About a year ago, while wandering the clearance shelf at Half Price Books on my lunch break (one of my favorite pastimes), I came across a well-loved copy of the Zuni Cafe Cookbook for $1. ($1!) I have a history, albeit brief, with Zuni. The fall after studying abroad in Helsinki, I ventured into the world of design by working at Peter Miller Books here in Seattle. Now, while Peter prides himself on being a purveyor of art, architecture, and design books, he also was very proud of a small and VERY SPECIFIC selection of lifestyle books, including those on cooking. There were 2 or 3 travel guides, 1 particular book on the art of Italian hand-gesturing, and about 3 cookbooks. (I now see that there are 5 listed on the website, and I would suspect another 2 or 3 available in-store, but at the time, this was a selective and coveted list). Peter has great culinary taste, often offering customers Seattle restaurant recommendations before suggesting buildings to visit, so I knew that the cookbooks he chose to sell were the best of the best.
These were 3 cookbooks out of the thousands that exist, those written and illustrated just-so to coexist in a world full of design and craft. Zuni was one of the selected few. On slow fall afternoons, while wind whipped leaves around First avenue, I would sometimes flip through the Zuni cookbook while imagining equally autumnal days on the streets of San Francisco with rustic cuisine equally fitting (fall is my favorite!) At a recent book reading with blogger Orangette, she recommended this cookbook as one of the 2 best cookbooks to have in your kitchen (along with the Art of Braising). It is simple, elegant, and informative.
It is also verbose in instruction, however, which leads to tonight’s dinner dilemma. I am an impatient person, and ever since my $1 score at half price, I have been remiss to sit down with Zuni, to really discover a recipe or two that I would like to try. But today I was committed to taking a turn and finding out exactly what Zuni has to offer.
We decided to make Zuni Roast Chicken with Bread Salad. It. . . was. . . amazing. Simple. Rustic. Flavorful. This was the first time we’ve ever roasted a chicken (gasp, I know), but it was easy! It came out perfectly browned, crispy, and tender on the inside just as I had hoped. The bread salad was perfectly vinegar-y, and the currants added a perfect sweetness.
We had a glass of Spanish red wine along with and it was the perfect Friday night meal. We had most of the ingredients on-hand, so it didn’t seem like a big effort, and even though it took an hour-ish to cook, the smells filled the house and distracted us from hunger. Delish!
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