southerncooker's Reviews
Cookbook Reviews
The Zuni Cafe Cookbook: A Compendium of Recipes and Cooking Lessons from San Francisco's Beloved Restaurant
By Judy Rodgers, Gerald Asher
W.W. Norton & Co. - 2002
I placed this book on my wish list after a friend told me it was one of her husband's favorite cookbooks. I was thrilled with I got it from Paper Back Swap. I looked through it at the time then it got put on the shelf and i pretty much forgot about it..... Until cookbooker.com picked it as a challenge book. I pulled it back off the shelf for another look. I then begin reading and choosing recipes to cook.
I've learned some new ideas about some inventive ways to use some ingredients. Such as vinegar with eggs, kale on toast, eggs baked on leftovers and gizzards in pasta sauce. This book not only contains interesting and sometimes different recipes but also teaches you techniques such as how to remove a chicken breast from a whole bird, how to make perfect mayonnaise and risotto among other things.
When you start reading one of the recipes it's like Judy takes you by the hand and leads you in the right direction as you begin the cooking process. Even if you're a seasoned cook you'll find many useful tips and instructions in this book.
There are only two things that I don't like about this book. One is that not all recipes give serving sizes. The other is that there are ingredients used in several of the recipe that are hard for me to find. People who live in other areas might not have that problem. The other recipes more than make up for the few with hard to find ingredients though.