The Zuni Cafe Cookbook: A Compendium of Recipes and Cooking Lessons from San Francisco's Beloved Restaurant

This book won two James Beard awards and Rodgers garnered a third Beard Award for best chef last year, making it a true hat trick for Rodgers and the Zuni Cafe. From what I have seen in this book, it earned every bit of recognition it has garnered.

The only recent American book I know which is comparable to this book in the quality of its lessons is `Jeremiah Tower Cooks'. This book succeeds at an even higher level than Tower since the older writer has some strong opinions on some not entirely universally held opinions. Tower redeems himself by making his book just that much more engaging by so energetically endorsing these controversial opinions.

Rodgers engages in no controversy. Her lessons in cooking follow the straight and narrow of French technique mellowed by her beautifully plain doctrines about using simple equipment. Before I get too far, I must warn the reader that what people like Rodgers and Colicchio mean by simple is much different from what the fast cooking maestros such as Rachael Ray, Sandra Lee, and Ann Byrn mean. Rodgers and Colicchio are talking about simplicity within the world of haute cuisine as defined by Richard Olney in `Simple French Food'. Basically, simple to this school means using well-understood techniques without excessive or overly architectural ornament. This style still requires many years of training to become familiar with one's materials and techniques.

There is at least one pleasantly surprising joining of opinions between the haute cuisine Rodgers and the English popular food writer Nigella Lawson. Both make the point, that to really know your materials and procedures, it is essential that you repeat the same few dishes rather than doing something different every time you turn on the range. While Lawson uses this principle to recommend a list of recipes she considers important to master by repetition; Rodgers gives a more methodological approach by advising us how to make little variations in one's practice to teach oneself the variations in your prima materia.

The instructions and explanations on stock making alone are worth the price of the book. Here, Rodgers is following Olney's lead by explaining why you do things this way rather than that way. The explanations are leavened by anecdotes on Rodgers experiences in training and in her kitchen at Zuni. Especially delightful is the tale of a pig's head being used to make a pork stock. Among the stories are some experiences in the kitchen of the Troigros brothers in France. These legendary chefs are often mentioned together with other modern greats of the French kitchen. This is the first look I have seen into the basis of their renown.

Among the very many lessons about basic cooking techniques, the most dramatic and most useful is in the application of salt to food. While Food Network junkies may not find this lesson too dramatic, it does give one a new respect for this most simple of culinary techniques.

Every chapter in the book dishes out not only Zuni Cafe recipes, but also a California gold mine of techniques and explanations on why these techniques work. Even the single page on vinaigrettes offers ucommon wisdom on a very common subject, such as the relevance of the dish to be dressed on the ratio of oil to acid in the vinegrette. The star of the latter portion of the book is `A Lesson in Sausage Making', comparable to some of the more lovingly detailed chapters in Bertolli's `Cooking by Hand'.

This book should be on every foodie's short list of must reads. Unlike excellent books on various methods and materials, this is a book you will want to read from cover to cover. The attitudes and knowledge will infuse and improve all your thinking and working with food.

If you are the book buying public, you can tune out now so I can talk to the book designers at W. W. Norton.

After the most beautifully composed photograph on the dust jacket, you seemed to drop the ball in laying out parts of the inside of the book. The photographs are too close up and are taken from an angle which does not present the food in the best light. The Table of contents is very poorly done. It is just about the worst I have ever seen in the way it is layed out. And, the tiny black and white photos used on the chapter title pages are simply a waste of money and space. One has absolutely no idea of what they are. The pictures on the `Stocks' title page could be from a restaurant, a hospital, or a laboratory. To your copy editors, I warn that Harold McGee is probably cringing at the many uses of `dissolve' where you really should say `bring into suspension' or simply `incorporate'.

To all foodies, this is a must have book.


A delightful array of innovative and refreshing ideas   February 3, 2004
 3 out of 4 found this review helpful

Recipes from a popular San Francisco institution and culinary tradition are packed in here, with dishes providing a delightful array of innovative and refreshing ideas, from Spicy Squid Stew with Red Wine and Roasted Peppers to Beef & Onion Gratin with Tomatoes. Cooks who don't mind spending time in the kitchen will find these dishes appealing and delicious.


mmm .... mmm ... mmm   June 10, 2003
 26 out of 29 found this review helpful

I am not a trained cook. I'm not even a particularly skilled one. I'm a bumbler, a weekend culinary warrior and relatively clueless food-lover who occasionally stumbles across a cookbook that both inspires and challenges me. The Zuni Cafe is full of recipes that take the good part of a Sunday afternoon to fix, which is just fine by me. The results have been unfailingly spectacular--simple, unfussy food that knocks your socks off. (The Mock Porcetta, Roast Chicken Bread Salad and Cod with Potatoes represent 3 of the most delicious meals that have ever come out of my humble kitchen.) Best of all, every time I use this book I feel like I learn something new--about a technique or about an ingredient. It's actually made me a better cook.

That said, I rarely consult this cookbook unless I am planning a special meal and have a fair amount of time on my hands. For everyday feeding the household-type fare, I often turn to a more comprehensive reference like Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.


Less than 10 photos but very good recipes   June 2, 2003
 6 out of 11 found this review helpful

There 're lots of very good recipes in this one, and lots of those techniques & explanation. So if you're curious & you wanna learn more about the chemistry of cooking, this is the one for you. But if you're the lazy kind who love interesting photos to come with the recipes, maybe you'll need sth else.