[MatthewB]

New release . . .

Jeremiah Tower's California Dish : What I Saw (and Cooked) at the American Culinary Revolution

[Jon Tseng]

I picked up Jeremiah Tower Cooks from Books for Cooks the other weekend

An excellent and most thoughtful book. I was surprised by how much cuisine bourgeois, and even escoffier he spoke for the supposed patriarch of new-cal. An eminently sensible read, and highly recommended.

J

[russ parsons]

it will be interesting to see how the new book is received. it is a memoir with recipes, not a cookbook. there is some truly amazing writing in it. and it is probably the most scandalous food book ever written. makes craig claiborne look like a shrinking violet.

[malcolmjolley]

Has anyone read it yet? Any sneak previews?

[inventolux]

russ parsons, on Jul 8 2003, 11:22 AM, said:

it will be interesting to see how the new book is received. it is a memoir with recipes, not a cookbook. there is some truly amazing writing in it. and it is probably the most scandalous food book ever written. makes craig claiborne look like a shrinking violet.

I think this book will piss off a lot of people and make jerimiah some serious cash in the process.

[russ parsons]

it depends. i predict a firestorm in teh bay area. it's an odd book in that some of it is SO well written, but the overall effect is something different. i guess it depends on how much stomach you have for gossip. personally, i've got quite a lot, but this book tried my limits. and i'm saying that as someone who likes jeremiah a lot.

[paw]

I finally started reading it last night and stayed up much later than I should have. It's amazingly entertaining. Tower is a hell of a writer, all the more so because you never catch him working at it. Did I learn anything about food? Not sure. Do I believe everything he says? Hell no. Do I need his image of James Beard's bathrobe falling open, or Tower's comparison of Beard's penis size vs. hand size (hands win hands down)? Christ no. But I'd much rather read California Dish than any of the more sober works on Alice Waters, the food revolution, etc.

[malcolmjolley]

yuk. Richard Olney has similar protrayals of Beard in his memoirs.

[JFLinLA]

Do you agree?

Quote

Tower's tell-all has them buzzing, by Shawn Hubler, is a preview of the soon to be released "California Dish: What I Saw (and Cooked) at the American Culinary Revolution." The book is "several degrees cattier than those of his predecessors . . .," (e.g., Bourdain, Reichl, etc.). If you can't wait for the book, check it out here.

From the Digest of the LA Times July 23 edition here.

Did Alice Waters really have anything to do with it or did Tower do it all?

[inventolux]

I would have to go with Alice Waters.

[bloviatrix]

The book is released. I saw it in Barnes and Noble today.

[ballast_regime]

Jeremiah Tower was no doubt instrumental, but I wonder how much of this book is like Chuck Barris' Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

[Jinmyo]

A review in the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle.

[bourdain]

For a potentially hot topic of discussion, I suggest the poisonously entertaining Jeremiah Tower memoir, CALIFORNIA DISH in which Tower, while taking credit for nearly every important innovation in "new" American cuisine (with some justification), does some neat ( and very compelling) hatchet work on the Alice Waters legend--and enthusiastically proves himself--yet again-- an intolerable prick. Which is to say I really enjoyed the book.

[tanabutler]

Well, isn't anyone going to post about the size of Jeremiah's hands?

[tanabutler]

I love that review, too.

Quote

To make it through former superstar chef Jeremiah Tower's memoir, the reader has to suspend disbelief and accept three basic premises:

1. Everything was his idea.

2. Any culinary and financial reversals weren't his fault.

3. Everyone wanted to sleep with him.

Yow.

This post has been edited by tanabutler: 10 August 2003 - 04:24 PM

[SobaAddict70]

heh

I think I like Tony's review a helluva lot better.

As an aside --

T -- I'm reading Kitchen Confidential, which is, for all intents and purposes my introduction to you (even though you've been on the site for ages and ages, and yes I know who you are. I just haven't had exposure to your writing other than on eGullet.) Has anyone ever told you that they're your fan? Well, get used to it. I'm your fan.

Soba

[Really Nice!]

I like this Amazon.com review:

[1 star] Mean, Bitter & Spiteful, July 27, 2003
Reviewer: A reader from San Francisco, CA USA
The headline says it all. This is a bitter memoir filled with spite for those whom Tower believes have deprived him of proper credit. His remarks about Alice Waters are mean-spirited and vile. It's all about Tower-- me!me!me! To which I would only add: mean!mean!mean!

[hannahcooks]

I just picked this up this weekend- I had planned on waiting for it at the library, but Tower was signing copies at the Hollywood Farmer's Market, and I am a sucker for an autographed book. He promised me it would make me laugh- we'll see.

[CityCook]

The following comes from the Barnes & Noble online listing for California Dish:

People who bought this book also bought:
The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen Jacques Pepin
Running with Scissors: A Memoir Augusten Burroughs
Living History: Hillary Rodham Clinton
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly Anthony Bourdain
Cook's Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines Anthony Bourdain

Did you ever play along with Sesame Street when that song came on: "One of these kids is not like the others; one of these kids just doesn't belong..." ?

[maggiethecat]

bratt23, on Aug 11 2003, 09:57 AM, said:

Did you ever play along with Sesame Street when that song came on: "One of these kids is not like the others; one of these kids just doesn't belong..." ?

Pepin, right?

[helenas]

Really Nice!, on Aug 11 2003, 01:38 AM, said:

It's all about Tower-- me!me!me! To which I would only add: mean!mean!mean!

It doesn't mean that this book is not a great reading, or Tower is not a great chef!

[Peckish]

Tripe!

I have cooked for the man. He knows a great deal about food but I would pause before using the phrase, "Great chef."

[malcolmjolley]

He's certainly had an interesting life, either way. And the book (so far) is fun.

On Chef Bourdain's point: from what I've read, Waters has been quite gracious about it all. I suspect she'll come out of it looking as good as ever.

(edited for typos)

This post has been edited by malcolmjolley: 11 August 2003 - 10:34 AM

[I. Reilly]

Well let me be the first to call that Jerimiah Tower guy a hipster doofus. Putting down that sweet Alice Waters like that, man ought to be ashamed of himself. I ain't even heard of that fella.

[Jinmyo]

I. Reilly, on Aug 11 2003, 07:23 PM, said:

Well let me be the first to call that Jerimiah Tower guy a hipster doofus.  Putting down that sweet Alice Waters like that, man ought to be ashamed of himself.  I ain't even heard of that fella.

Um, Tower is or was a chef.

Alice Waters just buys groceries.

But he still treats her and others poorly and with little reason.

[I. Reilly]

Not really getting you with the buying groceries thing friend. I'm a little thick. If any one of them West Coast oldies but goodies should be ashamed of himself it's that annoying Wolfgang Puck. He's always gesturing on that show all wild, and he's just plum rude to his guests, and his English is much worse than Emeril's. I like Alice cause I know Alice. Met her once and ate at Chez Panisse back in 1977. No one can do rabbit food like Mrs. Waters....and she's a hoot to share a cold one with. I didn't get no big head thing from her at all, oh to the contrary, to the contrary. She's about as gentle as a flower petal. All bright eyed and smart too.

[Carema]

I think reading a book by Patrick Kuh..."the last days of haute cuisine" should shed some light upon this topic. Both J & A are important: her for her unflagging loyalty to good ingredients, J for his intellectualism and bringing the concept of terroir back to the US of A. I am not necessarily a Towers fan, and am necessarily a Waters fan, but both deserve their places. J's attempt at Stars in seattle was an unmitigated joke, her restaurant still reigns supreme in Berkeley. No matter how you slice it, it still comes up vinaigrette versus sauce and Italy versus France.

[SobaAddict70]

hm, so on a scale of one to ten, how would most people who have read the book rate the book? may get it next, or as an Xmas gift to myself.

Soba

[tanabutler]

My book-loving friends elsewhere have convinced me that this is a library book at best.

Or maybe the People magazine of culinary tell-alls.

Okay, can the guy WRITE? Or is it one of those "as told to" abominations. Who's got the voice? The literary voice.

Tony, you get to be brazen in your appreciation because you know the players. What's in the book for a regular (fairly bright, somewhat food-involved) reader?

I ain't above guilty pleasures.