Jeremiah Tower: Flavors of Taste

Jeremiah Tower’s Flavors of Taste captures the genius of one of America's great chefs, and the food that changed American cooking through superlative recipes, memories, rare menus, and extraordinary photography. It is illustrated by 75 recipes and 75 photographs. Tower is a purist, obsessed with ingredients, what are the best and how to treat them. 


Widely recognized as the godfather of modern American cooking and a mentor to rising chefs, Jeremiah Tower is one of the most influential cooks of the last thirty years. His insightful commentary celebrates those moments in the last one hundred years of meals with culinary stars James Beard, Richard Olney, Elizabeth David, and Julia Child, as well as Sophia Loren, Pavarotti, Merle Oberon and the Bloomingdales, Cecil Beaton and Escoffier and legendary events. 


Tower’s work provides a colorful trajectory of American cuisine. His original California culinary revolution kicked off a groundbreaking movement. As  California cuisine evolved his emphasis on fresh, local products began defining and elevating America’s melting pot of regional cuisines. The impact continues today in restaurants from farm to table, restaurant menu language and style, and the emergence of locavore farmer’s markets. Wine Spectator, describing Tower’s stint as the co-owner and first chef of Berkeley’s nascent Chez Panisse, called him “the father of American Cuisine.”


Jeremiah Tower’s Flavors of Taste is his tenth book. His honors include the James Beard Foundation: Best American Regional Cookbook, Regional Best Chef: California, James Beard National Outstanding Chef. He was named a patron of The Oxford Cultural Collective. 


Anthony Bourdain recently produced “The Last Magnificent,” a documentary about Jeremiah Tower. Bourdain emphasized “He was the original. He was the first chef in America that you wanted to see in the dining room. He was the guy who transformed American menus from what they were to what they are now. He’s a hugely compelling personality, a dangerous man. He’s the history of everything. I mean, cautionary tale, inspiration. It’s all there. It’s a great story as well as an historical correction that needs to be made.”


Kit Wohl created the concept, and authored “The James Beard Foundation’s Best of the Best: A 25th Anniversary Celebration of America’s Outstanding Chefs.” She also authored The Arnaud’s Restaurant Cookbook, and the P&J Oyster Cookbook as well as the acclaimed New Orleans Classic cookbook series. 


Sam Hanna is an acclaimed food photographer.