Judy Rodgers

The Zuni Cafe Cookbook

For twenty-four years, in an odd and intimate warren of rooms, San Franciscans of every variety have come to the Zuni Café with high expectations and have rarely left disappointed.

As a high school student, Judy Rodgers was placed by a benevolent fate on the doorstep of the Troisgros Brothers' three-star restaurant in Roanne, France. For more than a year, she watched closely, tasted relentlessly, and recorded every culinary thing she could. Won over by la cuisine—while also taking time out to earn a degree at Stanford—she continued her explorations by cooking in the southwest of France, then headed for Tuscany, Umbria, and Sicily, and later Catalonia and Greece, always in search of honest cuisine généreuse, and always taking notes.

In 1987, Judy arrived at San Francisco's Zuni Café, eager to share the bounty she had amassed. Through years of creating daily menus for the café, she nurtured all the culinary traditions she observed in her travels, adapting them to the emerging traditions of Californian cooking.

At last, after years of anticipation, The Zuni Café Cookbook is here and lets you share in and enjoy the repertory Judy has developed that continues to captivate locals and travelers alike. Chef-owner Judy Rodgers has assembled a generous collection of her recipes and woven them together with a lifetime's worth of culinary lore. She walks you through each dish, providing friendly explanations of the how and why of every step—you'll feel she is standing next to you in the kitchen as you cook. Crystal-clear essays on deciding what to cook, shopping for your food, and the habit of tasting will liberate the inexperienced cook and provide new insight for the experienced. Judy's ideas on roasting, braising, and pastry-making break new ground. And her "Practice of Salting Early" may forever change how you cook.

You'll find the world-famous Zuni Roast Chicken and Caesar Salad as well as the Zuni Hamburger and the very special Espresso Granita. Along the way you'll find advice on serving oysters, as well as how to endow a simple salad with finesse and heart and how to assemble a modest but exquisite cheese course. You'll learn what makes a stock for a soup or sauce extraordinary, duck confit succulent, and what makes a risotto silky and rich. Judy will also convince you to make her favorite "labor-of-love-intensive" dishes—braised oxtails, a fragrant porchetta, graisserons, and a treasury of rabbit recipes. This is honest, yet sophisticated, food from the heart.

Designed as it is for cooks, The Zuni Café Cookbook is also a treat for readers who enjoy curling up with a cookbook at night. Colorful stories are interspersed among the recipes and cooking lessons to deepen your understanding of the art of cooking and how its careful practice can enrich daily life. Judy's fine prose will draw you into the process, making reading her instructions as easy and satisfying as eating her food. Offering a new way to think about ingredients, and the act of cooking, The Zuni Café Cookbook is a masterwork, bringing together the ideas and practices of one of the most skilled cooks and food writers today.

Twenty-four color photographs display, in gorgeous detail, the earthy, sensual food for which Zuni is known. Fifty black-and-white photographs illustrate technique throughout the text. Wine suggestions from Zuni devotee and preeminent wine connoisseur Gerald Asher accompany the recipes.

"What makes The Zuni Café Cookbook a real treasure is the voice of Zuni's Judy Rodgers. Judy is an exceptionally curious and thoughtful cook, and an eloquent writer. So her book doesn't just share dozens of clear, detailed, thoroughly proven recipes from Zuni Café. It repeatedly sheds a fresh and revealing light on ingredients and dishes, on basic techniques, and even on the nature of cooking itself." —Harold McGee, author of The Curious Cook and On Food and Cooking

"Judy Rodgers has written a magnificent and deeply intelligent book. The recipes are utterly beguiling, but the introduction alone is something I know I will return to many times. It somehow puts everything in its right place, and it should be required reading for every person who might cook something someday." —Deborah Madison, author of Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

"This is a cookbook that belongs in every kitchen. It is instructive for beginners and equally valuable for cooking 'pros.' Judy carefully and simply explains the why and how of every step of advice. The recipes, too, feel as though she is standing next to one and guiding one to a successful result." —Marion Cunningham, author of The Fannie Farmer Cookbook

"I am always inspired eating at Zuni Café. Judy Rodgers cooks with an artist's palette; a very special taste that transforms impeccably pure and beautiful ingredients into her own wonderful combinations of flavor and texture. Although her recipes are straightforward and traditional, each one is unique." —Alice Waters, author of Chez Panisse Fruit

"It is rare to find a cookbook that is a joy to read as well as one having a great collection of recipes. The Zuni Café Cookbook is such a book. Written with clarity by Judy Rodgers, who has many stories to tell, the book is filled with techniques and with wisdom. She explains in detail the art of tasting and seasoning, even the art of shopping and what to look for. It is for the beginning cook as well as the experienced cook and even for those who do not like to cook but to read about cooking. Having been a habitual diner at Zuni since its beginning, I am relishing every recipe." —Chuck Williams of Williams-Sonoma "Judy Rodgers has written an outstanding cookbook. It is far more than a collection of her recipes. It is full of fresh ideas, concepts, themes, and kitchen hints. Highly ambitious; highly accomplished. it is a major work." —Paula Wolfert, author of Mediterranean Grains and Greens