California Dish: What I Saw (and Cooked) at the American Culinary Revolution
Author: Jeremiah Tower
Widely recognized as the godfather of modern American cooking and a mentor to such rising celebrity chefs as Mario Batali, Jeremiah Tower is one of the most influential cooks of the last thirty years. Now, the former chef and partner at Chez Panisse and the genius behind Stars San Francisco tells the story of his lifelong love affair with food—an affair that helped to spark an international culinary revolution.
Tower shares with wit and honesty the real dish on cooking, chefs, celebrities, and what really goes on in the kitchen. Above all, Tower rhapsodizes about food—the meals choreographed like great ballets, the menus scored like concertos. No other book reveals more about the seeds sown in the seventies, the excesses of the eighties, and the self-congratulations of the nineties. No other chef/restaurateur who was there at the very beginning is better positioned than Jeremiah Tower to tell the story of the American culinary revolution.
The New York Times
Tart … Tower still knows how to dish: his book describes experiences with drugs, encounters with celebrities, his own bisexuality and tiffs with Alice Waters, his Chez Panisse business partner. — Judy D'Mello
The Los Angeles Times
In his fascinating, elucidating and often mean-spirited book, California Dish: What I Saw (and Cooked) at the American Culinary Revolution, [Tower] does everything he can to hammer home his position. It's as if he said to himself, "They still don't get it. They still don't understand that Alice was doing PR, and I was the creator," and so goes about documenting his role, even including his job description at Chez Panisse. — Richard Flaste
Entertainment Weekly
Any foodie worth his coarse salt remembers — in mouthwatering detail — every flavor that shaped his palate. So it goes with chef-restaurateur Jeremiah Tower, who recounts with world-weary relish...the memorable meals on his journey from childhood gourmet to godfather of California's New American cuisine.
William Grimes - New York Times
Mr. Tower does not exaggerate when he refers, in the subtitle of his book, to "the American culinary revolution." He knows. He was there. He helped make it happen. California Dish is his victory lap. And he deserves one.
Publishers Weekly
Tower opens this memoir with the story of going head to head with French chef Guy Savoy at a sort of junket for the culinary press back in 1983 and how he won over his audience with an audacity born of equal parts pride and inexperience. His fusion of cooking talk with more personal gossip and the inclusion of the revealing aside is sure to captivate foodies. But Tower's pacing meanders, and his gracious facade shows more than a few rough and brittle edges. An abiding bitterness is the only thing revealed in Tower's version of the creation of Chez Panisse and the rivalry with Alice Waters that ensued. Other sections-especially the chapters on his running San Francisco's Stars-likewise avoid topics of obvious interest to make room for name dropping and ax grinding. The occasional insertion of menus or recipes is random. Tower's personality comes through in bits and pieces as he frankly remembers the highs and lows of an important career, but the picture as a whole is less than flattering. (Aug.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
In recent years, Americans have developed a growing appreciation for fine dining. Much of this interest is owing to innovative chefs who have reshaped the ways we look at food and eating. One of the most influential, Tower (Jeremiah Tower's New American Classics; Jeremiah Tower Cooks) experienced both monotonous boarding-school fare as a child and grand cuisine aboard the Queen Elizabeth and extremes such as these contributed to his lifelong passion to create perfect dining experiences for friends and customers and led to professional successes at such California restaurants as Chez Panisse in Berkeley and Stars in San Francisco. Tower describes his journey in a sometimes confused narrative, leaving a fuzzy trail of how events unfolded and who did or said what. Nevertheless, his memoir is fascinating, offering tantalizing glimpses of restaurant operations and insights into many culinary personalities. Tower also includes a bibliography of cookbooks and literature from his personal library. An entertaining memoir for public libraries and culinary collections.-Andrea R. Dietze, Orange Cty. P.L., Santa Ana, CA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
The former restaurateur, cookbook author, and PBS host tells his life story, explaining what drove him to achieve what he demurely calls his "national fame as a chef." He didn't have any formal training, but Tower's hungry amateurism, the kind that spawns great innovations, made him a force in the new American cooking of the late 20th century. Employing a formal, aggressive voice that manages not to be off-putting, he chronicles the upstart chefs' campaign to blend "the aesthetic chasteness of nouvelle cuisine and the hearty, robust hominess of bistro food." He writes engagingly of the many fiascoes his various restaurants faced, from lawsuits to kitchen snafus, as well as the near-unanimous raves his food gathered. (Quite a few menus appear that testify to his ingenuity.) Though Tower can be counted among the era's celebrity chefs, he convincingly expresses ambivalence about the phenomenon, and if he is happy to count the many ways he contributed to the revolution in the American restaurant, he is also quick to give credit to his brothers and sisters in arms. Alice Waters in particular stands out. Tower worked with her at Chez Panisse and has much to say, good and bad, about "her advocacy for farmers' markets, for sound and sustainable agriculture, for Slow Food, and for the Chez Panisse Foundation," even if he feels constrained to mention that she "didn't know a little vegetable from a rotten one." Tower was "Apollinaire to her Breton," or so he says. And few would deny his mantra: "I would sum it all up as a sensual love for the flavor and texture of beautiful ingredients. And knowing how to marry them." He performed the rites with brilliance. The pervasive brashness and theain't-I-difficult image-mongering can grate, but when Tower writes of his inspirations and the extraordinary foods and people he worked with, he is unfailingly intriguing and righteously grounded. Agent: Lisa Queen/IMG
What People Are Saying
Sara Moulton
California Dish delivers on the double meaning implicit in its title — it serves up a longtime insider's juicy perspective on the key players of the American culinary revolution and recounts, course by course, a career's worth of exceptional meals. It's a great read. I couldn't put it down.
Jacques Pepin
The food of Jeremiah Tower has always satisfied my belly and my soul. He was there from the start and is more qualified than anyone else to tell the story of the American food revolution of the last thirty years.
publisher
"California Dish delivers on the double meaning implicit in its title -- it serves up a longtime insider's juicy perspective on the key players of the American culinary revolution, and recounts, course by course, a career's worth of exceptional meals. It's a great read. I couldn't put it down."
--Sara Moulton, host, Food Network's "Sara's Secrets"
"Twenty years ago I met Jeremiah Tower and I fell in love with his food. I think Jeremiah Tower is one of our great chefs. For anyone interested in the food revolution and the innovative cuisine of California, reading his book California Dish is a must. I highly recommend it."
--Colette Rossant, author of Apricot on the Nile and Return to Paris
"From Chez Panisse to Santa Fe Bar & Grill to Star, my favorite brasserie in San Francisco, the food of Jeremiah Tower has always satisfied my belly and my soul. He was there from the start and is more qualified than anyone else to tell the story of the American food revolution of the last 30 years."
--Jacques Pйpin
"What a pleasure to have this book. Jeremiah Tower captures the real spirit of California cuisine -- simple, fresh, and crisp. Thank you, Jeremiah. "
--Andrй Soltner, chef-owner, Lutиce
"Only one person saw the California culinary revolution through the eyes of Jeremiah Tower. I'm glad to have his riveting, frontline perspective, which is at once fascinating, illuminating, and poignant. Those of us who have built American hospitality careers over the past couple of decades owe a major debt to this bushwhacking pioneer of product, pleasure and promotion."
--Danny Meyer, co-author, Union Square Cafe Cookbook
"This book is a celebrity-studded literary 'tasting menu,' combining the raw, tell-all energy of Anthony Bourdain with the worldliness of Jeffrey Steingarten."
--Rick Smilow, President, The Institute of Culinary Education
"Jeremiah Tower dishes better than almost anybody. His book is educational as well as entertaining. I recommend California Dish heartily."
--Robert Mondavi
Book about: Understanding Your Health or Vibrational Healing
Fish on a First-Name Basis: How Fish Is Caught, Bought, Cleaned, Cooked, and Eaten
Author: Rob DeBord
“A book about fish that's as fun as it is informative, and as easy to read as it is hard to put down.”--Alton Brown, creator and host of the hit Food Network show Good Eats and author of I'm Just Here for the Food
The ultimate guide to fish and shellfish, from deep to dock to dinner plate
What's in a fish's name? History, mythology, and marketing: You'll find each in the names of everyday seafood, although sometimes it's what you don't find that's most interesting. Consider the Patagonian toothfish. Never heard of it? That's because it's Chilean Sea Bass on menus, even though it's not a bass, nor is it found primarily off the coast of Chile. Perhaps you'd prefer a nice Pacific red snapper fillet? Too bad, all fish sold using that name are actually rockfish. You could always order a jumbo shrimp . . . or would that be a colossal prawn? And if the menu says “dolphin,” what are you eating, really?
Of course, knowing the name of a fish is just what comes before eating it, and Fish on a First-Name Basis contains more than a hundred mouthwatering recipes, from classic fish-and-chips, lobster rolls, and crab fritters to Scalloped Ceviche and Cinnamon Crunch Tilapia.
With Fish on a First-Name Basis, author Rob DeBorde has also filled in the gaps most seafood cookbooks leave open by crafting an indispensable scrapbook of seafood science, fish-market full disclosures, essential cooking tips, and even the truth behind a few underwater urban legends. With more than two hundred illustrations, photographs, and diagrams showing you exactly where to cut, crack, or shuck, Fish on a First-Name Basis is atreat for the eyes as well as the stomach.
Informative, witty, and easy to read, Fish on a First-Name Basis is a must-read whether you're a seafood fanatic or a fish-phobic first-timer.
“Terror struck the undersea community when Rob DeBorde wrote this book. Thanks to this grand fishing expedition, sea creatures everywhere will be forced to come out of their shells and onto our tables. A delight to read and cook from, Fish will cause a great many fish to be eaten.”--Steven A. Shaw, author of Turning the Tables
Publishers Weekly
DeBorde, a writer for the Food Network's Good Eats, has taken the slick and amusing characteristics of that Alton Brown show and applied them toward the proper understanding of seafood. Marginalia runs rampant, telling readers, for example, that swordfish enjoy glow-in-the-dark bait and that some clams live for more than a century. Fortunately, the author knows his way around a pun and is expert and comprehensive in his fishy explorations. Vital stats and nutritional information charts dot most chapters, and 18 sea creatures get their own sections. In each, recipes are preceded by several pages of historical or ichthyological ponderings. For east coasters, the chapter on Dungeness crabs will prove revelatory. Naturally, there is a traditional Fish and Chips recipe, made with cod, and there's a fine page on turning tuna into sushi. Illustrations are appropriately funny and instructive. A red snapper holds up a sign reading, "Yes, I am a red snapper, why do you ask?" and then a few pages later is gutted and carved, step by step. If it's true you can tune a piano but you cannot tuna fish, DeBorde at least takes on his material in just the right pitch. (Apr.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
DeBorde, writer for the FoodNetwork's Good Eats, has produced a hit that serves as both cookbook and handbook. It is divided into 18 chapters, each of which is devoted to a different fish-e.g., salmon, tilapia, and catfish as well as the more intriguing squid, scallops, swordfish, and Patagonian toothfish. Each chapter also contains a chart of "Vital Stats" that covers the fish's common and scientific name, life span, and region as well as a number of enticing recipes, such as Grilled Mahimahi Tacos and Cinnamon Crunch Tilapia. DeBorde offers readers tips on preparation and where and how to find the best fresh and frozen fish. He also includes an appendix, "The Ones That Almost Got Away," in which he lists essential kitchen utensils and suggested readings. Filled with all manner of fish trivia, facts, and images, this quick, witty, and highly entertaining book is sure to become a valuable reference source on the topic. Recommended for all libraries.-Nicole Mitchell, Birmingham, AL Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
