Product Description

Susanna Foo, the leading Chinese chef in America and the winner of two James Beard Awards, has been hailed as an innovator by Gourmet, Food & Wine, Esquire, the New York Times, and many other publications. By substituting fresh ingredients for canned ones and readily available items for hard-to-find imported ones, she has put a fresh face on Chinese food, first in her restaurant in Philadelphia, Susanna Foo Chinese Cuisine, then in her award-winning book of the same name, and most recently in her acclaimed restaurant in Atlantic City, Suilan by Susanna Foo.
In Susanna Foo Fresh Inspiration, she takes an even more revolutionary approach. Rather than recreating the dishes of the past, she redefines Chinese cooking and broadens its reach. "Although being Chinese defines who I am and the way in which I think about food, I refuse to be limited by a single tradition: my primary goal is to preserve the natural flavor and integrity of the ingredients," she writes in the introduction. "Cooking this way has resulted in an unexpected bonus: my food is even simpler to prepare than before."
Indeed, the recipes in this book are so radically simple, so fresh and easy to prepare, that they may even change your ideas about what Chinese cooking is. Many of the recipes, such as Wok-Shaking Shrimp with Pink Peppercorns and Korean Pancakes served with Citrus-Cured Salmon, are reinterpretations of traditional dishes. Like much of Susanna's food, Ten-Vegetable Vegetarian Hot-and-Sour Soup, White Corn Soup, and Brussel Sprouts and Portobello Mushrooms were inspired by the wealth of fresh produce that she encountered for the first time when she came to this country. Some dishes, like Braised Pork Belly and Crispy Jumbo Shrimp with Caramelized Orange Sauce, are much-requested specialties of her restaurants, while others are homey and utterly approachable: Salmon Braised with Soy and Ginger, Roasted Five-Spice Pork Tenderloin, Grilled Lamb Chops with Roasted Sesame Marinade, and Roast Chicken with Peppercorn Rub. Still others, such as Mandarin Potato Salad with Cellophane Noodles, Sautéed Artichoke Hearts, and Beet, Rhubarb, and Grapefruit Salad, offer startling new treatments of familiar ingredients.
With striking full-color photographs, Susanna Foo Fresh Inspiration is a fresh invitation to cooks at all levels to roll up their sleeves and head to the kitchen.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #529826 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Fusion has earned a bad reputation, mostly due to silly combinations that, while intellectually interesting, are often just not that appetizing. Foo (chef/owner of two restaurants and a two-time James Beard Award winner) keeps things lively yet appealing by not going too wacky. Yes, Panko-Crusted Goat Cheese with Tomato and Asparagus Salad uses Japanese bread crumbs, but Alice Waters has been making goat cheese crunchy for years. Likewise, Grilled Lamb Chops with Roasted Sesame Marinade replaces the lamb tenderloin more commonly used in Mongolian shish kabob with a different cut, but preserves the classic flavors. Sometimes Asian ingredients shake hands with Western techniques, as in a savory Rice Noodle Flan and Asian Pear Tatin. There are more traditional dishes, too, like Braised Red Snapper with Thai Curry Sauce and Braised Lion's Head Meatballs "the size of a fist." Foo shares encyclopedic knowledge about everything from long beans (which are part of the black-eyed pea family) to braising (great for tenderizing cheaper cuts of meat). If there is a flaw, it may be that Foo is too wide-ranging, so that the selection occasionally feels unfocused. Overall, though, this is a thoughtful collection of fresh, elegant recipes. Photos. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
Foo keeps things lively yet appealing...a thoughtful collection of fresh, elegant recipes. (Publishers Weekly )

This collection of 150-plus recipes will inspire home cooks with Asian-influenced Western dishes [...] and lighter versions of classic Chinese items. [A] closer look reveals intriguing flavor combinations. (Library Journal )

About the Author
SUSANNA FOO was born in Inner Mongolia and raised in Taiwan. She
earned an advanced degree in library science in the United States before
discovering her true love, cooking. She is a graduate of the Culinary
Institute of America and chef-owner of Susanna Foo Chinese Cuisine in
Philadelphia and Suilan by Susanna Foo in Atlantic City. In addition to
winning two James Beard Awards, she has received the Robert Mondavi
Culinary Award of Excellence.

Customer Reviews

Susanna Food Fresh Inspiration: New Approaches to Chinese cuisine
Although I live in Los Angeles now, I remember an exquisite dinner at Susanna Foo's restaurant in Philadelphia, PA, years ago. This book is not a surprise. She is an ace at creativity with fresh ingredients and this cookbook with its fascinating recipes is an exceptional work. I am so pleased that I discovered it.

Superior celebrity chef cookbook. Good tips. Luscious recipes.
`Susanna Foo Fresh Inspiration' is the second book by Chinese-American Restaurateur / Chef Susanna Foo who has some James Beard awards to her credit plus the usual celebrity chef endorsement blurbs on the back of her book from the likes of Charlie Trotter, Daniel Boulud, Jacques Pepin, and Lidia Bastianich. One thing which impressed me is that in spite of the oversize format, the book's list price is no more than the standard $35.

As the author makes clear in her introduction, this is not a book on standard Chinese cooking technique. And, her suggestions on wok cooking early in the book also make it clear this is not traditional fiery hot carbon steel wok cooking. Rather, it is adapted to the familiar western flat bottomed wok which I suspect most purely Chinese cooks would consider not a wok at all.

It took me no more than reading two recipes to sense that this book is mostly a fusion of Chinese and Mediterranean ingredients and techniques. The very first `dim sum' recipe had western ingredients portobello mushrooms, extra virgin olive oil, shallots, Parmesan cheese, and truffle oil paired up with Oriental ingredients shiitake mushrooms, dumpling skins, soy sauce, and cellophane noodles. This dish could be billed just as accurately as a ravioli or empanada dish as a dish of dumplings.

Except for the terms `Dim Sum' and `Tofu' in the chapter titles, this would look for the entire world like a typical western cookbook. All the chapters are:

Dim Sum and first Courses - Not too much different from antipasto dishes.
Soups and Stocks - Oddly, no chicken stock, but just about every other kind, plus tofu recipes.
Salads and Cold Vegetable Dishes - Again, evenly divided between Asian and European ingredients.
Fish and Shellfish - Mostly worldwide ingredients such as shrimp, scallops, salmon, and black sea bass.
Poultry - Finally a primarily oriental recipe selection of duck and chicken, plus roasted Poussin.
Meats - Primarily oriental dishes, including Korean grilled dishes.
Noodles, Rice, and Other Side Dishes - Total mix of east and west with soba noodles to chestnuts.
Tofu and Eggs - this may be the most oriental chapter of all, as most of the recipes involve frying or braising tofu.
Vegetables - A very western group of recipes.
Condiments and Relishes - More western pickling than Korean or Chinese fermented preparations.
Desserts - Very, very western selection.

The placement of recipes in chapters is sometimes illogical, but you will hardly notice or be annoyed by the fact.

The value to people with few cookbooks is that for a standard price, you get a very nice selection of recipes from around the world. The value to people with lots of cookbooks is that this is a better than average read as `celebrity chef ` cookbooks go, and it has several excellent refinements on tips which are not shortcuts but the kind which arise from a monomaniacal devotion to doing the very best cooking you can possibly do. While many of the tips may be just a bit too excessive, they can lead you in the right direction when you need just a little extra effort. For example, Ms. Foo suggests freshening salad greens by preparing a water bath by adding ice cubes to cold water until the ice cubes no longer melt. Then, remove the ice cubes and use the freezing temperature water to refresh the greens.

Overall, this is a slightly better than average celebrity cookbook with a slightly misleading concept. It may have been better to bill it as a Chinese / Mediterranean fusion cookbook.

Chinese with a French/American Slant
One trouble with a lot of Chinese (or other ethnic for that matter) cookbooks have is that they often call for items that might be readily available in Hong Kong but which are very difficult to find in you local supermarket -- expecially if you live in a small town like I do. Susanna Foo on the other hand is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and had developed a series of dishes that:

taste better to American palates
use commonly found ingredients
are simple to make.

The resulting dishes are lighter, fresher tasting and all around better than you find in other Chinese cookbooks. She even adds that you don't have to be a slave to her recipies. Cooking should be fun and it should please your and your families tastes.

This is a large cookbook. 352 pages and the book is of large format. There are a lot of recipies, a lot of things to try that are different that what you've seen before, a combination of Chinese with French, molded to fit America. Maybe that's why her two restaurants have been such a success.