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Local cookbooks: the most delicious gifts

Posted on December 13, 2013 by Sonoma Valley Sun

As I slowly crack open new a cookbook for the very first time, I can’t hide my anticipation.  My excitement level must be near to a little kid in a candy shop, a teenager behind the wheel for their first spin around the block.  I imagine the hours that I will spend leafing through its glossy, picture-filled pages over my morning coffee, reading it cover to cover by candlelight with a glass of wine, drinking in the stories of each dish or ingesting the experiences, the life and kitchen lessons the chef has lived and yearns to share.  As I turn that first, satiny page, I do a happy dance.

My cookbooks are simply more than books that sit on a shelf until I need a recipe for hollandaise or that perfect roast chicken.  They are like old friends that I turn to endlessly for companionship or to escape in their adventure-filled pages to faraway places like Morocco (thank you, Paula Wolfert) or China, or Jerusalem.  Places that I may not have been yet in reality, but feel like I have thanks to a book’s vivid images and their fantastical descriptions of lavish meals, spice-filled marketplaces, and other food-obsessed characters met along the way.

I will more than likely open that cookbook a thousand times over the years, possibly to just lazily gaze at a favorite, beautifully photographed dish or to reread a technique that I wish to perfect.  I might never even cook from a specific recipe, following the instructions line by line, but I will undoubtedly be inspired by it, it will most certainly influence my future meals.

I treasure each book that is added to my collection, would probably grab a towering stack and nothing else if my house ever were to catch fire.  Anyone who knows me knows that there couldn’t be a more perfect gift than a cookbook, especially if that book were authored by one of our amazing local chefs.  This holiday season, consider gifting one of the following gorgeous cookbooks that I happen to be treasuring immensely right now.

LaSalette Cookbook, New Portuguese Cuisine

This massive, glossy paged tome is more than a simple cookbook: It is nothing less than a work of art.  Before I even first lifted open the substantial cover and casually thumbed through this book, I considered myself one of LaSalette’s biggest fans.  With each lush, food-filled page, I fell deeper and deeper in love, not only with the cuisine of Portugal, but with Chef Azevedo’s intense passion and his charming, hugely humble voice.  From page one, you know that he is a true, food-loving individual, only hoping to share his immense love with the reader.

The gorgeous photography easily begs for this gloriously oversized book to grace the coffee table, which is where mine lives.  I can’t stop opening it to a random page to just be pulled into whatever image I happen upon.  I can almost smell the yeasty puffs of hot steam coming from the shot of the restaurant’s famous rolls and the back of my jaw begins to salivate while just glancing at the spectacular photo of a roast-ey red gazpacho with buttery sliced lobster.  I could spend the long winter months preparing each of the game and offal recipes, LaSalette already my go-to spot for those yummy things.

The “thinking like a chef” section is worth the purchase of the book alone.  His playful, happy attitude is contagious.  I am now addicted to his description of the “mmm effect,” and his desires for all cooks to bring “a sense of magic” to each meal.  The stories and descriptions of each recipe are beautifully written and leave the reader feeling a connection to Manual, his cuisine, and his rich upbringing.

“The LaSalette Cookbook” is truly an extraordinary value!  The mind-blowing low price is only $38 and can be found online at Lasaletterestaurant.com/portuguese-products.com or by visiting the restaurant on the Plaza.  For more information, call 938.1927.

Plats du Jour: the girl and the fig’s journey through the seasons in wine country

Our beloved Plaza eatery’s newish cookbook celebrates the seasonal bounty of Sonoma through this beautiful collection of recipes.  More a love letter to local products even more than cookbook, many pages tell the story of area artisans and cheesemakers.  Sondra Bernstein’s enthusiasm for these things is contagious; the glossy shots of drippy cheeses and pork-filled charcuterie leave me giddy.

I can’t decide which season’s dishes are more scrumptious sounding, but currently, I linger over the wintery pages filled with rustic choices that would be super cozy on these frigid nights.  The braised pork cheeks are velvety, rich, falling apart hunks of piggy goodness that, when paired with a cheesy, creamy polenta, is rainy weather dinner perfection.  The garden-inspired cocktails are utterly festive and feature muddled herbs, citrus skin, and interesting liquors, they might turn the most devout wino onto the craft cocktail movement.  I am not typically an enthusiastic baker, the practice requires much too much precision than my normal kitchen rituals, but the fig’s outrageously comfy offerings, like the sticky brioche-fig bread pudding, are impossible to resist.

Find the “Plats du Jour” cookbook online at girlfigstore.com or pick up a copy by simply popping into the girl and the fig. Call 938.3634 for more information.

On the Grill, Adventures in Fire and Smoke

If there is a grilling fanatic in your life, local chef Willie Cooper’s homage to all things cooked over an open flame is the ideal gift.  His creative ideas for elegant, Wine Country versions of classic barbecue and picnic fare are not only lovely, but super simple.  This cookbook is a seasonal celebration of our lives in Sonoma, particularly the long, warm months when we can be dining outdoors and can’t bear to even think of turning on the stove.

Fresh, uncomplicated ideas for vegetables and salads pair perfectly with more significant dishes such as a whole spit roasted pig or falling-apart, charred, and saucy ribs.  The section on sauces offer thoughts for adding interest to even the simplest grilled steak or chop.  The Meyer lemon aioli was heavenly with a recent dinner of Dungeness crab, the cold, bright dip will forever be a must-make whenever I treat myself to one.  Complete, multi-course menus for entertaining help make a spring picnic or a summer burger barbecue take shape in a snap and remind the reader what Chef Willie does best; create intimate dinner parties for wine and food-loving groups.

Visit chefwillie.com for more information on his catering and find his cookbook,
“On the Grill,” online at Amazon.com.

The Stone Edge Farm Cookbook

For anyone who has not had the fortunate opportunity to visit Stone Edge Farm, it is nearly impossible to describe.  The best I might do is call it “utopia” and even that may not do it justice.  The private estate, working farm, vineyard, and olive orchard on Sonoma’s west side not only provides an extensive selection of pristine vegetables, fruit, citrus, herbs, wine, olives and olive oil, and chicken eggs for the owner and his family, but also a few choice restaurant kitchens and lucky visitors.

John McReynolds is the chef and devoted foodie behind the farm and winery’s culinary program, and the voice behind this breathtaking new cookbook based on meals he has created there.  The first edition is a colossal, hefty-paged work, filled with more than 100 recipes and 300 lush, color saturated photographs of John’s pretty plates of food, happy gatherings amongst the vines, and the random, show-quality chicken or two.

John cooks my kind of food: simple, unfussy, classic combinations that utilize what is at the peak of ripeness at that moment, with not much done to mess it up.  The recipes inspire the reader to take advantage of ingredients that we Sonomans have in abundance: good, local olive oil, Meyer lemons, figs, wild and domesticated greens, and perfect tomatoes.  I especially love and am inspired by his delicious attraction to vegetable-filled fritters and delicate, fruity desserts.  He has a passion for uncomplicated, but sincere dishes that show his love for flavors that have gone together forever, such as roast chicken and lemon or beets and oranges that are made remarkable when the ingredients are simply the best.

Each page offers instructions on creating little building blocks for deliciousness.  I can relate to his obsession for good salt and do so truly believe in, the making and dipping most everything into, homemade mayonnaise.  With each page I turn I long to jump into the images, to live in that magical place, to linger among the rows of herbs, amongst the buzzing bees, to roast my meal over a grill layered with clippings from those vines.  Although, I sadly won’t be moving to Stone Edge Farm anytime soon, but cooking from this dazzling book is easily the next best thing.

Find “The Stone Edge Farm Cookbook” locally at Reader’s Books and Bram, and online at Stoneedgefarm.com/purchase.  Call 935.6520 for more information.





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