Artful Vegan or Toast

Artful Vegan: Fresh Flavors from the Millennium Restaurant

Author: Eric Tucker

ERIC TUCKER has been executive chef at Millennium since 1994. He is a graduate of the Natural Gourmet Cookery School in New York. BRUCE ENLOE has been Millennium's sous chef since 1998. AMY PEARCE is Millennium's pastry chef. They all live in San Francisco, California.

Library Journal

The Millennium is a San Francisco institution featuring "haute" vegan cuisine that opened in 1994, and The Millennium Cookbook, published in 1998, has sold more than 40,000 copies. The restaurant often holds special dinners celebrating seasonal bounty, often in conjunction with local vineyards, and many of the recipes included here came from those tasting menus. These are undeniably chef's dishes, with long ingredients lists and multiple components. With such dishes as Grilled White Asparagus with Vanilla-Lavender A oli and Lemon-Pine Nut Ravioli over Artichoke-Golden Tomato Ragout, this is surely the most sophisticated vegan cookbook available. For area libraries and other subject collections. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

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Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger

Author: Nigel Slater

A deliciously evocative story of childhood in 1960s suburban England from one of theUnited Kingdom's best-loved writers, Nigel Slater

Toast is the truly extraordinary story of a childhood remembered through food. In each chapter, as Nigel Slater takes us on a tour of the contents of his family's pantry—rice pudding, tinned ham, cream soda, mince pies, lemon drops, bourbon biscuits—we are transported…

His mother is a chops-and-peas sort of cook, exasperated by the highs and lows of a temperamental stove, a finicky little son, and the asthma that would prove fatal. His father is a honey-and-crumpets man with an unpredictable temper. When he is widowed, Nigel's father takes on a housekeeper with social aspirations and a talent in the kitchen and the following years become a heartbreaking cooking contest for his affections. As he slowly loses, Nigel finds a new outlet for his culinary gifts and we witness the birth of a lifelong passion for food. Nigel's likes and dislikes, aversions and sweet-toothed weaknesses, form a fascinating backdrop to this exceptionally moving memoir of childhood, adolescence, and sexual awakening.

With a new preface and glossary for American readers, this British bestseller and national award winner is sure to delight foodies and memoir enthusiasts on this side of the pond. Possessed of the subtlety and wit of Ruth Reichl's Tender at the Bone and the disarming frankness of Anthony Bourdain's page-turning Kitchen Confidential, Toast is a treat to be savored.

Author Biography: Nigel Slater is the author of several classic cookbooks, including Real Fast Food and the award-winning Appetite. He has written a much-loved column for The Observer (London) for more than a decade and has been described by the media as a national treasure.

Library Journal

It seems only natural that most of food columnist Slater's (Real Last Food) childhood memories are somehow connected to food. Rice pudding, Sunday roasts, mince pies, and, of course, toast all played different roles in Slater's life growing up in 1960s England, but not all of those memories were happy ones. Slater's mother, who suffered from asthma and eventually succumbed to it, never really enjoyed cooking but did love her food-fussy son. Slater's relationship with his father, who could be both kind and cruel, became even more complicated when his father remarried, and Slater's new stepmother, a gifted cook with an obsession for cleanliness, took over the kitchen. Slater's spare, brutally honest style of writing might not appeal to readers who prefer a cozier culinary memoir, but his emotionally powerful story is sure to please anyone who enjoys superbly written, food-flavored biographies, e.g., Jacques Pepin's The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen or Ruth Reichl's Tender at the Bone. Originally published in Great Britain in 2003 and winner of the British Book Award for Best Biography, Toast is highly recommended for all public libraries. John Charles, Scottsdale P.L., AZ Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.