Chez Panisse Vegetables (Hardcover)

~ Alice L. Waters (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

By now just about everybody whose interest in eating runs deeper than fast food knows about Alice Waters. The creator of Chez Panisse, the legendary restaurant in Berkeley, California, that helped create a modern American cuisine based on fresh ingredients, she is also equally well-known as a teacher and cookbook author. Chez Panisse Vegetables is one of the best new cookbooks of the season; it's as useful for its information about vegetables and how to use and handle them as it is for its irresistible recipes, which lead to complex and interesting dishes built from simple ingredients and simple techniques.

From Publishers Weekly

The same deep regard for ingredients and their flavors that first drew national attention to Waters's Berkeley, Calif., restaurant in the mid-1970s informs this comprehensive disquisition on vegetables. From Amaranth Greens through Zucchini, Waters (Chez Panisse Cooking) examines the qualities and characteristics that distinguish vegetables at their best and offers recipes that show them off. The 250-plus recipes highlight the main ingredient of each dish, sometimes conferring star status (Mediterranean Lentil Soup; Spicy Broccoli Vegetable Saute) and sometimes orchestrating a felicitous concert (Whole-wheat Pasta with Cauliflower, Walnuts, and Ricotta Salata; Braised Cabbage with Halibut). While the majority of recipes are presented in standard form, some of the most valuable bypass details of quantity and sequence to focus on method (Oven-braised Leeks with Cream; Spinach Roman Style with Raisins and Pine Nuts; Aigo Bouido, a garlic broth; Parsley Salad). Waters promotes a collaborative culinary process, not just among the cooks she credits as fellow authors but between the individual cook and the ingredients of the dish being prepared. Her generous, authoritative approach to vegetables commands the same respect she offers to her subject matter and is exemplified in the concluding bibliography of cookbooks. 60,000 first printing; major ad/promp; author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks; 1 edition (March 27, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060171472
• ISBN-13: 978-0060171476
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 6.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #11,361 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #7 in	Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Vegetables & Vegetarian > Vegetables
  #8 in	Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Special Occasions > Seasonal
  #8 in	Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Regional & International > U.S. Regional > California

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

83 of 86 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A keeper for your cookbook shelf if you are NOT vegetarian, February 8, 2003

By	KNSudha (Saratoga, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This book is a comprehensive resource that tells you how to select, store, and prep your vegetables. So just to demystify your farmers market, this book is an essential. However, in terms of recipes, it does fall short, treating vegetables only as soups or sides for the most part. Also if you *are* vegetarian, many recipes call for anchovies, bacon, chicken stock etc. If I had to pick between this and Deborah Madison's "Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers' Markets" I would pick the latter since that offers more main dish recipes, and covers all farm market produce, fruits, vegetables, and non-vegetarian stuff too, while keeping recipes involving vegetables vegetarian. And Deborah Madison also instructs you on how to prepare more exotic veg.
Despite the cons it is a fascinating read, and its nice that it does not assume you are already a "cook"

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars farmers market confidence!, October 26, 2001

By A Customer

Do you find yourself gazing at kale while filling your basket with broccoli and carrots? Then this is the book for you! Be bold in a farmers market, buy the kale or any other unfamiliar vegetable and cook it with confidence! This book tells you all about a vegetable, when it is in season, what to do with it in general and in various stages of "ripeness" and gives you recipies to try it in. A wonderful cooking encyclopedia of vegetables.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Bonus for the Home Gardener, March 4, 2000

By A Customer

The title -"Vegetables"- says it all. This book is a wonderful choice to learn how to store, select and prepare individual vegetables in a variety of recipes which enhance that vegetable. Beautifully illustrated, it is organized alphabetically by vegetable. If you looking for more complete meals or information about vegetarian eating you will be disappointed -- the recipes are best used as side dishes for seasonal produce. For the money, I recommend Deborah Madison's "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone", I use it all the time, and I'm not a strict vegetarian.