Traca, thank you for recommending Zuni Cafe Cookbook. I was able to get it on Interlibrary loan

M

marilynfl

Moderator
for 30 days. You are quite right...the recipes are very simple, but she goes on for PAGES discussing technique in intimate details. Her simple roasted chicken/bread salad was four pages long...and I must have read it three times to appreciate the subtle changes in method. I also used my I-Pad to snap her discussion for braised beef. I have high hopes for that. Even something as simple as her (paraphrased) statement "we don't roast our vegetables first before braising the meat because we want a purer flavor" made me pause. I always though roasting first was a good idea, but if you are going to roast/braise the meat for 3-4 hours, then you're OVER-COOKING the veggies.

Subtle. Clever woman.

I'm still envious of the quality food she is able to source. I won't even bother making her sorbets since our fruit here is mediocre, but it was a very educational book. Thank you!

 
Your post reminds me of the way Cook's Illustrated goes on and on about his methods and tests

with food. I can only take so much of it.
So, am I reading correctly that the author of Zuni considers the Florida fruit mediocre? Where does she suggest one source their fruits?

 
No...I'M the one saying Florida fruit is useless. Even organic stuff at Whole Foods has no taste.

I'm done buying strawberries (Florida's Strawberry Capital of the USA!), raspberries, blackberries, cherries, apples, plums & pears. On a rare occassion I can find a perfect mango or avocado and then the next five are horrible.

It just breaks my heart when I see a simple dessert using perfect fruit to finish off a meal--and can't duplicate it.

Zuni Cafe is?was? in San Francisco (I'm not sure if its still open). Judy Rodgers died this past December at age 57.

http://www.sfgate.com/recipes/article/Zuni-Cafe-s-Judy-Rodgers-leaves-remarkable-legacy-5042427.php#page-2

 
Hate to burst your bubble, but Florida is not Strawberry Capital of the USA, CA is...

It might be Winter Strawberry Capital of the USA (which would mean crummy ones as you suggest) - this is a fun blog post about it >>

And yes, Zuni Cafe is still open, and I expect they get their strawberries locally, there are huge commercial farms in Watsonville (near Monterey) but some specialty ones on the coast near Davenport (by Santa Cruz) and Half Moon Bay have some of the tastier limited types.

http://salemslots.wordpress.com/2007/05/20/the-strawberry-capital-of-the-world-is-where-or-strawberry-wields-forever/

 
Ah, I was referencing: "Plant City, FL is known as the winter strawberry capital of the world"

Huge nationwide festival...and they are STILL mediocre.

CA strawberries are available year round here. They have no taste either--organic or conventional.

I'm holding out high hopes for your little plant, my friend.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_City,_Florida

 
I don't know what is happening to the strawberries we ate just a few short years ago

We have all kinds of strawberry growers here where I live. Yet, the berries we get are white inside and have little flavor. I ask at the Farmer's Market "are your berries red all the way through?" I get a funny look and the grower tells me "Yes". I get them home and find out he did not tell me the truth. That white part is hard, not juicy and tastless.

 
Been wondering the same thing. I remember 10 years ago, anxious for January when

the strawberries were perfect. But I guess we all want them cheap.

Remember when you sniffed the box, there was that great heady scent? You sliced into one and it oozed succulent crimson?

 
Ha! It's known as the rare chef book that actually teaches something. smileys/smile.gif

Though she's verbose, it makes for good reading. Try the gouger appetizer. That's one of my favorite recipes. And Ina Garten did a much shorter riff on that chicken recipe. Check out Ina's Lemon Roasted Chicken (with Croutons). That's my go to recipe.

 
I love my copy of that book. When I made the recipe for her bread dressing

I used up so many pots and pans and my kitchen was totally trashed and my sink was full. But it's fantastic and my friends love it when I make it for them.

I've modified her recipe a bit for my go-to roast chicken. I do her salting method and a smaller roasting pan, but I add lemon and (in pre allergy days roasted it over potatoes).

My copy is additionally precious because the former general director of the opera gave it to me, it was given to her by Judy. I ran into Judy at the farmer's market one day and told I had it and she steered me around to the fresh almonds and took out her knife to peel open the fruit and and we sampled them together and she talked about how she served them to Pamela. It was a beyond cool moment. I helped Pamela at some of her dinner parties and Judy was a guest again after that and I was just mesmerized listening to her talk about seasonality and making the most of the flavor of things.

I'm sad she died and in that way particularly. Once Easter is over a friend and I are going to dinner at Zuni for the chicken, a lot of oysters while we are waiting and sparkling wine to toast her and the concept of continuing on by our legacy of recipes.

 
How beautiful! Thanks for sharing that story, Heather. Her gougers are one of the first

"chefy" dishes I mastered. The one stuffed with bacon and arugula. So good! I need to revisit that book.

 
This is why I'm growing my own! (Plus, it's not good strawberry time till May-June)

I'm going to plant two varieties of strawberry, the Chandler and the Seascape because those are the varieties a local organic farm produces - and I'm pretty sure it was from their farm I got the best tasting berries at Whole Foods I'd had since I was a kid. They were smaller and deeper in in color, $1 more for a smaller basket and only were in stores 2-3 weeks, but oh my - they were what got me started on my hunt for a better berry.

This is my/our rare Fairfax variety as of today - no runners yet:
http://i788.photobucket.com/albums/yy163/4ebay_bucket/Garden/IMG_2544_zps3a433f47.jpg

 
Yowza! That sounds awesome. I like the bread but have been searching

for an alternative. Potatoes might be right up my alley! Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it. I make at least a couple times a month. smileys/smile.gif

 
I do get better at the FM - I taste or cut open them before I buy.

Now days, they've bred the berries more for shipping than for taste. Hate that, but most of the big commercial growers do that with everything - it's money, money, money.

Ever notice how when you go in the grocery store - you don't smell any food?

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top