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Napa Valley Cookbooks and Recipes The French Laundry Cookbook by Thomas Keller Hardcover. 320 pages. 2000. To eat at Thomas Keller's Napa Valley restaurant, The French Laundry, is to experience a peak culinary experience. In The French Laundry Cookbook, Keller articulates his passions and offers home cooks a means to duplicate the level of perfection that makes him one of the best chefs in the U.S. and, arguably, the world. This cookbook provides 150 recipes exactly as they are used at Keller's restaurant. It is also his culinary manifesto, in which he shares the unique creative processes that led him to invent Peas and Carrots--a succulent pillow of a lobster paired with pea shoots and creamy ginger-carrot sauce--and other high-wire culinary acts. It offers unimagined experiences, from extracting chlorophyll to use in coloring sauces to a recipe for chocolate cake accompanied by red beet ice cream and a walnut sauce. You are urged to follow Keller's recipes precisely and also to view them as blueprints. To keep them alive, they must be infused with your own commitment to perfection and pleasure, as you define those terms. Keller's story, shared through the writing of Michael Ruhlman shows how this chef was both born and made. After winning rave reviews when he was still in his 20s, it took a more experienced chef throwing a knife at him because he did not know how to truss a chicken to open his eyes to the importance of the discipline and techniques of classical French cooking. To acquire these fundamental skills, he apprenticed at eight of the finest restaurants in France. Grounded in classic technique, Keller's cooking is characterized by traditional marriages of ingredients, assembled in breathtakingly daring new ways, such as Pearls and Oyster, glistening caviar and oysters served on a bed of creamy pearl tapioca. Continually piquing the palate, his meals are a procession of 5 to 10 dishes, all small portions vibrantly composed. For example, Pan Roasted Breast of Squab with Swiss Chard, Seared Foie Gras, and Oven-Dried Black Figs require just three birds to serve six. The result: you are never sated, always stimulated. The 200 photographs by Deborah Jones include more than just beauty shots: they show how to prepare various dishes; how Keller, shown stroking a whole salmon, respects his ingredients; and how the perfection of baby fava beans still nestled in the downy lining of their succulent pod, or the seduction of an abundance of fresh caviar, calls out the best from the chef. --Dana Jacobi - Amazon.com NEW! Michael Chiarello's Casual Cooking by Michael Chiarello, Janet Fletcher and Deborah Jones Hardcover. 216 pages. 2002. From Michael Chiarello, author of The Tra Vigne Cookbook, comes a collection of recipes on his favorite subject-and the favorite subject of home cooks everywhere-preparing meals for family and friends. These treasured recipes marry the rich traditions of his Italian culinary heritage with the casual style and fresh flavors of the Wine Country. Each outhwatering dish-such as Tuscan Shrimp with White Beans, Chicken with Rosemary and Lemon Salt, and Italian Fruit Salad with Sta Bene Honey Zabaglione-is sophisticated, yet simple to prepare. Gorgeous color images by award-winning photographer Deborah Jones show dishes that look too good to be this easy! The companion volume to his new 26-part series on public television, Michael Chiarello's Casual Cooking is perfect for stress-free weekday meals and spontaneous gatherings of friends and family. It doesn't get any better than this. - From the publisher Mustards Grill Napa Valley Cookbook by Cindy Pawlcyn, Brigid Callinan (Contributor), Laurie Smith (Photographer) Hardcover: 276 pages. 2001 "I have always thought of Mustards as a cross between a roadside rib joint and a French country restaurant," writes chef-owner Cindy Pawlcyn, neatly characterizing the culinary pedigree of her famed Napa Valley, California, dining spot. Pawlcyn's Mustards Grill Napa Valley Cookbook, written with Brigid Callinan, offers 150 popular recipes from the restaurant, treats like Slow-Smoked BBQ Pork Sandwiches with Ooo-Eee! Sauce, Wild Mushroom "Burgers" with Apple-Jicama Slaw, and Artichokes with James Beard's Beer Batter and Tarragon Aioli. The recipes can entail a kitchen workout, but they are easy enough to do once the commitment is made. Readers wanting to treat family or guests to sophisticated down-home eating will welcome Pawlcyn's unique repertoire. In chapters that cover appetizers, soups, and salads, Pawlcyn presents standout recipes like Crab Cakes with Red Beet and Horseradish Rémoulade; Tomato, Basil, and Tortilla Soup; and Chinese Chicken Salad with Sesame Noodles and Rice Vinegar Cucumbers. Smoker- and grill-derived specialties, including Half-Slab BBQ Baby Back Ribs with Crispy Yams and Coleslaw and Tea-Smoked Duck with 100-Almond Sauce and Ginger Pickled Mango, receive their own seductive space, as do pan and sandwich delights like Louise's Bouillabaisse with Rouille and Ahi Tuna and Shiitake Mini Burgers. Desserts such as Lemon-Lime Meringue Pie and Red Raspberry, White Peach, and Blueberry Cobbler follow in the deluxe-diner spirit of the place and should prove an irresistible finale to any meal. They're further tribute to Pawlcyn's one-of-a kind restaurant and its instantly seductive cooking. --Arthur Boehm Napa Stories : Profiles, Reflections, and Recipes from the Napa Valley by Michael Chiarello, Janet Kessel Fletcher (Contributor), Steven Rothfeld (Photographer) Hardcover: 312 pages; (September 2001) The Napa Valley is justly famed for its winemaking. It's also home to the people responsible for that reputation, prominent vintners like Mondavi and Duckhorn, as well as lesser-known wine stars including Larry Turley and Tony Soter. Michael Chiarello's Napa Stories, written with Janet Fletcher, profiles these and others whose lives are intimately entwined with Napa wine production and enjoyment. A Valley resident for 15 years, Chiarello knows many of his subjects personally, and has also cooked for many of them at his award-winning restaurant in St. Helena, Tra Vigne. This personal involvement gives his book's narrative immediacy; his cooking savvy results in the book's selection of delicious, accessible valley recipes, such as Roast Chicken with Fennel and Cheese, Grilled Lamb Loins with Napa Cabernet, and Bing Cherry Compote with Basil Gelato. The book is organized around the illustrated profiles; in addition, Chiarello provides fascinating vignettes, such as Right Grape, Right Place; Napa Cheese; and Napa Wine, that elucidate the winemaking process (touching on such matters as varietal planting, fermentation, and blending) or celebrate the relationship of Napa food and wine. The Valley's compelling beauty and multicultural richness are captured in 150 color photos, which also depict the dishes in all their savor. With a resource list for authentic Napa Valley products, the book is an intimate blend of personal and territorial history--telling visual depictions, good food, and, of course, good wine. --Arthur Boehm Terra : Cooking from the Heart of Napa Valley by Hiro Sone, Lissa Doumani Hardcover: 256 pages. 2001.    Restaurant Terra provides fine dining in a century-old former foundry. The very personal creation of husband-and-wife chefs Hiro Sone and Lissa Doumani, the Napa Valley dining spot is noted for its relaxed yet sophisticated cuisine--French- and Italian-influenced cooking that also reflects Sone's Japanese culinary heritage. Terra tells the restaurant's story and offers over 175 of its recipes, from appetizers such as Goat Cheese and Artichoke Spring Rolls with Arugula and Tomato Salad to desserts such as Chocolate Mousseline on Pecan Sablé with Coffee Granité. The authors are unapologetic about the work required to prepare many of the recipes, but they've also made them models of clarity and, better still, instruction. Readers who like to cook and those who enjoy armchair restaurant touring will welcome the book. Beginning with a day-in-the-life restaurant diary--work starts at 4:30 a.m. and ends some 20 hours later--the book then offers recipes organized by course or food type. Standouts include Mussel Seafood Soup with Caramelized Onions, Bone Marrow Risotto with Braised Veal Shanks, and Chinese Egg Noodles with Gulf Shrimp, Shiitake Mushrooms, and Pea Tendrils. Desserts, which should bring any meal to a delirious close, include Fig Fritters with Ginger Ice Cream and Feuilleté of Caramelized Bananas with Chocolate Fudge Sauce. Present also is a particularly useful chapter on basic techniques--photos depicting various vegetable cuts are a valuable bonus--as well as basic and pantry recipes. Illustrated with color photos throughout, the book provides a sense of a restaurant performing at the top of its game, plus a blueprint for preparing its most delicious fare. - Arthur Boehm The Tra Vigne Cookbook: Seasons in the CaliforniaWine Country by Michael Chiarello, Penelope Wisner (Contributor) and Karl Petzke (photographer) Hardcover. 215 pages. 1999. "The closer your cooking stays to the seasons, the simpler--and better--your cooking will be." Michael Chiarello's mom told him that as he stood beside her at the stove, learning what a real Italian tomato sauce looks, smells, and sounds like as it cooks. Those lessons led him into the chef's life and his own restaurant in the heart of California's wine country, Tra Vigne. So it should come as no surprise that the subtitle of his lush cookbook, The Tra Vigne Cookbook is Seasons in the California Wine Country. And such is the organizing principle. Not only are the sections of the book divided into the four seasons, but the subsets include four ingredients key to each season: asparagus or garlic in spring, for example, or mushrooms and eggplant in fall. Chiarello describes his own cooking style as "combining spectacular ingredients, professional technique, and imaginative presentations." He shows how to take this into your own home kitchen, in word and technique. A lot of the exceptional flavors he is able to muster come from the flavor enhancers he has put up in his pantry through the seasons--the flavored olives, the dried figs. To read his section on the pantry is to yearn for a dark, cool basement. "Take the time when you have it in order to reap the rewards later when you don't," Chiarello encourages. The Tra Vigne Cookbook is a carefully layered dish of family reminiscence, tech tips, master recipes, and heartfelt yearnings for the seasons and the way they pass outside the windows of a country restaurant, the way they feel on the skin, the way they taste and smell. It's about attitude. Chiarello grabs it all and makes it accessible. The Tra Vigne Cookbook is a large-format, elegant book. - Schuyler Ingle Napa Valley Wild Game & Fish Cookbook with Wine by George Carl Spiral-bound: 76 pages; (October 20, 1997) This book was inspired by encouragemnet of a number of winneries in the Valley who had lots of books, but none on wild game and fish using wine exclusivily Since I was and still am the outdoor editor at the Napa Valley Register. . and I do radio shows on nature and the outdoors I was elected to put it together. The book is made up of great local recipes from some of the top chefs as well as long time Napa Valley residents. We have recipes covering all types of California wild game and most fish. And they all use wine. - The Author Seasons of the Vineyard : Celebrations and Recipes from the Robert Mondavi Winery by Robert Mondavi, Margrit Biever Mondavi, Carolyn Dille Hardcover: (May 1996) Celebrate the seasons of the vineyard with Robert and Margrit Mondavi. Thousands of visitors from all over the world flock to the Mondavi Winery annually for tours, tastings, concerts, festivals and other special culinary and cultural events. Now the couple invites readers to share the bounties of their table and more than 100 fabulous dishes from the Mondavi Winery Vineyard Room chefs, the family's heirloom, recipes and the famed guest chefs who have cooked at the winery. 100+ color photos. Sutter Home Napa Valley Cookbook: New and Classic Recipes by James K. McNair, Zeva Oelbaum (Photographer) Paperback. 152 pages James McNair, one of America's most prolific cookbook authors, is also the food spokesperson for Sutter Home Winery of St. Helena in California's Napa Valley. With The Sutter Home Napa Valley Cookbook, he joins those two activities, bringing to a wider audience the delightful marriage of good food and good wine that has become so much a part of wine-country life in California. The Trinchero family has owned and operated Sutter Home Winery since the late 1940s (it dates back to 1874), imbuing it with a Piedmontese sensibility that explains the presence of such northern Italian classics as bagna cauda and tapenade. The book is divided into chapters for starters, pasta and risotto, main dishes and accompaniments, and sweets. You'll find Grape Harvest Flat Bread as well as Summer Sangria, Frisee Salad with Grilled Pears, Cheese, and Walnuts, Penne with Roasted Eggplant and Peppers, Portobello Burger, Grilled Asparagus with Sesame Mayonnaise, Roasted New Potato Salad, and, for dessert, Fresh Fig and Peach Galettes. This combination of old European freely mixed with the flavors of new California makes for a winning cookbook from the heart of Napa. - Amazon.com Robert Mondavi Presents Cooking & Entertaining With America's Rising Star Chefs by Robert Mondavi (Editor) Paperback, 111 pages. 1994. A collection of menus and recipes from thirteen chefs who received the Robert Mondavi Awards for Culinary Excellence. Features sumptuous recipes from a variety of foods, styles, and ethnic backgrounds.