Six California Kitchens
A Collection of Recipes, Stories, and Cooking Lessons from a Pioneer of California Cuisine
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5.0 • 5 Ratings
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
Winner of a 2023 IACP Cookbook Award and the Golden Poppy Book Award in the Glenn Goldman Cooking category
Six California Kitchens is the quintessential California cookbook, with farm-to-table recipes and stories from Sally Schmitt, the pioneering female chef and original founder of the French Laundry.
"Schmitt, the founder of California’s famed French Laundry restaurant, reflects on the food that defined her life, in this sumptuous collection of recipes and tales from the kitchens that inspired them. [...] Fans of Alice Waters won’t want to miss this delectable page-turner."—Publishers Weekly
Sally Schmitt opened The French Laundry in Yountville in 1978 and designed her menus around local, seasonal ingredients—a novel concept at the time.
In this soon-to-be-classic cookbook, Sally Schmitt takes us through the six kitchens where she learned to cook, honed her skills, and spent her working life. Six California Kitchens weaves her remarkable story with 115 recipes that distill the ethos of Northern California cooking into simple, delicious dishes, plus evocative imagery, historic ephemera, and cooking wisdom.
With gorgeous food and sense-of-place photography, this is a masterful, story-rich cookbook for home and aspiring chefs who cook locally and seasonally, food historians, fans of wine country, and anyone who wants to bring the spirit of Northern California home with them.
CALIFORNIA CONNECTION: This is a California cookbook from a native Californian chef, who founded one of the most well-known and revered restaurants in California (and in the world). The book was written, photographed, and designed by members of Sally's family.
PERSON OF NOTE: Sally Schmitt is the great unsung hero of California cuisine, a pioneer of the farm-to-table movement, and original founder of the French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley. This book celebrates a respected, reputable chef and shares a collection of her best recipes from a lifetime of cooking.
COMPELLING PACKAGE: This book is full of evocative images of Napa Valley, rustic kitchens, and the rugged California coastline. With lifestyle photography that offers a peek into the history of Northern California and its food revolution, this book will appeal to readers with its lovely design and package—but they'll stay for the inspiring story and approachable recipes.
Perfect for:
• Home cooks who cook locally and seasonally, who live in California, or who enjoy California cuisine
• Foodies who collect regional cookbooks rich with history and visuals
• People who bought Twelve Recipes, Zuni, and Gjelina
• Fans of the French Laundry and Alice Waters
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Schmitt, the founder of California's famed French Laundry restaurant, reflects on the food that defined her life, in this sumptuous collection of recipes and tales from the kitchens that inspired them. Even before she and her husband opened their farm-to-table Napa Valley restaurant in 1978, Schmitt writes, local and seasonal ingredients had always been a part of her culinary DNA—beginning in the 1930s with her parents, whose use of produce straight from their garden and meat "from our own animals" set young Schmitt on a lifelong course of "making use of the food around me—in season, local, fresh, and carefully raised." Taking readers on a delicious tour through her decades-spanning career, she highlights the dishes and stories from half a dozen homes and restaurants where she honed her craft. A recipe for Green Eggs & Ham served over a verde sauce gets its inspiration from the enchiladas at Schmitt's first restaurant, the Chutney Kitchen, while a group of "doctored" mayonnaises (garlic, sorrel, and red pepper) evoke the homemade versions of her childhood. Inventive techniques abound; instead of poaching the poultry for curried chicken breast, she sautés the pieces slowly in olive oil. Elsewhere, the sauce for her rendition of steak au poivre (beloved by French Laundry's erstwhile dishwasher, Tom) calls for a mix of peppercorns, soaked and toasted, to add complexity. Fans of Alice Waters won't want to miss this delectable page-turner.
Customer Reviews
California culinary pioneer
The stories and recipes herein weave a beautiful narrative of one woman’s tremendous contribution to California cuisine. I look forward to making some of the recipes.