Spanish Cooking

The New Spanish Table

Name: The New Spanish Table
Author: Anya Von Bremzen
ISBN: 9780761135555

by Anya Von Bremzen

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Overview

Amazing things are happening at the new Spanish table. The sweet-hot pequillos of Navarra turn up in a classic potato tortilla (the beloved omelet found in every tapas bar). Purple-veined Cabrales butter melts across a thick grilled T-bone. Honey is drizzled over eggplant “fries.” Chocolate meets olive oil, strawberries meet fennel, vanilla meets salmon.Mysteriously delicious savory ice creams—balsamic vinegar, thyme, saffron—garnish soups and seafoods.

Casual, quietly inventive, steeped in regional traditions but unmistakably modern, Spain is the new France and Italy, an epicenter of contemporary Mediterranean cooking with a wealth of alluring flavors and preparations.

Written by Anya von Bremzen—an award-winning food writer who first fell in love with Spain in the early 1980s, introduced the Catalan genius and three-star chef Ferran Adrià to American readers in 1997, and today spends close to half her year in the country—The New Spanish Table delivers all the pleasures of this exhilarating cuisine.

It’s a rustic table: Baked Fish with Romesco Potatoes. It’s elegant: Rack of Lamb with Pistachio Pesto. It’s exquisitely simple: Smoky Fried Almonds with sea salt, an addictive marriage of four ingredients. It’s for entertaining— dozens of tapas, paellas and cazuelas (named after the Spanish terra-cotta casseroles)—and, with its glorious comfort foods like fried eggs with crackling, crispy whites, and luscious, unusual Rice Pudding Ice Cream, perfect for cozying up, alone.

Most of all, The New Spanish Table is an irresistible, festive celebration of flavorsfrom a culture absolutely passionate about food, wine, and the pleasures of an excellent meal.

About the Author, Anya Von Bremzen

Like most of the culinary world, food and travel writer Anya von Bremzen has Spain on the brain. But unlike those who have recently discovered Spain's sophisticated flavors and innovative charms, Anya has spent the last 10 years writing about Spanish cuisine and culture. A contributing editor at Travel + Leisure, she has pioneered Spanish cuisine in publications like Food & Wine, Departures, Conde Nast Traveler and the LA Times.

In her latest tour de force, The New Spanish Table, Anya reveals the Spain she knows and loves, peppering delicious recipes with historical tidbits, cooking hints and true Spanish hospitality.
In addition to The New Spanish Table, Anya is the author of four ethnic cookbooks, including the James Beard Award-winning Please to the Table: The Russian Cookbook, Terrific Pacific Cookbook, The Greatest Dishes!: Around the World in 80 Recipes, and Fiesta! A Celebration of Latin Hospitality, which won Anya her second Beard award.

When she's not in Spain or traveling to some exotic locale to try a new restaurant, Anya lives in New York City.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly

Von Bremzen is in love with the gastronomic delights of Spain, offering an appealing, informative look at the cuisine that is rapidly usurping the culinary dominance of Italy and France. She offers insight into the dishes of famed chefs Ferran Adri and Juan Mari Arzak and also shares the secrets of talented but lesser known cooks from around the country. Several of the recipes are for dishes you'd expect to find in a volume of this size-sangria, gazpacho and a multitude of tapas-but there are many welcome surprises: Eggs over Smoky Bread Hash, Coca (Spanish-Mediterranean pizza) with Candied Red Peppers, and Rice Pudding Ice Cream. Throughout the recipe section, von Bremzen (Please to the Table) provides entertaining personal stories like "Ode to a Can of Tuna," which details a raid on Arzak's fridge that reveals an incredible tinned treat. Readers will find facts on the history, food and wine of each of Spain's regions, a primer on Spanish cheese and a look at the critical ingredients in a Spanish pantry. Regardless of their level of familiarity with Spanish cuisine, all readers will learn something from von Bremzen, who shows us why Spain is taking its rightful place near the top of the culinary ladder. Photos. (Dec.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

The widely traveled von Bremzen is also the author of Please to the Table: The Russian Cookbook and The New Pacific Table, among other titles. A frequent visitor to Spain since the early 1980s, she has watched the culinary revolution that has recently made some of that country's chefs into international names. Her latest book provides a fascinating look at this new cuisine, with recipes (adapted for the home kitchen) from Ferran Adri and other celebrated chefs, but fortunately she does not dismiss the favorite regional dishes that are hallmarks of traditional Spanish cooking (she admits that her recipe selection leans to her two favorite regions, Catalonia and the Basque country). So classics like Patatas Bravas and Garlic Soup are here, next to recipes for such inventions as Cherry and Beet Gazpacho, "Deconstructed" Tomato Bread, and Scallops with Candied Lemon. There are sidebars on ingredients, history, and other culinary topics, along with stories about the chefs, home cooks, and artisans she encountered, and there are color photographs of the food and the cities and countryside throughout. An essential purchase. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.