≡ Libro The Zuni Cafe Cookbook A Compendium of Recipes and Cooking Lessons from San Francisco Beloved Resturant Judy Rodgers Gerald Asher 8601405220592 Books

The Zuni Cafe Cookbook A Compendium of Recipes and Cooking Lessons from San Francisco Beloved Resturant Judy Rodgers Gerald Asher 8601405220592 Books

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The Zuni Cafe Cookbook A Compendium of Recipes and Cooking Lessons from San Francisco Beloved Resturant Judy Rodgers Gerald Asher 8601405220592 Books

A few days ago I came across this headline in the New York Times: Judy Rodgers, Chef of Refined Simplicity, Dies at 57.

“Refined Simplicity.” Does that phrase thrill you? I’ve never put the words together that way, but it’s everything I aspire to: getting to the core of whatever and manifesting it clearly and elegantly. It’s Orwell’s “prose like a windowpane,” Wittgenstein’s “Everything that can be said can be said clearly.” So although I had no idea who Judy Rodgers was — I’m not a foodie — I read her Times obituary.

Judy Rodgers, I learned, was major. As a kid, she was an exchange student in France, where she had the great good fortune to live with the Troisgros family, proprietors of the famous three-star restaurant Les Frères Troisgros. At Stanford, she studied art history. And might have done something with that if not for a second Hand of God moment: a meal at Chez Panisse. Soon, although she had no formal training, Alice Waters hired her as a lunch chef. A few restaurants later, she had her own kitchen at San Francisco’s Zuni Café.

Judy Rodgers didn’t do TV. Didn’t build an empire. Didn’t court fame at all, really. She just cooked. In 2003, Zuni Cafe won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurant in America in 2003. In 2004, she was named Outstanding Chef in America, beating Mario Batali, Tom Colicchio, Alfred Portale, and Nobu Matsuhisa. And although it took her a decade, she wrote every word of the 500 recipe book.

That star-bound trajectory is the stuff of legend, but this is the line that grabbed me: "Ms. Rodgers tasted sauces, dressings and combinations until she found exactly what she had in mind. Then she stuck with it. Many preparations stayed on her menu for years."

And with that, I was in love. For this is my grail: one good thing, perfected.

I learned more. Judy Rodgers was pencil-thin. She cooked in a uniform of her own: a sweater, a long skirt. She wore her hair piled on her head, anchored with #2 pencils. She was graceful, a dancer at the stove: “Good cooks have smooth motions. They have economy of movement, no wasted hand work.” Her ego was smaller than a truffle: “I’ve never thought of myself as having invented a single solitary dish. I’m just sort of the thing through which this food gets made.” And, again, she had total focus: “My guideline at this restaurant has always been I want only things here that I would love to have and the way I’d love to have them. If it doesn’t make me happy, then it’s false.”

Among the things she loved were Caesar salad, Bloody Marys, polenta, chocolate pot de crème and hamburger, freshly ground, served on a focaccia bun. But most of all, she was the queen of Roast Chicken. It was what you ordered the first time you went to Zuni. And then? “I have probably been to Zuni at least 25 or 30 times since Rodgers took over the formerly Southwestern restaurant in 1987,” a critic wrote, “and I have failed to order the chicken only twice.

What’s special about Zuni Cafe Roast Chicken? Rodgers only served small, organic, antibiotic-free chickens. (“It has to be small, so you have a high degree of skin-and-fat ratio to the lean muscle, and you can cook it hot and fast. With really big chickens, you don’t have the experience of the crispy skin in every bite.”) She sprinkled the bird with ¾ of a teaspoon of sea salt per pound of chicken and ground tellicherry black pepper. Then — plan ahead, home cooks! — she let the chicken cure for up to three days in the refrigerator. Finally, she cooked the chicken in an unusually hot oven, so it would begin to brown quickly. And about twenty minutes into the roasting process, she flipped the chicken. Complicated? Hardly.

The restaurant survives her. Her cookbook is a classic; every word reads true. How I wish she could read this.


Tags : The Zuni Cafe Cookbook: A Compendium of Recipes and Cooking Lessons from San Francisco's Beloved Resturant [Judy Rodgers, Gerald Asher] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <strong>For twenty-four years, in an odd and intimate warren of rooms, San Franciscans of every variety have come to the Zuni Café with high expectations and have rarely left disappointed.</strong> In <em>The Zuni Café Cookbook</em>,Judy Rodgers, Gerald Asher,The Zuni Cafe Cookbook: A Compendium of Recipes and Cooking Lessons from San Francisco's Beloved Resturant,W. W. Norton & Company,0393020436,California,USA,Regional & Ethnic - American - California Style,Cookbooks.,Cookery,Cooking.,COOKING Regional & Ethnic American California Style,COOKING Regional & Ethnic American Western States,Cookbooks,Cooking,Cooking Wine,Food & drink cookery: general interest,GENERAL,General Adult,General cookery & recipes,Non-Fiction,Regional & Ethnic - American - Western States,Sports & outdoor recreation,United States

The Zuni Cafe Cookbook A Compendium of Recipes and Cooking Lessons from San Francisco Beloved Resturant Judy Rodgers Gerald Asher 8601405220592 Books Reviews

Judy Rodgers classic tome is delightful to read as it is to cook from. She's sorely missed.. And please do yourself a treat and visit Zuni when in SFO. Delightful and excellent wine options!
The roasted chicken is the best chicken I've ever eaten. We call it smoke alarm chicken because our vent fan can't handle the steam off the high temperature but it's worth the noise and the efforts to get them turned off!!!!! These are not the easiest recipes you'll run across but even seasoned, professional chefs can learn from her cookbook.
This is one of my all-time favorite cookbooks. I have given it again, again to friends from novice cooks to chefs. I think this book is a must have for any cookbook collection. The recipes are beautiful, tasty and relatively simple and the photos are gorgeous.
Summary With these recipes and techniques you can almost magically turn relatively few items into unimaginable dishes that highlight the main ingredient. While some recipes can be complicated as written, you can take shortcuts and still enjoy amazing results.

This books lets you precisely duplicate the amazing dishes at Zuni Cafe. However, you can decide whether (for example) you'll follow the beef stock recipe or buy beef stock pre-made. Whatever you do, don't deprive yourself of such delicious food only for lack of time to follow each recipe to the letter. Take whatever shortcuts you need.

This book not only provides amazing recipes, but also has great suggestions and techniques that will make you a better cook. Within each recipe are suggestions on how you may want to improvise, to make the dish your own. I simply have not found another cookbook like this.
Best recipe/technique for making pie crust...EVER! Impossible to overwork the dough. It always comes out flaky and buttery! Everything else is gravy. Very good, yummy, beautiful gravy! More than a cookbook, it is also a very interesting read.
This book was exactly as described a compendium of recipes and cooking lessons. There was also a fair amount of the author's history with food and the history of the Zuni Cafe. The only thing that I think that could have improved this book would have been more and larger photographs. I love to see photos of the food and there weren't any at least not in the edition.
This cookbook is mostly all right though not entirely. Since I am already a reasonably accomplished home cook with a professional chef son, I can follow Rodgers' convoluted instructions without too much difficulty. But if I were a novice cook I would be entirely at sea.
A few days ago I came across this headline in the New York Times Judy Rodgers, Chef of Refined Simplicity, Dies at 57.

“Refined Simplicity.” Does that phrase thrill you? I’ve never put the words together that way, but it’s everything I aspire to getting to the core of whatever and manifesting it clearly and elegantly. It’s Orwell’s “prose like a windowpane,” Wittgenstein’s “Everything that can be said can be said clearly.” So although I had no idea who Judy Rodgers was — I’m not a foodie — I read her Times obituary.

Judy Rodgers, I learned, was major. As a kid, she was an exchange student in France, where she had the great good fortune to live with the Troisgros family, proprietors of the famous three-star restaurant Les Frères Troisgros. At Stanford, she studied art history. And might have done something with that if not for a second Hand of God moment a meal at Chez Panisse. Soon, although she had no formal training, Alice Waters hired her as a lunch chef. A few restaurants later, she had her own kitchen at San Francisco’s Zuni Café.

Judy Rodgers didn’t do TV. Didn’t build an empire. Didn’t court fame at all, really. She just cooked. In 2003, Zuni Cafe won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurant in America in 2003. In 2004, she was named Outstanding Chef in America, beating Mario Batali, Tom Colicchio, Alfred Portale, and Nobu Matsuhisa. And although it took her a decade, she wrote every word of the 500 recipe book.

That star-bound trajectory is the stuff of legend, but this is the line that grabbed me "Ms. Rodgers tasted sauces, dressings and combinations until she found exactly what she had in mind. Then she stuck with it. Many preparations stayed on her menu for years."

And with that, I was in love. For this is my grail one good thing, perfected.

I learned more. Judy Rodgers was pencil-thin. She cooked in a uniform of her own a sweater, a long skirt. She wore her hair piled on her head, anchored with #2 pencils. She was graceful, a dancer at the stove “Good cooks have smooth motions. They have economy of movement, no wasted hand work.” Her ego was smaller than a truffle “I’ve never thought of myself as having invented a single solitary dish. I’m just sort of the thing through which this food gets made.” And, again, she had total focus “My guideline at this restaurant has always been I want only things here that I would love to have and the way I’d love to have them. If it doesn’t make me happy, then it’s false.”

Among the things she loved were Caesar salad, Bloody Marys, polenta, chocolate pot de crème and hamburger, freshly ground, served on a focaccia bun. But most of all, she was the queen of Roast Chicken. It was what you ordered the first time you went to Zuni. And then? “I have probably been to Zuni at least 25 or 30 times since Rodgers took over the formerly Southwestern restaurant in 1987,” a critic wrote, “and I have failed to order the chicken only twice.

What’s special about Zuni Cafe Roast Chicken? Rodgers only served small, organic, antibiotic-free chickens. (“It has to be small, so you have a high degree of skin-and-fat ratio to the lean muscle, and you can cook it hot and fast. With really big chickens, you don’t have the experience of the crispy skin in every bite.”) She sprinkled the bird with ¾ of a teaspoon of sea salt per pound of chicken and ground tellicherry black pepper. Then — plan ahead, home cooks! — she let the chicken cure for up to three days in the refrigerator. Finally, she cooked the chicken in an unusually hot oven, so it would begin to brown quickly. And about twenty minutes into the roasting process, she flipped the chicken. Complicated? Hardly.

The restaurant survives her. Her cookbook is a classic; every word reads true. How I wish she could read this.