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The Nantucket Restaurants Cookbook is exactly that,
a collection of menus from a whole host of restaurants on
Nantucket Island. And for such a small island, Nantucket has a
lot to offer the hungry gourmet. Samara Farber Mormar, a former
chef, is a Nantucket resident and loves everything about the
island. Her coauthor, Melissa Clark, is a cookbook writer and
columnist for The New York Times. Together they interviewed the
chefs and owners of 18 Nantucket restaurants and wrote a chapter
on each which includes a little history, a little personality,
some local color, and a showstopping menu.
Black-Eyed Susan's doesn't advertise, take reservations, or
publish a phone number, but there's always a line out the door.
With beautiful, summery dishes such as their Tuna Tartare with
Cucumbers and Sriracha Aioli and Lemon Tart with Spring
Strawberry Sorbet, it's no wonder. You'd expect The Boarding
House to serve simple food, but you'd be wrong. Angela and Seth
Raynor met as culinary students, and while he was cooking French
on Nantucket at the Chanticleer, she was cooking in France.
Today, their love for all things French flavors their "new
American" cuisine in dishes such as the refreshing Cold Tomato
Infusion with Lobster. The Club Car is revered for its food and
service far beyond the island's shores. Their Grilled Veal
Medallions with Fresh Horseradish Cream and Poached Oysters is
more than worth the time it takes to prepare. While you can't
enjoy the setting of The Galley on Cliffside Beach--"smack dab on
the beach"--without going there, Goat-Cheese-Stuffed Squash
Blossoms with Grilled Onion and Tomato Vinaigrette and
Rosewater Angel Food Cake with Blackberries and Lemon Verbena
help to explain the entrancing serenity of the island
described by every one of these chefs. Only a handful of the
chefs are Nantucket natives; most of them migrated to the island,
or happened upon it. But once there, they fell in love with it
and stayed. The result is a plethora of fine dining
establishments, and although many are only open during the summer
season, much of their business is repeat.
So if you always imagined Nantucket cuisine as fried clams on
the beach, think again. "Sophisticated food and warm hospitality"
is the order of the day. Come and meet the generous food
community from Nantucket, and follow their lead--maybe all that
island serenity comes just as much from painted plates of Banana
Bread French Toast with Bananas Foster and Crème Fraîche as it
does from the windswept dunes and the sapphire sea. --Leora Y.
Bloom
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From Publishers Weekly
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Lovingly assembled by New York Times columnist Clark
and Nantucket food publicist Mormar, this true foodie's cookbook
features dishes from 18 restaurants representing the highest of
high-end dining at the popular summer retreat. Nantucket, as the
authors explain, has come a long way from its whaling-village,
hardtack-and-salt-pork culinary roots. Today the island's menus
rival their urban counterparts in diversity and cosmopolitanism,
reflecting centuries of influence from immigrant seafarers and
well-heeled visitors, Portuguese fishermen and classically
trained chefs. The authors include a wide representation of
culinary styles, from classic Escoffier at the Chanticleer to
uninhibited Asian fusion at Black-Eyed Susan's. The selections,
though eclectic, like Hot-Smoked Salmon Beignets with Rose Pepper
Beurre Blanc and Grilled Red Endive Garnished with Caviar and
Beet Ravioli with Truffle Butter Sauce, are bound by a certain
thematic unity: they tend to showcase seasonal ingredients and
fresh seafood. Although bursting with ambitious ingredients and
no shortcuts, to Clark and Mormar's credit, even daunting
techniques (e.g., scented pastry creams, oil infusions) are
presented accessibly. Eminently readable and elegant, the book
captures the best of the leisurely oceanside season with which to
tempt both sophisticated entertainers and armchair epicures.
(Apr. 24)
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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