Chez Panisse Fruit (Hardcover)

~ Alice L. Waters (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Alice Waters's Chez Panisse is one of America's great restaurants. Dedicated to serving French country food made from the finest American ingredients (and furthering the cause of local, conscientiously produced foods of all kinds), the restaurant is also responsible for a remarkable series of cookbooks, including Chez Panisse Vegetables and the Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook. Chez Panisse Fruit, coauthored by Waters, proceeds in the innovative spirit of its predecessors, offering 200 exquisite sweet and savory fruit recipes, plus essays that attune readers to growing and marketing issues so they can make wise seasonal selections. Conceived with utmost simplicity, recipes like Spit-Roasted Pork with Onion-and-Apple Marmalade, Caramelized Red Banana Tartlets, and Grilled Cured Duck Breasts with Pickled Peaches truly celebrate the fruits they feature. Though not difficult to prepare, the recipes demand a cook's full attention--at the market as well as in the kitchen. The reward is memorable eating.

Arranged alphabetically from apples to strawberries, the book treats familiar and less familiar fruit, including citron (in dishes like Sautéed Scallops with Citron), loquats (used in Catherine's Loquat Sauce, a delicious accompaniment to grilled meats), and mulberries (delightful in ice cream and sherbet). There are also superb versions of raspberry ice cream, cranberry relish, and blueberry buttermilk pancakes, as well as must-try "original" fare like Rocket Salad with Pomegranates and Toasted Hazelnuts, Tangerine and Chocolate Semifreddo, and Moroccan Chicken with Dates. A section of basics also provides exemplary formulas for the likes of pie dough, biscuits, and pastry cream. Illustrated in the Chez Panisse tradition with relief prints of the fruit, the book is an appreciation of one of our most glorious resources and, tacitly, a call to consciousness about the need to preserve it at its best. --Arthur Boehm

From Publishers Weekly

The eighth Chez Panisse cookbook, which features sweet and savory dishes that use fruit, follows what has become acclaimed chef Alice Waters's patented style: a mix of rustic dishes, many exhibiting Italian and French influence, that highlight the best possible produce. Recipes are organized by fruit, and each chapter begins with a mini-essay on varieties and growing conditions, and often sounds the biodiversity alarm, as when Waters opines, "How sad, then, that well over 90 percent of the apples sold in this country belong to one of only fifteen of those seven thousand varieties." Desserts showcase flavors that may be slightly unfamiliar, either because they use unusual varieties (Caramelized Red Banana Tartlets) or different versions of a common fruit, as with Fig Cookies that are a haute substitute for Fig Newtons and use fresh figs rather than dried. Savory dishes such as Middle Eastern-Style Lamb Stew with Dried Apricots and a tasty assembly of spices skew more traditional. Some of the most intriguing recipes are the simplest, such as Pickled Cherries and Tea-Poached Prunes. At times, Waters's specificity can be exasperating. Will Crˆpes Suzette with Pixie Tangerine Sherbet be just as good if the sherbet is made with some other variety of tangerine? Still, it's hard to find fault with a book wide-ranging and inventive enough to comfortably encompass Judy's Deep-Fried Lemon and Artichokes, Spring Fruit Compote with Kiwifruit Sherbet and Coconut Meringue, and a tart Vin de Pamplemousse aperitif.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks; 1 edition (April 16, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060199571
• ISBN-13: 978-0060199579
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #240,061 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Reference for Highly Seasonable Subject. Buy It., January 2, 2005

By	B. Marold "Bruce W. Marold" (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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`Chez Panisse Fruit' by Alice Waters and her staff is the companion volume to a similarly formatted and illustrated `Chez Panisse Vegetables'. While I gave the latter volume only four stars, I can give this very similar volume five stars simply because, to my knowledge, there are not many good cookbooks around for fruits alone. And, this is a very valuable type of book to have on hand.

I am constantly reminded of the central insight of Tom Colicchio's book `How to Think Like a Chef' where he points out that chefs do not create recipes then go looking for ingredients. The creative process is exactly the opposite. They look to see what they have on hand and create something based on this. Tony Bourdain reminds us about this in his book, `Kitchen Confidential', when he warns us about the specials of the day, as they are probably built out of ingredients which are becoming a bit long in the tooth to hold much longer in the walk-in refrigerator. This principle becomes writ large with every chef / author crowing about their using fresh, seasonal ingredients. They mention this far less often, but I'm sure they also create recipes and menus based on what is cheap as much as on what is fresh. Since seasonal generally coincides with less expensive, they can tout seasonal and hide their economical self-interest at work. This principle of using what you have also makes me skeptical of really how difficult the old `Iron Chef' premise is for first class chefs, as they really do this kind of thing every day of their working lives, if they are still working in the kitchen. This competition is stressful, but it is simply taking what they every day do to it's extreme.

But I ramble. The whole point of this digression was that cookbooks organized by raw ingredient are a really great resource for the cook who likes to work economically. What can be better in the Fall when apples and pears come into season than to have a book with a nice selection of interesting things to do with apples and pears. The book is divided into thirty-eight chapters, with each giving recipes on a major fruit available in the United States, with the number of recipes corresponding roughly to the popularity of the fruit. Some few chapters cover a family of fruits, as when the Bananas chapter includes a recipe for plantains.

While the larger number of recipes are for desserts, provided I suspect primarily by Ms. Waters' partner, Lindsey Shere and her pastry staff at Chez Panisse, there are also several hot savory recipes and salad recipes using fruit. Two very common uses of fruit with meat, for example, are apples in poulet a la Normandie (Normandy apples with chicken) and grilled duck breast with pickled peaches.

Like the `Vegetables' volume, this book is as comfortable in the armchair as it is in the kitchen. It has the same stylish design and the same delightfully Art Nouveau colored woodcut prints of the principal fruits. The introductions to each ingredient, aside from a terse statement about the fruit's seasonality, are `free form' essays about those things that are most interesting about the fruit. This is entirely fair, as lemons are a far, far more important ingredient to all types of cooking than rhubarb. As Ms. Waters explains, even though rhubarb is a vegetable, at Chez Panisse (and lots of other places as well), it is used in the same manner as sour fruits and it bridges the gap in the seasons between the winter and summer tree fruits.

Unlike the vegetable book, this volume ends with a chapter of general procedures useable with many different fruit recipes. These recipes include galette and sweet pie doughs, biscuits, puff pastry, sabayon, frangipane, sponge cake, and pastry cream. While these recipes are great to have on hand in a book of pie ingredients, you may prefer to go to a book from a pastry specialist such as Rose Levy Beranbaum, Nick Malgieri, or Wayne Harley Brachman for expert advice on crusts. I take Miss Alice's claim that her pate sucree recipe will never get tough and will not shrink when baked. I will not even test this statement, as I am quite happy with the piecrust I am used to. I doubt the claims for this recipe in that it is almost identical to the one I use, which does get tough and does shrink unless I take special care in handling it.

If I were editing this book and had but one suggestion by which it could be improved, I would make the selection of recipes across fruits just a bit more uniform. For example, there is a recipe for blackberry jelly, but no recipe for orange marmalade. On the other hand, almost all the classics are here, such as applesauce, Moroccan preserved lemons, and pears poached in wine. What would be the value of a book on fruits if you could not go to it for the standards?

I would buy both volumes simply because they look very nice on my shelf. The fact that they come with the Chez Panisse imprimatur doesn't hurt. And, rest assured that not only are the recipes in this book worth having, they are very accessible though an excellent table of contents and a description of the procedure which is easy to read, easy to follow, and informative. Like all of Ms. Waters' cookbooks I have reviewed, they may not be the best for the total novice. There is lots of advanced advice, but a fair amount of knowing your way around the kitchen is assumed.

Like playwright Jean Anouith who bought a green bound book on Joan of Arc to fit an empty space on his bookshelf, he ended up reading the book and writing a famous play `The Lark' on Joan of Arc. This is the kind of book from which good things can spring.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Reference, July 18, 2002

By	Joanne Oler (Greensboro, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This book provides an excellent reference guide for learning about different varieties of fruits, the cooking methods they are best suited for, and how to look for and purchase the best fruits. The recipes are simple, designed to showcase the flavor of the fruit, not to disguise it. The illustrations in this book are absolutely beautiful, I would love to have them framed for my kitchen walls! This book would make a wonderful gift for any cook, but particularly those who enjoy shopping the local farmers markets for seasonal produce.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Big Morsel for Repertoire and Soul, June 16, 2003

By	Vanessa (Salt Lake City, UT) - See all my reviews

Alice Waters and the staff at Chez Panisse forged the standard for fresh cuisine. Instead of an overwhelming emphasis on abstract-innovations and culinary interpretations, Panisse offered diners a glorious showcase of products at their best, in the most bare and most essential.

This cookbook offers home cooks and curious readers insight into the ground-breaking process that changed the way we think about produce. From the get-go, the book's appeal is not in its starkly modern and sophisticated food styling or photography. Rather, the visual impact imparts a sense of familiarity and comfort; as if it were a relative's old cookbook to rummage through, full of beautifully printed fruit.

Listed alphabetically, each chapter offers practical information such as the history, popular use, and general availability of the fruit. Keep in mind (as Waters does) that much of the produce available to Panisse is do to the abundance in agricultural activity around the Berkeley area. However, this should not sway readers and cooks toward the negative. On the contrary. More knowledge of certain produce, local or exotic, continually empowers the curious foodie to venture into new unknown territory and inquire for it at farmer's markets, the road side stand, or supermarket.

In other words, demand what you can get, appreciate what's available to you, and use it wisely, letting the fullest flavor come through. Berries in New England, citrus in California, or peaches in Georgia, the book offers a well-spring of knowledge and recipes that follow the Panisse dictum.

The fact that the book isn't jam-packed with recipes I view as a positive. Waters offers a taste of what can be done. The rest, the new, can be devised by the Panisse chefs AND the home cook thanks to an arsenal of knowledge.