Back to square one

About this book

Since bursting onto the American food scene in the 1980s with her ground-breaking San Francisco restaurant, Square One, Joyce Goldstein has been expanding our culinary horizons and cooking habits. In her new book, Back to Square One: Old-World Food in a New-World Kitchen, this award-winning restaurateur, teacher, food columnist, and cookbook author presents a rich sampling of the global cuisine that has been her creative hallmark. In her generous volume she shares over. 240 of her favorite recipes from the multitude of regional and national traditions she has studied and cooked for years. As in her acclaimed first book, The Mediterranean Kitchen, she delves into the cuisines of Greece, Portugal, Morocco, Italy, Turkey, Spain, and France, then travels to the Balkans and the Caucasus, to South America, the Indian subcontinent, and the islands of Indonesia and Japan - a journey that celebrates the power of food to "connect us with our. cultural roots." "We need to keep in touch with our own food history," she writes, "before our taste memories are lost forever." All of Goldstein's offerings are as exciting and direct as her globe-circling inquiry. First courses include Indonesian Hot and Sour Fruit Salad, combining citrus, mangoes, pineapple, and cucumber with Thai basil and mint, and a Latin American Ajiaco Bogotano, a creamy potato soup enriched with avocado, chicken, and corn. Goldstein happily. combines Portuguese ingredients with Italian techniques in a Duck and Sausage Risotto, and turns to the traditions of the Pacific Northwest coastal Indians for Potlatch Salmon with Juniper Marinade. From Georgia (the newly independent Russian republic, not the Peach State) comes a tangy Beef Ragout, with cilantro, lemon, and walnuts. Back to Square One shares a naturally healthy cuisine, with modest fats and ample use of grains, starches, legumes, and a cornucopia of. herbs and spices. But a celebration of global gustatory pleasure calls for an occasional indulgence, and Goldstein offers desserts like Cannoli dei Sogni ("Cannoli of Dreams") and Chocolate Mouse Torte with Mocha Ganache. To toast the splendid marriage of fine food and wine, her son, Evan Goldstein, master sommelier and director of the Sterling Vineyards School of Service and Hospitality, makes detailed and enticing wine recommendations for every recipe in the volume.