Cookbooks inspire me. The inspiration they provide me with is not just to cook but almost more importantly inspiration for life. A good cookbook has the ability to take the reader on a voyage that affects you intellectually, spiritually and philosophically. A platter of figs and other recipes is one of these and is one of my favourites. Chef and author David Tanis artfully illustrates seasonal, simple and skillful cooking. The book is about the pure pleasure of eating, supporting local producers and maintaining a sustainable kitchen.
David Tanis is a lucky man. For half of the year he is the chef at Chez Panisse, the renowned California restaurant founded by Alice Waters and a group of friends in 1971. For the remainder of the year Tanis can found in Paris. Yes Paris! Here he spends his time cooking at home for a small group of friends dining club known as Aux Chien Lunatiques. In this diminutive centuries old apartment with an ill equipped galley kitchen, David proves that attention to detail and respect for food enables anyone to cook with even the barest essentials.
A Platter of Figs is divided into four seasons comprised of 24 menus - six for each season and illustrated with photographs that remind me of home. And that's exactly where Tanis wants you to be. No fussy food here. Imagine the luxury of lingering over a fabulous meal with no waiters moving you along to accommodate a second seating. Where you start with the clean crispness of raw fennel and olive oil; followed by a steaming plate of spaghetti alio e olio with a just ripe pear and Parmigiano Reggiano for dessert. A simply perfect autumn meal.
Tanis's book will take you to lock stock and barrel to place and time of inspiration. He accompanies each menu with a tale of the ingredients, who he shared each meal with and how or where he found his inspiration. Menu number 14 tells where Tanis experienced eating anchovy sandwiches alone in a Barcelona bar after a performance of the Belgium's Bejart Ballet. Feeling Italian part three is Menu 22 where he recounts a memory of his Aunt Sally, a stylish sophisticate from Cleveland who gloried in her elegance and was renowned for her spaghetti evenings. Aunt Sally's many guests would have to wait while she prepared 1 pound of pasta in one pot of water at a time. She made him promise always to follow her pasta cooking instructions and he did. But despite the never forgotten lesson Tanis tells us Aunt Sally was remiss in cooking for him.
Tanis illustrates in A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes that he is an artist. The book is disarming in its simplicity but do not be tempted to elaborate. Take his vision and match it with your own. To cook this way requires the each reader to teach themselves about the products and to use their characteristics as inspriation. Do it simply. Do it slowly and enjoy the experience. The charm of this style of cooking will make you as famous as Aunt Sally.
David Tanis is a lucky man. For half of the year he is the chef at Chez Panisse, the renowned California restaurant founded by Alice Waters and a group of friends in 1971. For the remainder of the year Tanis can found in Paris. Yes Paris! Here he spends his time cooking at home for a small group of friends dining club known as Aux Chien Lunatiques. In this diminutive centuries old apartment with an ill equipped galley kitchen, David proves that attention to detail and respect for food enables anyone to cook with even the barest essentials.
A Platter of Figs is divided into four seasons comprised of 24 menus - six for each season and illustrated with photographs that remind me of home. And that's exactly where Tanis wants you to be. No fussy food here. Imagine the luxury of lingering over a fabulous meal with no waiters moving you along to accommodate a second seating. Where you start with the clean crispness of raw fennel and olive oil; followed by a steaming plate of spaghetti alio e olio with a just ripe pear and Parmigiano Reggiano for dessert. A simply perfect autumn meal.
Tanis's book will take you to lock stock and barrel to place and time of inspiration. He accompanies each menu with a tale of the ingredients, who he shared each meal with and how or where he found his inspiration. Menu number 14 tells where Tanis experienced eating anchovy sandwiches alone in a Barcelona bar after a performance of the Belgium's Bejart Ballet. Feeling Italian part three is Menu 22 where he recounts a memory of his Aunt Sally, a stylish sophisticate from Cleveland who gloried in her elegance and was renowned for her spaghetti evenings. Aunt Sally's many guests would have to wait while she prepared 1 pound of pasta in one pot of water at a time. She made him promise always to follow her pasta cooking instructions and he did. But despite the never forgotten lesson Tanis tells us Aunt Sally was remiss in cooking for him.
Tanis illustrates in A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes that he is an artist. The book is disarming in its simplicity but do not be tempted to elaborate. Take his vision and match it with your own. To cook this way requires the each reader to teach themselves about the products and to use their characteristics as inspriation. Do it simply. Do it slowly and enjoy the experience. The charm of this style of cooking will make you as famous as Aunt Sally.
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