[.ca] The Tra Vigne Cookbook: Seasons in the California Wine ... (ISBN 0811819868)

From Amazon.com:
"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 you will want to leave open on the table to flip through. Let your attention get caught up in it and carried away. Chiarello stays with the seasons, and his accomplishment is simpler and better as a result. And therein lies a world of glorious, flavorful complexity. --Schuyler Ingle

give yourself a gift:
the tra vigne cookbook is going on the top shelf of my fairly extensive cookbook collection. It is definately one that I will use frequently.The photos and text are exceptionally well done,the book lies flat and the print is easy to read. the instructions are so clearly written and the information so extensive that I would not hesitate to recommend it even for novice cooks. The glossary and chef's notes are particularly helpful if you are unfamiliar with some of the methods or ingredients.I couldn't wait for spring to try the asparagus pesto....absolutely wonderful.This book is worth it's price and then some

The true tale of a meat lover's conversion:
I've had the Tra Vigne Cookbook for a year now, and I use it regularly. It's an attractive book, with beautiful photos and surprisingly intriguing introductions to the recipes. It's hard to stop browsing once you open the book, and it's harder to close the book without doing some cooking. The dishes are fantastic. The Chicken with Roasted Lemon and Rosemary Sauce is a favorite, as is the Fusilli Michelangelo. (Read the intro to either of these dishes and try to resist cooking them.) The book is arranged seasonally, with chapters on essential ingredients for each season. Spring ingredients include asparagus, garlic, peas, and potatoes. Summer ingredients include corn, tomatoes, and bell peppers. And so on. I shop at a grocery store, not a farmers market, and I've had a less-than-happy relationship with vegetables since infancy, so I was skeptical of the whole seasonal-cooking thing at first. But I enjoy browsing through the new season's recipes as the year changes, and I've tried dishes and ingredients that are not usually a part of my diet. It's hard to object to broccoli when it's served in a creamy Very Green Soup sprinkled with crunchy gremolata. It would have been nice in book a subtitled "Seasons in the California Wine Country" to have more information about wine. Few recipes actually use wine and there is no advice on what wines to pair with the food. Despite the elegant presentations shown in the photos, none of the recipes are too difficult to try. They're just challenging enough for the amateur cook who likes to do a little more than the usual home cooking. The Tra Vigne Cookbook is a lot of fun, and the food is delicious.

the magic of chef chiarello:
some of us are lucky enough to live only several blocks away from this amazing restaurant, sit and gaze at the stars while dining in the magnificent courtyard... and be continually spoiled by chefs like Michael Chiarello and the wonderful food & wines of napa valley. If you can't be here... then this cookbook is one way of bringing the Napa Valley to your home with the incredible Italian recipes found inside. Michael is a great story teller, and a great chef. his ideas are as important as his food, and his style really comes across on each page.

Exquisite cooking by Seasonal Ingredient:
For long, outstanding chefs have encouraged us to shop and get the very freshest ingredients of the season, and then cook around them. Here a master chef California Wine style aids us with just such a presentation of the four seasons based on produce of that season. As I just purchased this and am in winter, tried the winter dishes and achieved spectacular results without extreme fuss. Flavors are intense and bold. Lemon-baked Sea Bass and Spinach Salad and Pumkin Polenta with Lamb Stew have certainly warmed up the winter blast at our table. Format is wide, broad book, usually flanked by full-page photo of presentation next to recipe. Love this format since it lays so wonderfully on the counter cooking and is not tiny print. This is truly a cookbook to go through the seasons with, cooking excellent, intensely flavored gourmet Italian, Meditterrean food.

Buy it now:
His PBS show is incredible, his recipes are to die for, and he is gorgeous to boot. What other reasons are there for buying this book?