From Canadian publisher de Villiers (Down the Volga, 1992, etc.): a fruity, complex story of a California winemaker—a tale much like crushed raspberries on a summer's day, with a heartbreaking, underlying silkiness and a faint hint of fresh farm butter. De Villiers tracked down master vintner Josh Jensen at the Calera winery in California after he had unexpectedly been served an incredible domestic but Burgundian pinot noir—``like rubies under fire''—at a small dinner party. De Villiers dipped his nose into the glass, inhaled slowly, and took a small sip: ``It was rich and complex, with a maddening hint of chocolate and violets. I groped for descriptives, as wine people do, without much luck.'' Hooked, utterly! Not much later, de Villiers was interviewing Jensen, the maverick winemaker who produced this pinot noir under conditions that the California wine establishment declared entirely inhospitable to his project. De Villiers tells of the winery and its workers; of the place in Burgundy where the vines of ``the heartbreak grape'' came from (it's called heartbreak ``because of its fickle nature and of its tendency to veer wildly from thin plonk to vins de garde); about the hilltop wilderness that Jensen turned into vineyards; planting the first vines; how the vines are managed with tender loving care; the importance of limestone; Jensen's stubborn desire to make the best pinot noir in America; the fight for water against the draught; the crucial, anxiety- ridden decision about the best time to pick the grapes; the business risks, fermentation; and bottling, racking, hyping, and pricing. Great wit about the poetics of sensation: not to be gulped but sipped, and for the full body let it breathe by your bed as the bouquet rises ``to the vaults in the brain where nostalgic memories are stored.''
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-06-258523-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1993
Bugialli (Giuliano Bugialli's Foods of Italy, not reviewed) provides some unusual, challenging recipes—not an easy feat in the crowded field of Italian cookbooks. However, what is just a good cookbook could have been a great one with the inclusion of more information. A brief introduction explains the provenance of his recipes (many researched as far back as the 14th century) and declares that they derive from various regions, but the recipes themselves are free-floating, without subheads (i.e., it would be nice to know which region each comes from) and with few hints to facilitate preparation. The photographs, while luscious, are no help either since they often do not coincide with Bugialli's instructions. For example, in the recipe for Spaghetti with Air- Dried Cherry Tomatoes, Bugialli instructs the cook to toss pasta, tomatoes, and parsley in the casserole used to cook the tomatoes, then serve, but the photograph shows a serving bowl of pasta with tomatoes and parsley on top still waiting to be combined. Even more vexing was Schiacciata (a flat bread similar to focaccia) with Fresh Grapes. While the result was delicious, it looked nothing like the example, which was rectangular in shape even though the recipe calls for rolling the dough out into a circle. Nor is it clear why one should fit a 16-inch circle of dough into a 14-inch pan. Could the disparity have been due to the tough dough? No clues are forthcoming. A treat for those who enjoy leaping in with little guidance, but not for the novice. (Book-of-the-Month Club selection)
Pub Date: Oct. 27, 1994
ISBN: 1-55670-384-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1994
This initial entry in an international vegetarian series disproves the myth that vegetarian cooking is always light and healthy. Della Croce (Antipasti, not reviewed) packs these simple recipes with large amounts of oil and cheese. In pasta recipes, her frequent encouragement to use some of the pasta-cooking water to keep things moist is puzzling, since oil-based preparations like walnut sauce and lemon-and-black-olive sauce have more than enough olive oil to coat the noodles. Although the introduction claims that the book contains ``many nonegg and nondairy recipes,'' vegans are pretty much out of luck here. Out of 19 main courses, only two contain no dairy or egg products, and one of those is unsauced polenta. (Several could easily be converted by replacing butter with olive oil, just as several pasta and soup dishes could be served without grated Parmesan sprinkled on top, but neither of these is provided as an option.) The use of animal products itself would not be objectionable, since della Croce correctly notes that many of the vegan first-course pastas and soups are substantial enough for a whole meal, but in main dishes like a zucchini casserole, one pound of mozzarella, one cup grated Parmesan, and four eggs cover up, rather than enhance, the fresh flavor of vegetables. Ultimately, since Italy's food is vegetable-based to begin with, many of these offerings have been covered in general Italian cookbooks by Marcella Hazan and others. Photographs have the rustic-yet-upscale look that is now apparently de rigueur for Italian cookbooks. Nothing new under the sun.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-8118-0458-5
Page Count: 168
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1994
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