David Tanis

Recipes from a very small kitchen by a man with a very large talent. Nobody better embodies the present-day mantra "Eat real food in season" than David Tanis, one of the most original voices in American cooking. For more than a quarter-century, Tanis has been the chef at the groundbreaking Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, California, where the menu consists solely of a single perfect meal that changes each evening. Tanis’s recipes are down-to-earth yet sophisticated, simple to prepare but impressive on the plate. Tanis opens this soulful, fun-to-read cookbook with his own private food rituals, those treats—jalapeño pancakes, beans on toast, pasta for one—for when you are on your own in the kitchen with no one else to satisfy. Then he follows with twenty incomparable menus (five per season) that serve four to six. Each transports the reader to places far and wide. And for grand occasions, a time for the whole tribe to gather around the table, Tanis delivers festive menus for holiday feasts. So in one book, three kinds of cooking: small, medium, and large.

Heart of the Artichoke and Other Kitchen Journeys

Alice Waters

The renowned chef’s modern classic offers an “exquisite collection of menus” for simple, seasonal, family-style meals (The Guardian, UK). For six months a year, David Tanis is the head chef at Chez Panisse, the Berkeley, California, restaurant where he helps lead America’s sustainable cuisine revolution. The other six months, Tanis lives in Paris, where he hosts intimate dinners prepared in a small kitchen with nothing more than an old stove and some well-used pots and pans. A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes is both an accessible cookbook and an eloquent meditation on the pleasures of preparing and sharing meals. Tanis serves up twenty-four seasonal menus that are simply conceived and served family-style. Every dish—such as Wild Salmon with Spicy Vietnamese Cucumbers, Braised Duck with Fried Ginger, or Shoulder of Spring Lamb with Flageolet Beans and Olive Relish—bursts with invention and flavor. Named by the Guardian/Observer as one of the 50 best cookbooks ever written

And Other Recipes

A Platter of Figs

The renowned chef and author of A Platter of Figs offers new recipes and seasonal menus from elegant diners for one to sumptuous holiday celebrations. For decades, David Tanis has been head chef at the groundbreaking Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, California, where the menu consists solely of a single perfect meal that changes each evening. Tanis’s recipes are down-to-earth yet sophisticated, simple to prepare but impressive on the plate. In Heart of the Artichoke and Other Kitchen Journeys, he shares some of his favorite meals for all occasions. Tanis opens this soulful cookbook with some personal food rituals—treats like jalapeño pancakes, beans on toast, and pasta for one—that are perfect for when it’s just you in the kitchen with no one else to satisfy. Then he follows with twenty incomparable menus (five per season) that serve four to six. And for grand occasions, Tanis delivers festive menus for holiday feasts. Along with these recipes, Tanis shares memories and insights from a life of loving food.

And Other Kitchen Journeys

Heart of the Artichoke

This Entertainment Weekly Top 10 Cookbook of the Year uses “just a few inspired twists to turn relatively simple dishes into dazzlers” (New York Daily News). In this, his first non-menu cookbook, the New York Times food columnist offers 100 utterly delicious recipes that epitomize comfort food, Tanis-style. Individually or in combination, they make perfect little meals that are elemental and accessible, yet totally surprising—and there’s something to learn on every page. Among the chapter titles there’s “Bread Makes a Meal,” which includes such alluring recipes as a ham and Gruyère bread pudding, spaghetti and bread crumbs, breaded eggplant cutlets, and David’s version of egg-in-a-hole. A chapter called “My Kind of Snack” includes quail eggs with flavored salt; speckled sushi rice with toasted nori; polenta pizza with crumbled sage; raw beet tartare; and mackerel rillettes. The recipes in “Vegetables to Envy” range from a South Indian dish of cabbage with black mustard seeds to French grandmother–style vegetables. “Strike While the Iron Is Hot” is all about searing and quick cooking in a cast-iron skillet. Another chapter highlights dishes you can eat from a bowl with a spoon. And so it goes, with one irrepressible chapter after another, one perfect food moment after another: this is a book with recipes to crave. “This is the book that I will pick up when I’m hungry but not quite sure for what, for these dishes are inspiring yet can be made without a lot of fuss . . . Who would enjoy this book? People who enjoy simple, delicious, no-fuss cooking and who appreciate well-written recipes.” —Kitchn

David Tanis

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