

One of the main reasons the book sat unopened on my shelves for so long was the fact that the `killer sticky bun' recipe was simply not that killer. Do not believe anyone when they say they have an easy sticky bun recipe, because it probably means the end result will fall below expectations. Around the same time, I did a sticky bun recipe from funny baker Wayne Harley Brachman, and that one didn't come up to snuff anyway. Leave it to Julia Child to come through for me. I did the sticky bun recipe in `Baking with Julia' and it was a LOT of work, but it in fact surpassed anything you can get from the mall.

But getting back to Sarah Foster's book, I have come back to it because I harbored s suspicion that there was some really good stuff in the book, and I was not disappointed.

Part of my attraction is that I am a sucker for any cookbook that covers sandwiches. While I think Foster's sandwich recipes are not as interesting or as complete as those in Nancy Silverton's whole book devoted to the subject, they are a great resource if you happen to have no other source of ideas for sandwiches.

Otherwise, the book covers everything you would expect, and it is especially strong on topics where you would expect expertise such as muffins, biscuits, scones, soups, salads, and egg dishes.... On one of my favorite criteria for evaluating cookbooks, the recipe for a classic French omelet, Foster comes through like a champ. The only omelet tip she does not follow is to let the eggs come to room temperature before cracking and beating them, but then, this is probably quite impractical for a restaurant kitchen.

She is also quite good on another of my favorite criteria, the making of stocks. Her recipes are very good for non-foodies and people who care not for haute cuisine, as they do not take very long to produce a very acceptable chicken, vegetable, or beef stock. My only reservations may be that some of her suggestions may lead to waste perfectly good poached chicken on the one hand and include less than edible vegetable cuttings into stocks. There is a reason some people are hyperfussy about stock making. These are but two of the reasons.

I fully endorse Ms. Foster's recipes for muffins, biscuits, and scones. They are as good or better than recipes I have seen in books by professional bakers and books specializing in these subjects.

The hardest aspect of whether it is worth buying this book is how if will complement your current cookbook collection. If you are a cookbook collector, the question is moot. Nothing will stop you from getting this notable title. On the other hand, if all you have is `The Joy of Cooking', this would be a welcome supplement, as like fellow Martha Stewart alumnae, Ina Garten's early cookbooks, all the recipes come from a commercial kitchen which depends on their products for good business and the products are relatively easy to make.

This also means that the selection of recipes is very good fare for church bazaars and bake sales. While Foster is downsizing her recipes to household serving numbers, I am sure that her soups would work well at two to four to eight times her recipe size. Just be a little careful on multiplying some of the spicier ingredients.

I find all the recipes extremely well written. They are full of important details for amateur chefs and unlike some books, everything is printed in good old fashioned black and white with a little highlight shading here and there for sidebars. And, several dishes are presented in living color photographs, and little real estate is taken up by cutsie pics of Foster's Market staff and customers. My only argument with the layout of the book is the chapter title pages where the names of the recipes are written in a kind of multicolored hodgepodge, similar to the maddening typography in Jamie Oliver's otherwise excellent cookbooks.

Fostering this kind of material is what made Martha Stewart so respectable in what she did on her shows. Of this genre of cookbook, this is a very good sample. I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for recipes from this `feel good market' venue. I think, for example, that it is more value for the money than Ina Garten's first cookbook. Read more ›

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I've wanted these recipes for 10 years! May 24, 2002

By Shelia Webb

Format:Hardcover

I've enjoyed shopping and eating at Foster's every time I visit Durham for the past 10 years. Sara's distinctive style and fresh approach to food has never disappointed. The scones are fabulous and I am so excited about the sandwich condiments and combinations. I've tried many times to duplicate the Foster's flavor at home and I'm thrilled to finally have the recipes so I can enjoy my favorites all the time! Bravo!