Book Review:
Seasonal Spanish Food: 125 Simple Recipes Bring Home The Flavors Of Spain
By José Pizarro
CAPSULE REPORT: Chef José Pizarro’s Seasonal Spanish Food is a conversational-style cookbook that will teach you how to shop and prepare Spanish cuisine seasonally, saving you money and time while reducing your carbon footprint. Since this book is divided into seasons, you can use it as a guide at the supermarket any time of the year to choose fresher, more abundant produce. Although some recipes can get a little challenging for the novice cook, the book will encourage many people to cook tastier, healthier food in no time. This is Page 1 of a two-page review, plus recipes. Click on the black links below to visit the other pages.
Seasonal Spanish Food Overview
Chef Pizarro grew up watching his mom’s Zen-like approach to making dinner. Yet, it wasn’t until he left for school Cáceres, Spain, that he began to seriously pursue his interest in cooking professionally.
After school, his next move was to Madrid, where he worked with a variety of Spanish produce and landed his first head chef job at a Michelin-rated restaurant. There, he was encouraged to experiment with unusual flavors and offal.
He then settled in London when he was given the opportunity to run his own restaurant—the chance to express his own philosophy and interpretation of Spanish food. He’s translated those beliefs into the recipes that appear throughout the book Seasonal Spanish Food.
One of those philosophies is healthy eating using food that’s in season because it is abundant, more affordable and, perhaps most importantly, it just tastes better. Think of eating a fresh apple that you picked at an orchard and compare that to eating one from the supermarket in the dead of winter. You’ll notice the fresh, local apple has a more intense, crisp, apple flavor because it has been allowed to fully ripen versus one that has been shipped over weeks and/or stored for months.
Buying seasonal and local is also environmentally healthy because it helps reduce your carbon footprint. Food that is not locally in season must be produced and shipped, often from other countries on the far side of the equator, where the seasons are opposite ours. The food is harvested earlier than normal and given time to ripen during the long travel to your local supermarket. Not only is this food less flavorful, but it comes at a higher cost to your pocket and to the environment.
Seasonal Spanish Food echoes this simple mantra throughout all 240 pages. The beautifully designed book is put together according to season, so you’ll know which ingredients are in season and are the freshest to use.
Continue To Page 2: Spanish Food Recipe Tests
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