Alice Waters - Chez Panisse Vegetables

I was up in Berkeley this weekend after a great lunch at Zachary's Deep dish pizza. This post could easily be about how perfect the asparagus and red peppers and garlic deep dish pizza was. It could be about how this is my favourite pizza place in the world. Or how fresh the tomato sauce is. But it's not.

It's about the bookstore next door that B and I wandered into. I couldnt stop looking at the shelves of (vegetable) cookbooks. Of course I happened upon Alice Waters' series of books, my favourite chef of my favourite restaurant in the bay area, Chez Panisse.

I couldn't put any of the books down so I ended up walking out with the Vegetables book. Then I saw The Art of Simple Food and A platter of Figs. Exerting a little bit of self control I left the store before I went broke.

I'm so excited about this vegetable cookbook!! Recipes/chapters are indexed by vegetables. Alice goes through a little background about the vegetable, how to pick out what's good, what to do with it early in the season, late in the season, how to best prepare it if it's large or small, thin, thick, etc.

I'm going to try out the Butternut Squash Pizza, Sauteed Kale with Garlic and Vinegar and the Chard Stem Gratin this week.