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A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes

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Author: David Tanis
Creator: Alice Waters
Publisher: Artisan
Category: Book

List Price: ~~$35.00~~
Buy New: $17.32
You Save: $17.68 (51%)

New (16) Used (4) from $17.32

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

3 reviews
Sales Rank: 376

Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 294
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.6
Dimensions (in): 10.1 x 8.6 x 1.4

ISBN: 1579653464
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.59
EAN: 9781579653460
ASIN: 1579653464

Publication Date: September 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. Delivery is usually 5 - 8 working days from order, International is by Royal Mail Airmail

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Forget about getting back to the land, David Tanis just wants you to get back to the kitchen

For six months a year, David Tanis is the head chef at Chez Panisse, the Berkeley, California, restaurant where he has worked alongside Alice Waters since the 1980s in creating a revolution in sustainable American cuisine. The other six months, Tanis lives in Paris in a seventeenth-century apartment, where he hosts intimate dinners for friends and paying guests, and prepares the food in a small kitchen equipped with nothing more than an old stove, a little counter space, and a handful of wellused pots and pans.

This is the book for anyone who wants to gather and feed friends around a table and nurture their conversation. It’s not about showing off with complicated techniques and obscure ingredients. Worlds away from the showy Food Network personalities, Tanis believes that the most satisfying meals—for both the cook and the guest—are invariably the simplest.

Home cooks can easily re-create any of his 24 seasonal, market-driven menus, from spring’s Supper of the Lamb (Warm Asparagus Vinaigrette; Shoulder of Spring Lamb with Flageolet Beans and Olive Relish; Rum Baba with Cardamom) to winter’s North African Comfort Food (Carrot and Coriander Salad; Chicken Tagine with Pumpkin and Chickpeas). Best of all, Tanis is an engaging guide with a genuine gift for words, whose soulful approach to food will make any kitchen, big or small, a warm and compelling place to spend time.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars

Figs and other seasonal delights! November 23, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful

This is a beautiful book. There are lots of interesting seasonal recipes, with gorgeous pictures. It's about eating with the seasons and honoring what each season can bring to the table. Some recipes are simple and some more involved. Not all the dishes have to do with figs, but all have been carefully prepared around what is grown and available fresh.

4 out of 5 stars

So much better than I imagined November 11, 2008
13 out of 19 found this review helpful

I feared this would be precious and silly but what a great book! Good, simple food and creative menus. Read this instead of Rachel Ray or Sandra Lee and you'll actually learn how to cook instead of just following recipes.

5 out of 5 stars

Delightful and inspiring September 24, 2008
89 out of 97 found this review helpful

How can you not love someone who writes, "What makes a boy from Ohio, born in the wrong century, raised on Tater Tots and Birds Eye, end up wanting to eat like a Greek peasant for breakfast, a French peasant for lunch, and a Moroccan peasant for dinner?"

This book is beautiful, inspiring, intelligent and unpretentious. It is laid out by seasonal menu, rather than classes of food, and gets you thinking about the experience of food as much as the creation. The recipes are well written with lovely pictures, clear formatting, and good descriptions.

I'll also include another quote from Tanis that you might find useful if contemplating a purchase: "Simplicity is key. People who cook fussy food for their friends seem to have the least fun. I say leave that fussy food to those with a staff and a paid dishwasher... A meal needn't be fancy, nor should it take all day to make. But, that said, most of the menus in this book are not those 30-minute-specials-with-only-3-ingredients whose intent seems to be to keep youout of the kitchen. What's wrong with spending a little time in the kitchen?"

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