Powell’s Books Presents the Following Food Events in September
Gabriel Rucker, Andy Fortgang & Lauren Fortgang “Le Pigeon: Cooking at the Dirty Bird”
Thursday, September 19, 7:30pm, Powell’s City of Books (1005 W. Burnside St., Portland)
This debut cookbook from James Beard Rising Star Chef Gabriel Rucker features a serious yet playful collection of 150 recipes from his phenomenally popular Portland restaurant.
Dining at Le Pigeon is a celebration of high and low extremes in cooking: Buffalo hot wings are elevated with the substitution of sweetbreads, a simple potato salad gets “dirty” with the addition of chicken livers, and a $3 Coors appears next to premier cru Burgundies on the wine list. Serious yet playful, this debut cookbook recounts the ascension of James Beard Award-winning chef Gabriel Rucker to the top of the Portland food scene and the shift of a modest neighborhood eatery to a must-visit destination. Offal-centric and meat-heavy, but by no means dogmatic, this collection of 125 recipes offers uncommon delicacies like Elk Tongue Stroganoff and Rabbit and Eel Terrine, envelope-pushing twists on classics like Beef Cheeks Bourguinon and Lamb Belly BLT, and surprisingly uncomplicated dishes like Simple Roasted Pigeon, Leek Carbonara, and Pork Tacos. Featuring wine recommendations from sommelier Andrew Fortgang, stand-out desserts from pastry chef Lauren Fortgang, and stories about the restaurant’s raucous, seat-of-the-pants history by writer Meredith Erickson, Le Pigeon combines the wild and the refined in a unique, progressive, and delicious style.
John Gorham & Liz “Toro Bravo: Stories. Recipes. No Bull.”
Saturday, September 21, 4pm, Powell’s City of Books (1005 W. Burnside St., Portland)
At the heart of Portland’s red-hot food scene is Toro Bravo, a Spanish-inspired restaurant whose small plates have attracted a fiercely loyal fan base. But to call Toro Bravo a Spanish restaurant doesn’t begin to tell the whole story. For chef John Gorham, each dish reflects a time, a place, a moment. For Gorham, food is more than mere sustenance. The Toro Bravo cookbook is an honest look behind the scenes: from Gorham’s birth to a teenage mother who struggled with drug addiction, to time spent in his grandfather’s crab-shack dance club, to formative visits to Spain, to becoming a father and opening a restaurant. Toro Bravo also includes 95 of the restaurant’s recipes, from simple salads to homemade chorizo, along with an array of techniques that will appeal to both the home cook and the most seasoned, forearm-burned chef.
Nick Zukin & Michael Zusman “The Artisan Jewish Deli at Home”
Sunday, September 22, 11am, Powell’s City of Books (1005 W. Burnside St., Portland)
This event is sponsored by Edible Portland.
If you don’t happen to live near one of the new wave of artisan-style Jewish delis that have sprung up around North America over the last few years, not to worry. With this book, the world of Jewish deli, in all its unsubtle splendor–can be yours in the comfort (and privacy) of your own kitchen. And it’s not that hard. Really. On top of all the Jewish deli classics, The Artisan Jewish Deli at Home offers updates and new angles on the oldways that are bound to thrill the palates of a modern generation of eaters focused on quality ingredients and a lighter-handed approach to a traditionally heavy cuisine.
The chapters are organized into: Starters and Sides; Soups and Salads; Eggs, Fish, and Dairy; Beef; Bagels, Bialys, and Breads; and Pastries, Desserts, and Drinks. The range of favorite recipes include: Crispy Potato Latkes with Chunky Ginger Applesauce; Summer Chicken Salad with Tomatoes, Cucumber and Cracklings; Wise Sons’ Chocolate Babka French Toast; Home Oven Pastrami; and Celery Soda.
Added cultural context comes from quick-hitting interviews with Joan Nathan and other Jewish food luminaries; histories of a few deli stalwarts such as bagels and pastrami; and first-hand reports from within the walls of the authors’ favorite temples of modern Jewish gastronomy located across the country including: Mile End Delicatessen in New York City; Wise Sons Delicatessen in San Francisco; Kenny & Zuke’s Delicatessen in Portland, OR; Stopsky’s Delicatessan in Mercer Island, Washington; and Caplansky’s Delicatessen in Toronto.
Nick Saul & Andrea Curtis “The Stop: How the Fight for Good Food Transformed a Community and Inspired a Movement”
Monday, September 30, 7:30pm, Powell’s on Hawthorne (3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd., Portland)
This event is sponsored by Edible Portland
“The Stop is an inspiring true story about how a low-income neighborhood used good food to take charge of its community – it’s a great lesson for all of us.” -Jamie Oliver
In 1998, when community worker Nick Saul became executive director of The Stop, it was like thousands of other food banks, offering canned handouts in a cramped, dreary, makeshift space. Today it is a thriving, internationally respected Community Food Center with gardens, kitchens, a greenhouse, farmers’ markets, and a mission to revolutionize our food system. Their message is spreading: Jamie Oliver told his 750,000 Twitter followers that he’d traveled all over the world and never seen anything like The Stop; Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved, told “Alternet” he was “blown away” by this model of an NGO–whose mission is to work for healthy food, strong communities and political empowerment.
In a voice that’s “never preachy” (“Maclean’s”), Saul argues that we need a new politics of food in which everyone has a dignified, healthy place at the table. The Stop is a “riveting” personal story (Naomi Klein) about overcoming obstacles and creating lasting change.
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