Julee Rosso - Silver Palate Cookbook 25th Anniversary Edition

JULEE ROSSO & SHEILA LUKINS
WITH MICHAEL MCLAUGHLINPHOTOGRAPHS BY PATRICK TREGENZA AND SUSAN GOLDMAN
ILLUSTRATIONS BY SHEILA LUKINS WORKMAN PUBLISHING | NEW YORK Molly, Annabel, Wills, June and Frank
Who have always been there for us
We love you very much Barb
Bobbie Bert Copyright 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 2007 Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins Photographs copyright by Patrick Tregenza: pages ; all silhouetted photographs Photographs copyright by Susan Goldman: pages Silver Palate is a trademark of Silver Palate Kitchens, Inc., used under license from its predecessors in interest. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproducedmechanically, electronically, or by any other means, including photocopying without the written permission of the publisher. Published simultaneously in Canada by Thomas Allen & Son Limited. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
eISBN: 9780761179580 Cover design by Paul Hanson with Patrick Borelli
Front cover photograph by Arnold Katz
Author photograph by Gwendolen Cates
Cover food photograph by Patrick Tregenza Workman books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk for premiums and sales promotions as well as for fund-raising or educational use. Special editions or book excerpts also can be created to specification.

For details, contact the Special Sales Director at the address below. Workman Publishing Company, Inc.
225 Varick Street
New York, NY 10014-4381
www.workman.com

CHAPTER ONE
TO BEGIN A GREAT EVENINGCHAPTER TWO
SOUPS ONCHAPTER THREE
PASTA PERFECTCHAPTER FOUR
THE MAIN COURSECHAPTER FIVE
GREAT GARDEN VEGETABLESCHAPTER SIX
SALADSCHAPTER SEVEN
CHEESES AND BREADSCHAPTER EIGHT
SWEETSCHAPTER NINE
THE BRUNCH BUNCHCHAPTER TEN
BASICS There are three types of creatures that seem to be coming when they are going and going when they are comingdiplomats, crabs, and women. JOHN M. HAY, SECRETARY OF STATE, 18981905 In truth, crabs go sideways, they sort of zigzag their way along. No doubt thats how we must have looked in 1982 when this cookbook was first published. We were immersed in our little gourmet takeout shop on Columbus Avenue in New York City.

One minute cooking, the next catering. Our friends thought we were crazy: If we gave away our secret recipes, wed be out of business. But little did any of us know the joy that writing a cookbook would bring to our lives. Now here we are twenty-five years later, celebrating with a brand new edition that highlights our recipes with beautiful color photographs. They add an exciting new dimension to a cookbook that has been beloved for two and a half decades. Looking back, it doesnt seem so long ago that we opened our shop.

It was the summer of 1977: Jimmy Carter was in the White House, there were endless lines for Star Wars, Elvis had left the building, and we were all dancing to the Bee Gees at a Saturday Night Fever pitch. Julee, a gal from Kalamazoo, was working at her dream job in the fashion industry, doing marketing, publicity, and advertising. Along the way, she taught herself how to cook by cooking, from start to finish, through Julia Childs The French Chef. Sheila, married and the mother of two very young daughters, Annabel and Molly, had long enjoyed cooking and entertaining. Sheila had graduated from Le Cordon Bleu school in London, and had become increasingly intrigued by food during the familys time living in Paris. Back in New York, she created The Other Woman Catering Company, with the motto so discreet, so delicious, and I deliver. Her business was directed primarily toward bachelors, who struggled to entertain without a little woman in the kitchen.

One of those bachelors was Julees on again, off again beau, who needed a cook when Julee was off again. So we finally met: Julee, the advertising director, needed Sheila, the caterer, to help host a press breakfast for a major fashion designer. The press arrived at the designers lavish apartment (resplendent with nine-foot-tall suits of armor) and waxed ecstatic as we served them fresh figs wrapped with prosciutto, Baked Ham with Apricots, warm croissants, cappuccino, and jewel-like bowls of lemon, blackberry, and raspberry mousses. The designer was lauded, but it was the food that got the real raves. That morning, a fantasy food partnership was born. At the time, we confided to each other that we both felt overwhelmed trying to juggle work, family, and the various hobbies, interests, and obligations that occupied our time.

It was all too much. And we each admitted, with some dismay, that with so much going on, our shared passions of cooking and entertaining seemed to be getting the short end of the deal. It occurred to us that if we good cooks needed help well, we just couldnt be alone. Thats when Julee had the idea for a food shop where people could pick up great food on a whim, for one or for many, to take home and graciously serve as their own. The concept was simple: a tiny gem of a shop featuring the best of our home cooking repertoireno pretense, just good, simple food with the bold flavors we both loved. Wed make it easy for working people to have a picnic in the park, take a break from restaurants, or serendipitously invite friends home for a bite.

We were excited about the idea and set the wheels in motion, but had difficulty describing it as simply as we had envisioned it. About a month before opening, Florence Fabricant, writing an article for New York magazine on the renaissance of Columbus Avenue, made it easy. She tasted our food and said, instantly, Call it the Silver Palate. Perfect. When we said, Print it, well go national, we had no idea where we were headed. When we finally opened our doors at 4:00 P.M., on July 15, 1977, the block had already been abuzz.

It was two days after the infamous New York City blackout, and despite the insistent 103F heat, by 4:15 we were jammed. We had stocked the store to the brim and our food looked glorious. Little did we know that the Philharmonic was playing in Central Park that eveningcustomers flooded the shop wanting picnics, picnics, and more picnics. Our air conditioner promptly broke. Then we realized our little antique French scale and longhand computing werent going to cut it when someone wanted a medium-size container of Tarragon Chicken Salad, which was priced by the pound. Yikes! We sold out long before closing, and collapsed, having learned some lessons that wed apply the next day, and the day after that.

We cooked as we did at home, with fresh, seasonal ingredients, no shortcuts ever. Every day our menu included great breads and cheeses, and an array of foods that were cooked in Sheilas kitchen and carried down the street to the store: Salmon Mousse, Cheese Straws, Saucisson en Crote, Pt Maison, Chicken Marbella, Ratatouille, Torta Rustica, Moussaka, Nutted Wild Rice, Blanquette de Veau, Lemon Squares, Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies, Blackberry Mousse, and on and on. Sheilas mother made carrot cake in Connecticut and drove it down to the shop. Julee made gravlax at home in the early morning hours, then picked up warm fresh croissants and cheeses in a taxi before heading across the park. We were never short of ideas. We glowed when our customers came back with compliments.

They learned to trust us when we surprised them with then-unfamiliar dishes such as seviche, pt, and vegetable pures. They tried it. They loved it. And people started bringing our foods back home to Mom, to show they were well fed in New York City. Thats when we began to wonder whether we could package some of our recipes for transport elsewhere. The summer of 1978 found us up to our elbows in our Canning Kitchen.