Sunday Suppers at Lucques: Seasonal Recipes from Market to Table
Author: Suzanne Goin
Since 1998, patrons of renowned L.A. restaurant Lucques have been begging head chef Suzanne Goin for a cookbook containing the recipes she dreams up in Lucques's kitchen. And the culinary world has been begging for rejuvination at the hands of one of its rising stars. Sunday Suppers at Lucques is the long-awaited collection of dishes that have found their way onto the ever-changing Sunday supper menu at Lucques restaurant. Before opening Lucques in 1998, Goin knew that she would serve dinner on Sundays family-style, and that she wanted to offer a rotating menu. A firm believer in using the freshest ingredients, Suzanne let the season and the weather point her toward menu ideas for those Sunday meals. That concept, combined with Goin's killer instincts, led, and continue to lead, to novel yet impeccably appropriate combinations of fresh, locally grown ingredients. Sunday suppers at Lucques were born. Accolades (including a James Beard award nomination in 2003) came flooding in, and so did a host of regulars (famous and non-) who have called Lucques home each Sunday evening for nearly six years.
Suzanne's goal in cooking is to bring out the best of every available seasonal ingredient, and combine those ingredients in novel ways. Her training in top restaurants from Berkeley to Boston to Paris taught her to use all her senses -- taste, touch, smell, and hearing--when she cooks, and now she teaches her readers the same. What has resulted at the restaurant is now available in Sunday Suppers at Lucques, a collection of 132 dishes, arranged into menus and organized by season, that will be entirely new and surprising to the average reader's palette, but that are sure to become classics.
Main courses include: pancetta-wrapped trout with fennel gratin, verjus, sorrel, and crushed grapes; braised beef shortribs with potato puree and horseradish cream. Desserts include: cranberry walnut clafoutis; warm crepes with lemon zest and hazelnut brown butter.
Publishers Weekly
At Lucques, one of Goin's two Los Angeles restaurants, the Chez Panisse alumna cooks special Sunday fixed-price menus. Whiling away a wintery Sunday evening over Beets and Tangerines with Mint and Orange-Flower Water; Australian Barramundi with Winter Vegetables Bagna Cauda and Toasted Breadcrumbs; or Herb-Roasted Rack of Lamb with Flageolet Gratin, Roasted Radicchio, and Tapenade; and a G teau Basque with Armagnac Prunes sounds lovely. Preparing it, though, sounds like a hard day's work, and the organization of recipes in seasonal menus rather than grouped by appetizer, entr e, etc., leaves readers with little flexibility. Goin's recipes for hearty, vegetable-heavy, Mediterranean-style dishes such as an appetizer of Rago t of Morels with Cr me Fra che, Soft Herbs, and Toasted Brioche; and First-of-the-Season Succotash Salad with fresh lima beans and watercress are clearly written. But most dishes are all-day affairs: Roman Cherry Tart with Almond Crust and Almond Ice Cream incorporates several components and follows on the heels of either Veal Osso Buco with Saffron Risotto, English Peas, and Pea Shoots, or Halibut with Fingerlings, Fava Beans, Meyer Lemon, and Savory Cr me Fra che. Goin does say, "Feel free to mix and match," but she seems to have missed Sunday's "day of rest" concept. 75 full-color photos. (Dec. 1) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
After cooking at Chez Panisse, Campanile, and other well-known restaurants, Goin opened Lucques in Los Angeles in 1998 and almost immediately received raves for her creative but not at all contrived food. On Sunday evenings, the restaurant strikes a more relaxed ambiance with a smaller prix fixe menu, offering one appetizer, a choice of two entrees, and a dessert. Goin presents 32 of those seasonal menus here, featuring mouth-watering dishes like Grilled Skirt Steak with Artichoke-Potato Hash, Grilled Bluefish in Pancetta with Yellow Tomato Sauce, and Tangelo "Creamsicles" with Sugar Cookies. She writes with passion and humor, and while her recipes are sophisticated and sometimes complicated, they are written with the home cook in mind (make-ahead instructions are included for most). Striking color photographs throughout show off both the recipes and the bounty of fresh ingredients that Goin draws on for inspiration. Highly recommended. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Interesting textbook: Sacred Bee in Ancient Times and Folklore or LaBelle Cuisine
Pomegranate Soup
Author: Marsha Mehran
Beneath the holy mountain Croagh Patrick, in damp and lovely County Mayo, sits the small, sheltered village of Ballinacroagh. To the exotic Aminpour sisters, Ireland looks like a much-needed safe haven. It has been seven years since Marjan Aminpour fled Iran with her younger sisters, Bahar and Layla, and she hopes that in Ballinacroagh, a land of “crazed sheep and dizzying roads,” they might finally find a home.
From the kitchen of an old pastry shop on Main Mall, the sisters set about creating a Persian oasis. Soon sensuous wafts of cardamom, cinnamon, and saffron float through the streets–an exotic aroma that announces the opening of the Babylon Café, and a shock to a town that generally subsists on boiled cabbage and Guinness served at the local tavern. And it is an affront to the senses of Ballinacroagh’s uncrowned king, Thomas McGuire. After trying to buy the old pastry shop for years and failing, Thomas is enraged to find it occupied–and by foreigners, no less.
But the mysterious, spicy fragrances work their magic on the townsfolk, and soon, business is booming. Marjan is thrilled with the demand for her red lentil soup, abgusht stew, and rosewater baklava–and with the transformation in her sisters. Young Layla finds first love, and even tense, haunted Bahar seems to be less nervous.
And in the stand-up-comedian-turned-priest Father Fergal Mahoney, the gentle, lonely widow Estelle Delmonico, and the headstrong hairdresser Fiona Athey, the sisters find a merry band of supporters against the close-minded opposition of less welcoming villagers stuck in their ways. But the idyll is soon broken when the past rushes backto threaten the Amnipours once more, and the lives they left behind in revolution-era Iran bleed into the present.
Infused with the textures and scents, trials and triumph,s of two distinct cultures, Pomegranate Soup is an infectious novel of magical realism. This richly detailed story, highlighted with delicious recipes, is a delectable journey into the heart of Persian cooking and Irish living.
Chicago Tribune
Books Best Read With a Helping of Fairy Dust: Three sisters who have fled their native Iran set up a Persian cafe in their new home, the tiny town of Ballinacroagh, Ireland. After initial suspicion, the townsfolk learn to love the shop with its spicy fragrances and exotic foods. Marsha Mehran describes the food in mouthwatering detail--with a dash of magic realism.
Library Journal
Recalling James Joyce's Dubliners, this first novel by Mehran (who was born in Iran but now lives in Ireland) centers on the inhabitants of a small Irish town. When three Iranian sisters move into the former bake shop and open a Middle Eastern caf , turmoil erupts. The quirky and wonderfully fleshed-out characters who make up the populace of Ballinacroagh align with either the sisters and their exotic delicacies or the town bully, Thomas McGuire, who attempts to put them out of business. From the young and lovely Layla to resident gossip Dervla Quigley, these characters come to life; they're as uniquely simple or as deeply complex as the dishes that eldest sister Marjan concocts-recipes included! Personal demons and questioned loyalties play out like a movie on the page (think Joanne Harris's Chocolat), making the reader feel like an eyewitness to all the events. A satisfying summer read or book club pick; highly recommended.
Booklist - Mark Knoblauch
To give the reader a better appreciation for the pivotal role of food in the novel, Mehran includes recipes for some Iranian specialties: stuffed grape leaves, elephant ear pastries, and the title's pomegranate soup. Stark contrasts between the sisters' lives in Iran and Ireland and between the Irish and Persian cultures energize Mehran's tale.
Publishers Weekly
Beautiful strangers bring exotic recipes to town in Mehran's foodie-lit debut. The Irish hamlet of Ballinacroagh is the unlikely new home for three Iranian sisters and their new Babylon Cafe. Twenty-seven-year-old Marjan, the most skilled in the kitchen; Bahar, the tentative middle sister; and Layla, the charming teenager, fled the Iranian revolution and, after some years in London, have arrived determined to succeed. Initially wary natives soon fall under the spell of the cafe's cardamom- and rosewater-scented wonders, with kindly Estelle Delmonico (the stereotyped Italian widow who formerly owned the storefront) and friendly Father Mahoney leading the pack. But town bully Thomas McGuire, who loathes "feckin' foreigners," and gossip Dervla Quigley, who thinks "they're all sluts," will do anything to drive the sisters away. As Marjan cements alliances through her recipes and Layla falls in love with McGuire's son, Bahar continues to be troubled by the violence in her past. Can the provincial Irish welcome the "foreigners"? Will the sisters triumph? But of course! Mehran's mauve prose gets especially purple sometimes (Layla feels love "like the ecstatic cries of a pomegranate as it realized the knife's thrust"), but fans of Chocolat and other cooking-overcomes-cultural-differences stories will savor the tale, not to mention the 13 recipes, including one for pomegranate soup. Agent, Adam Chromy. (Aug.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
Recalling James Joyce's Dubliners, this first novel by Mehran (who was born in Iran but now lives in Ireland) centers on the inhabitants of a small Irish town. When three Iranian sisters move into the former bake shop and open a Middle Eastern caf , turmoil erupts. The quirky and wonderfully fleshed-out characters who make up the populace of Ballinacroagh align with either the sisters and their exotic delicacies or the town bully, Thomas McGuire, who attempts to put them out of business. From the young and lovely Layla to resident gossip Dervla Quigley, these characters come to life; they're as uniquely simple or as deeply complex as the dishes that eldest sister Marjan concocts-recipes included! Personal demons and questioned loyalties play out like a movie on the page (think Joanne Harris's Chocolat), making the reader feel like an eyewitness to all the events. A satisfying summer read or book club pick; highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 4/1/05.]-Leann Restaino, Jameson Health Syst. Lib., New Castle, PA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Three Iranian sisters open a restaurant in rural Ireland-in a debut that uses recipes in the heart- and stomach-warming (or -churning, depending on one's taste for the genre) tradition of Like Water for Chocolate. Marjan, Bahar and Layla Aminpour escaped from Iran to arrive in England the day the Shah was deposed, seven years before the story begins. Now 27, Marjan brings 24-year-old Bahar, who has trained and worked in London as a nurse, and 15-year-old Layla to Ballinacroagh, in County Mayo, to open the Babylon Cafe. Each chapter opens with one of Marjan's recipes, then intertwines the recipe into the events that follow. The villagers are your typical Irish stereotypes: bullying pub owner, narrow-minded gossip, goodhearted priest, lonely widow, disgraced actress turned hairdresser and unwed mother. While the locals resist at first, the magic of Marjan's cooking soon wins them over. But the pub owner, Thomas McGuire, has eyes on the space the Aminpours have leased for their restaurant and vows to sink them. Meanwhile, his dreamy and handsome son (or at least his wife's son) falls in love with Layla. As the leisurely soap opera of village life plays out-the priest puts on a play, the lonely widow mothers the sisters, the villain's plot is foiled-readers also learn the heartbreaking story of the Aminpours' flight from Iran. Raising her sisters after their parents' deaths, Marjan was drawn into revolutionary activities by her childhood sweetheart and briefly imprisoned, while Bahar fell under the thumb of a fundamentalist neighbor and married the woman's sadistic son. After a particularly vicious encounter with Bahar's husband, the sisters fled. Now they've come to Ballinacroagh to hidefrom Bahar's husband, who had tracked them to London. That stark story sits uneasily alongside the predictable comedy-drama of Ballinacroagh. The mix of cutesy and harsh can be awkward, but first-timer Mehran's lighthearted voice will win readers over.
What People Are Saying
Publisher
Pomegranate Soup—(Philip Gulley, author of the Harmony series and If Grace Is True)
Frank Delaney
Few novels have such charm, such fusion. Marsha Mehran takes one of the great staples of literature, food and its creation, and makes it the vehicle of a delightful, subtle fairytale. With a deep understanding of opposites such as whimsy and poignancy, she delivers a moving and very amusing enquiry into whether differences between peoples exist at all.
—(Frank Delaney, author of Ireland)
Nahid Rachlin
Pomegranate Soup, a delightful debut novel, goes from Iran to Ireland and catches the flavors of both cultures through unforgettable scenes and characters. The three Aminpour sisters leaving Iran on the eve of the Revolution, opening a Persian restaurant in an Irish town, enchant us with their optimism and aroma of pomegranate soup, lingering beyond the pages.
—(Nahid Rachlin, author of Foreigner and Veils)
Adriana Trigiani
Pomegranate Soup is glorious, daring and delightful. I adored the Iranian sisters, Marjan, Bahar and Layla, who are looking to build a life, start a business and find love in a place so far from home. Ireland has never been more beautiful -- the perfect setting for this story filled with humor, hope and possibility.
—(Adriana Trigiani, author of Rococo)
Rocco DiSpirito
In one bite, exotic pomegranates offer a bittersweet reminder of where you are and where you could be. Marsha Mehran is masterful in her exploration of the worlds of the familiar vs. the unfamiliar, chuckling all the way.
—(Rocco DiSpirito, celebrity chef and author of Flavor and Rocco's Italian American)
Amulya Malladi
Vibrantly alive and populated with rich characters, this is a delicious first novel flavored generously with Persian spices and Irish temperaments. Marsha Mehran writes with a deft hand and a sparkling imagination.
—(Amulya Malladi, author of Serving Crazy with Curry)
Firoozeh Dumas
An enchanting tale of love, family and renewal that illuminates the magical qualities of Persian cuisine.
—(Firoozeh Dumas, author of Funny in Farsi)
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