COOKING WILD

More than 150 Recipes for Eating Close to Nature by Chef John Ash and James O. Fraioli

To eat wild foods, you needn’t crawl through the forest or hunt your own game. Many of these foods are as close by as your local supermarket. COOKING WILD (Running Press; May 2016; $35 US/$45.50 CAN), by Chef John Ash and James O. Fraioli, takes a big view of “eating close to nature,” including recipes and information on foraged and uncultivated foods as well as looking at the progeny of wild foods more conveniently found for sale alongside their conventional cousins.

Warm Dandelion Salad, Grilled Trout with Herbs and Pancetta, Fried Wild Rice, Spatchcooked Pine Chicken, Manhattan Clam Chowder, and Rhubarb Galette are only a few of the different tastes you will encounter in COOKING WILD. Uncultivated foods are better for the planet and your plate, so for best health—and best flavor!—go wild!

Increasingly, Americans are concerned about where their food comes from, how it’s produced, packaged, and marketed. Heritage breeds, Paleo diets, farmers’ markets, and environmental and climate concerns all point to increased interest in foods that are as natural and un-manipulated (read: healthy) as they can be. In this book, plants, seafood, meat, and birds are all covered in more than 150 recipes, and will serve as a historical, agricultural education for you and your kitchen.

“I think that this cookbook is the best cookbook ever written from vision to page to execution. The palate of this chef is absolutely incredible and the way he ensures that it turns out at home is a true gift that most food writers are never able to achieve. John Thomas Ash, this is one of my mom’s favorite recipes!!! Thank you!” – Jennifer Bushman

Press related to “Cooking Wild” events:
Popular chef showcases recipes at Tallman Hotel Saturday
John Ash at Tallman Hotel

Chef John Ash is a two-time James Beard award-winning author, teacher, and restaurateur. He co-hosts a weekly food and wine radio talk show, The Good Food Hour, broadcast in Sonoma County, and teaches cooking classes at various cooking schools, including the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena, California. His most recent book, Culinary Birds, won a James Beard Award for Best Single Subject Cookbook. He lives in Santa Rosa, California.

James O. Fraioli is an award-winning cookbook author and a 2014 James Beard Award Winner for Culinary Birds. He has 20 cookbooks to his credit, and has edited and contributed to dozens of food and wine magazines. He lives in Redmond, Washington.

Press Democrat: Father of Wine Country cuisine John Ash gets close to nature with ‘Cooking Wild’

Here is an exciting article in the Press Democrat about my new book, “Cooking Wild” by Diane Peterson. The article includes a recipe and starts here … “John Ash of Santa Rosa, known as the “Father of Wine Country Cuisine” and one of the region’s most renowned chefs, has always been a visionary, capturing the zeitgeist of his time while gazing presciently into the future.

“When he first opened his namesake restaurant, John Ash & Company, in Montgomery Village in 1980, it was one of the first in Northern California to focus on local, seasonal ingredients and to create dishes that complemented the wines being made in the region. Now, more than 35 years later, nearly all restaurant chefs worth their salt aspire to meet that high standard.

“As an international cooking teacher, Ash also educated a new generation of home cooks eager to eat more simply and more ethically, closer to the fresh flavors of the gardens and farms in their own back yards.

“Now the award-winning cookbook author has released his fifth tome, “Cooking Wild” (Running Press, $35), which feeds into several hot food trends, from Heritage breeds and the Paleo diet to the wildly popular foraging fad, best exemplified by Danish superstar chef René Redzepi of Noma restaurant in Copenhagen.”

Read on: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/lifestyle/5552032-181/father-of-wine-country-cuisine?artslide=0