Kitchen Gypsy

August 1, 2015

Readers will follow acclaimed chef and cooking instructor Weir (Joanne Weir's Cooking Confidence) from her childhood home to her Northern California restaurant, Copita, in this narrative-rich cookbook that blends recipes and memoir. Each of the nine chapters chronicles a formative period in Weir's culinary development, such as her intensive study with Madeleine Kamman, a revered cooking teacher, and the five years she spent working at Chez Panisse. Her 100-plus recipes range from old-fashioned favorites (Mom's whoopie pies) to California classics (little gem and pickled cucumber salad with green goddess dressing) to exotic international dishes (ceviche with blood oranges and pomegranate). VERDICT A compelling read with worldly recipes and evocative writing. If you like this title, try following it with Alex Guarnaschelli's Old-School Comfort Food or Hubert Keller's Souvenirs.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2015
This is a fascinating tribute to a life surrounded by the best in food, wine, and travel, with a foreword by Alice Waters of Chez Panisse. Author, restaurateur, and teacher, Weir takes readers through compelling stories, from growing up to opening and owning Copita. Every recipe100 of themis woven around not just an anecdote but also the larger world of her existence. Her baking time spent with Mom reminds her of how much she wanted store-bought sandwich cookies, not homemade whoopie pies; or memories of her time as a junior-high-school art teacher in Boston enjoying arroz con pollo. An unlucky dead fly in a bottle of Chateau Mouton Rothschild, when mailed to the company, results in a career-changing lunch in France, with duck liver and apple toasts. Photographs of food and family are intermingled; recipes complete a journey worth reading, savoring, and copying.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)