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News October 18, 2007
Table of Contents
Events
If you can't make it to a signing event, just contact us and we can reserve an autographed copy for you.
 Saturday October 20th, 2 to 3 pm.
Dominique & Cindy Duby - Wild Sweets Chocolate
Following their bestseller Wild Sweets this dynamic duo turn their attention to chocolate and once again push the envelope of creativity.
 Saturday October 27th, 2 to 3 pm.
Rose Reisman - The Complete Light Kitchen
Rose’s recipes are given wonderful treatment in this collection of favourites. Even if you have her other 17 books you'll need this for your collection.
 Saturday November 3rd, 3 to 4 pm.
Claire Clark - Indulge
A new book from the award-winning pastry chef at California’s The French Laundry Restaurant.
 Saturday November 10th, 2 to 3 pm.
Massimo Capra - One Pot Italian Cooking
Charismatic chef/co-owner of Mistura Ristorante dishing up one-pot wonders!
 Wednesday November 14th, 5 to 6 pm.
Matt & Ted Lee The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook
Multiple award winners for this, their first book. Join us for southern hospitality and of course southern treats!
2007 James Beard Foundation: Cookbook of the Year
2007 IACP Award: American Cooking / 2007 IACP Julia Child Award; Gourmet Magazine "10 Cookbooks Destined to Become Classics;" Publishers Weekly 100 Best Books of the Year / Food Network Top 25 Favorite Cookbooks.
Special Lee Bros. menu for the week November 13 - November 18 at Allen's on the Danforth
John Maxwell of Allen’s, on the Danforth, who is Uncle to Matt and Ted, will be celebrating his nephews' success with a special menu at Allen’s. The Menu will feature Shrimp chowder, Tuesday fried chicken with sneaky collards and fried green tomatoes, Fried organic Wyatt Farm (Flamborough, Ont) apples with Bourbon caramel.
Cost: $32.50 pp, excluding PST, GST and Service.
Address: 143 Danforth Ave, Toronto M4K 1N2
Broadview station on Bloor subway line.
Tel 416 463-3086. Mention "Lee Bros. Menu" when making reservation.
New Books
 America’s Best Lost Recipes
The Editors of Cook’s Country Magazine
There are many delicious blasts from the past particularly baked goods in this collection from Cook’s Country Magazine, offshoot of Cook’s Illustrated. Along with North American classics like monkey bread, butter horn rolls, and grasshopper pie, there are many ethnic treats such as Hungarian cabbage noodles, German Falsha strudel, and the Slovenian sweet bread, Potica. And the curiously titled, Naked Ladies with Their Legs Crossed, Blueberry Boy Bait. Although this book features far fewer of the test kitchen notes for which Cook’s Illustrated is famous, it does not disappoint. At the end of the book there are lined pages in which to record your own keepsake recipes. Hardcover, spiral bound, 214 pp, $34.95.
 First Crack Your Egg!
John Burton Race & Angela Hartnett
You let the pot run dry when trying to boil water. The baked potato exploded in the oven. With the companion to the BBC’s Kitchen Criminals, Michelin star chefs John Burton Race and Angela Hartnett (also a Gordon Ramsay sidekick) will whip you into culinary shape. From choosing equipment and learning basic techniques to producing roast pheasant with pearl barley or plum and almond tart, this book offers the clearly written instructions that will inspire beginners and the experienced cook alike. Colour photos. Hardcover, 255 pp, $54.95.
 Gordon Ramsay: Recipes from a Three-Star Chef
Gordon Ramsay
After several books playing to the fans of his various television series, this slipcased extravaganza marks a return to Gordon Ramsay’s professional kitchen roots. The portfolio of photographs and complete recipes of 50 of his classic dishes demonstrate how and why Ramsay has amassed 10 Michelin stars. It is a must for both young and seasoned chefs. Colour photos.Hardcover, 256 pp, $85.00.
Indulge
Claire Clark
The pastry chef of California’s celebrated French Laundry restaurant, Claire Clark is as much a perfectionist as chef Thomas Keller. However, where Keller’s creativity takes flight, Clark’s equally beautiful presentation is built on a certain earthbound homeiness with frequent references to her English heritage. In amongst the orange and grand marnier soufflé glace and passionfruit and mango terrine with exotic fruits, one finds Bakewell tart, Eccles cake, triffle. Word to the wise: Clark uses weight measure rather than volume for dry ingredients. Her generosity with advice makes this book accessible to home bakers, not just professionals. Colour photos. Hardcover, 238 pp, $45.00.
 Jamie at Home
Jamie Oliver
Since Jamie Oliver established his family in Essex, his stove finds it must compete with the garden for attention. Oliver’s dual love of gardening and cooking comes together in this collection, organized by season, featuring recipes built on available produce. Each section ends with advice for producing seasonal crops: courgettes (zucchini), potatoes, broad beans… Homemade ketchup with steak and chips, smashed peas and broad beans on toast, and plum Bakewell tart offer a hint of the fresh pleasures in the 100 new recipes. Colour photos. Hardcover, 407 pp, $59.95.
 Medina Kitchen
Fiona Dunlop
The author of New Tapas ($38.95), Fiona Dunlop now gives the reader a rare chance to experience North Africa cuisine as created in private kitchens. Eight of the best home cooks from Libya, Tunisia, and Morocco demonstrate a marriage of traditional flavors and modern techniques to create a refined version familiar dishes like pastilla and tajine aux coings. Colour photos capture the exoticism of both the cuisine and the landscape. Hardcover, 192 pp, $49.95.
 My Last Supper
Melanie Dunea
Fifty of the world’s great chefs ruminate on the what, where, and with whom of their last meals. While it sounds like the most superficial of concepts, the result is both revealing and deeply touching. Contemplating the end of one’s life brings out the vulnerability in the most bombastic of personalities. Lucky us, we get to sample as each chef has contributed a recipe. The accompanying portraits, some colour, some black and white, capture the public persona by which the world knows these gifted chefs who range from Montreal’s Martin Picard to the most idolized of contemporary chefs, Ferran Adria. As always, Anthony Bourdain presents the most outrageous front. Hardcover, 216 pp, $49.95.
 Nigella Express
Nigella Lawson
All of the dishes in Nigella’s Express require little preparation. However, some cook quickly while others give the cook time to relax in a hot bath or curl up with a good book to the enticing aroma of dinner bubbling away in the oven. Some of the recipes are old favorites from earlier books, some will become new favorites, but all have the interplay of texture, colour, and contrasting flavours that have given Nigella Lawson’s vision of comfort food an international profile. Colour photos. Hardcover, 390 pp, $50.00.
 Oxford Companion to Italian Food
Gillian Riley
This is the first book in what is to be a regional series that will encompass Chinese, Southeast Asia, British Isles, French cuisines. When the bibliography runs to almost seven pages you know there has been serious research to compile the almost 1,000 entries. A must for all those who love Italian food culture, or just curious about a country steeped in culinary history. Hardcover, 637pp, $39.95.
 Pure Dessert
Alice Medrich
She is best known for chocolate desserts, but this book proves something magic happens whenever Alice Medrich touches butter, sugar, and eggs. Much of the beginning focuses on measuring, a major task to master for baking success. The recipes are organized by flavour ingredient: milk, fruit, honey and sugar, herbs and spices, grains, and nuts, wine and spirits, and, of course, chocolate. Unlike many newer dessert books, this one does not require making two or three recipes to come up with the final dessert. The recipes range from homey chocolate pudding and tangy lemon or lime bars to strawberries with single malt sabayon. Colour photos. Hardcover, 262 pp, $43.95.
 Rachel’s Food for Living
Rachel Allen
An instructor at the Ballymaloe Cookery School and television chef, Rachel Allen creates the sort of dishes on which family memories are built. Mouthwatering offerings include burgers with guacamole, bacon and cucumber relish, cheesy soda bread, and a truly gilded lily chocolate sticky toffee pudding. Very much in the style of books by Nigella Lawson, Tessa Kiros, and Tamasin Day-Lewis, this one is a rainbow-hued feast for the eyes. Hardcover, 239 pp, $39.95.
 Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook
Sarah Raven
A talented gardener and cook, Sarah Raven makes seasonal produce the star of the dinner.You will want to make things from this book, many things,black currant and almond cake, globe artichoke tart, stuffed lamb with lavender... But even if you never cooked from it , it is worth owning for the ravishing photos (particularly the red Brussels sprouts) and the good sense and passion with which Sarah Raven writes. Factoid: she is married to Vita Sackville-West’s grandson. Colour photos. Hardcover, 464pp, $65.00.
 Spilling the Beans
Clarissa Dickson Wright
The living half of the revered Two Fat Ladies, Clarissa Dickson Wright’s unflinching memoir is full of paradises gained, lost, and regained. The offspring of a gifted but alcoholic surgeon and an Australian heiress, she became, at age 21, the youngest woman ever called to the Bar. After her legal career drowned in a sea of alcohol following the sudden death of her mother, Dickson Wright found solace and then fame, though not always fortune, in cooking. Paper, 328pp, $29.95.
 Vivo e: The Fish Markets of Sicily
Andrea Zanfi, photographs by Gio Martorana
There is text to peruse in this book including a glossary of the fish sold in Sicilian market stalls. However, it is really the stunning photographs that really tell the story of Sicily’s fish markets and the culture built up around them over the centuries. From the majolica fish that grace the cover to the almost transparent nunnata and the seemingly pre-historic spininess of sea urchins, this is a book breath-taking beauty. Hardcover, 267 pp, $105.95.
 Week In Week Out
Simon Hopkinson
Drawn from his columns in The Independent, the 52 seasonal “ stories” features a current event, ingredient, or iconic dish. As in his earlier books (including Roast Chicken and Other Stories,$29.95), Hopkinson celebrates enduring culinary pleasure over fleeting culinary fashion. In the wake of the declaration of Roast Chicken as most useful cookbook ever, this book is more glamorous than Hopkinson’s earlier books with quality paper and glossy colour photos yet content still trumps looks. Hardcover, 255 pp, $54.95.
 White Heat
Marco Pierre White
Publisher Mitchell Beazley have re-issued Marco Pierre White’s first book. With it’s blend of ground breaking recipes, stunning photos, and White’s unique observations of the restaurant business make this a must-have for any chef’s library. Softcover, 127pp, $39.95.
Wild Sweets Chocolate
Dominique & Cindy Duby
Based in Vancouver, pastry chefs Dominique and Cindy Duby have created a reputation that has spread across North America and around the world. Their specialty, celebrated in Wild Sweets ($35.00), is in blurring the boundaries between sweet and savory. In this book, the combination of ancho truffle, balsamic cherries, and crispy bacon is typical of the Dubys’ creativity. Glamorous colour photos. Hardcover, 208pp, $40.00
Recipe
Sweet pear and apple salad with bitter chicory and a creamy blue cheese dressing
From Jamie at Home by Jamie Oliver.
This is an adaptation of an old-school French chicory salad. Chicory, also known as Belgian endive, is quite a bitter leaf, and to contrast the bitterness I've used the sweetness of the fruit, the twang of the vinegar and the creamy silkiness of the cheese. I think it's important to make this with good-quality apples and blue cheese.
Serves 4
4 heads of chicory (a mixture of red and white if possible)
2 good eating apples
2 pears
a handful of fresh soft herbs (chervil, tarragon, parsley - use any one, or a mixture), torn or roughly chopped
For the blue cheese dressing
50g strong blue cheese
50g creme fraiche
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus a little extra for drizzling
4 tablespoons cider vinegar
6 tablespoons water
Separate the leaves from the chicory, then wash and spin them dry. Core your apples and slice them into matchsticks. Core the pears, slice into eighths and if they're a little under ripe, grill them in a screaming hot griddle pan until lightly charred. If they're perfectly ripe, just place in a large bowl with the chicory, apple and most of the herbs.
To make your dressing, place al your dressing ingredients into a liquidizer and blend for just 15 seconds until smooth. Taste to make sure you've got a little extra acidity in there to cut through the bitterness of the leaves, and season if necessary. Pour three-quarters of the dressing over the salad and toss - I usually dress the salad lightly using the tips of my fingers. Divide them between four plates, and finish with a little extra dressing, the remaining herbs and a little extra virgin olive oil. Lovely with some walnuts crumbled over.
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