Review
"Davis is a cook, but an artist, and there are so few of them in the world. I can count them on one hand." Alice Waters, author of The Art of Simple Food
From the Inside Flap
David Tanis might cook in the most famous restaurant in America, but here he is all about keeping meals simple at home. In this eloquent appeal for good sense in cooking great food, Davis Tanis serves up twenty-four seasonal menus that are simply conceived and simply served on platters, family style. His food bursts with invention and flavor, such as wild salmon with spicy Vietnamese cucumbers to celebrate spring and braised duck with fried ginger for a cool-weather dinner. Tanis has an elemental, unpretentious finesse with ingredients and a genuine gift for words. Deliciously down-to-earth, his intuitive menus make cooking a pleasure, not a stress whether you're "Feeling Italian" (Steamed Fennel with Red Pepper Oil; Roasted Quail with Grilled Radicchio and Creamy Polenta; Italian Plum Cake), "Slightly All-American" (Sliced Tomatoes with Sea Salt; Grilled Chicken Breasts; Corn, Squash, and Beans with Jalape??o Butter; Blueberry-Blackberry Crumble), or "Too Darned Hot, Alors!" (Proven??al Toasts; Melon and Figs with Prosciutto and Mint; Deconstructed Salade Ni??oise; Lavender Honey Ice Cream). "David s recipes are simple and marvelous," says cookbook author Paula Wolfert. "What more can a food lover want?" Tanis shows you how to slow down, pay attention, give ingredients their due, and provide meals that will delight friends and family. Here, at last, is a cookbook that has nothing to do with celebrity chefdom and everything to do with real life. Cancel the dinner reservations and pick up this book and rediscover the pleasure of cooking at home.
About the Author
Six months a year, David Tanis is head chef at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, where he s been since the 1980s, helping to define the restaurant s wildly influential style. He spends the other half of the year in Paris, where he hosts dinners of international renown. David s French kitchen is a six-by-ten-foot galley with a rickety stove, a small sink, little counter space, and a half-dozen well-used pots and pans. Tanis has been featured in The New York Times, Gourmet, and Saveur.
