Years back the standard Jeremiah Tower press kit claimed the master's hand in the development of everything to do with food just this side of the invention of fire. California cuisine? Café dining? Franco-Asian fusion food? All Jeremiah. Well, that was PR, a subject Tower addresses in his memoir of his life in food and the food business, California Dish: What I Saw (and Cooked) at the American Culinary Revolution. This isn't to say that Tower doesn't make his own argument for all his contributions, setting the record straight where he thinks the record has slipped into mythology. His contribution to the rise of Chez Panisse, for example. This is a man with an apparent lifelong habit of journal keeping. He isn't waiting for his own demise for the story to unfold. Rather, Tower tells all--his version of all--in the here and now, letting the chips fall where they may. The pleasure may be vicarious, but it-s a pleasure none the less.

In 50 years the organizing principle of this memoir, that the rise of California cuisine and who gets credit for what actually matters, may hold no water. But California Dish will remain invaluable as a memoir of the time by one of its more outlandish characters, a man who spent a good deal of his youth on ocean liners and in upscale hotel dining rooms. He shares all this in the spirit of James Beard's Delights and Prejudices, which documented an earlier time and way with food. Tower will be accused of cattiness, no doubt. And he is. He'll be accused of self-promotion. And he does. But he also lays on the praise where he believes it is due. When he admires other chefs and their work, he says so. In a series of scenes he returns to James Beard the dignity of his sexuality, like throwing the switch from two to three dimensions.

The first-person point-of-view often reveals much more about the writer than the writer ever intended. It's the nature of the beast. Tower may have been aiming at an improved press kit version of his life. But what press kit was ever poignant? For all the names of the famous, for all the celebrity happenings, the constant world travel, the designer labels, Jeremiah Tower seems a lonely man by book's end, a glass of fine champagne his best friend. --Schuyler Ingle


From Publishers Weekly
Tower opens this memoir with the story of going head to head with French chef Guy Savoy at a sort of junket for the culinary press back in 1983 and how he won over his audience with an audacity born of equal parts pride and inexperience. His fusion of cooking talk with more personal gossip and the inclusion of the revealing aside is sure to captivate foodies. But Tower's pacing meanders, and his gracious facade shows more than a few rough and brittle edges. An abiding bitterness is the only thing revealed in Tower's version of the creation of Chez Panisse and the rivalry with Alice Waters that ensued. Other sections-especially the chapters on his running San Francisco's Stars-likewise avoid topics of obvious interest to make room for name dropping and ax grinding. The occasional insertion of menus or recipes is random. Tower's personality comes through in bits and pieces as he frankly remembers the highs and lows of an important career, but the picture as a whole is less than flattering. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Review
William Grimes The New York Times Mr. Tower does not exaggerate when he refers, in the subtitle of his book, to "the American culinary revolution." He knows. He was there. He helped make it happen. California Dish is his victory lap. And he deserves one.

Sara Moulton host, Food Network's Sara's Secrets California Dish delivers on the double meaning implicit in its title -- it serves up a longtime insider's juicy perspective on the key players of the American culinary revolution and recounts, course by course, a career's worth of exceptional meals. It's a great read. I couldn't put it down.

Entertainment Weekly Any foodie worth his coarse salt remembers -- in mouthwatering detail -- every flavor that shaped his palate. So it goes with chef-restaurateur Jeremiah Tower, who recounts with world-weary relish...the memorable meals on his journey from childhood gourmet to godfather of California's New American cuisine.


Review
Jacques Pépin The food of Jeremiah Tower has always satisfied my belly and my soul. He was there from the start and is more qualified than anyone else to tell the story of the American food revolution of the last thirty years.


Review
Robert Mondavi Jeremiah Tower dishes better than almost anybody. His book is educational as well as entertaining. I recommend California Dish heartily.


Book Description
Widely recognized as the godfather of modern American cooking and a mentor to such rising celebrity chefs as Mario Batali, Jeremiah Tower is one of the most influential cooks of the last thirty years. Now, the former chef and partner at Chez Panisse and the genius behind Stars San Francisco tells the story of his lifelong love affair with food -- an affair that helped to spark an international culinary revolution. Tower shares with wit and honesty the real dish on cooking, chefs, celebrities, and what really goes on in the kitchen. Above all, Tower rhapsodizes about food -- the meals choreographed like great ballets, the menus scored like concertos. No other book reveals more about the seeds sown in the seventies, the excesses of the eighties, and the self-congratulations of the nineties. No other chef/restaurateur who was there at the very beginning is better positioned than Jeremiah Tower to tell the story of the American culinary revolution.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Widely recognized as the godfather of modern American cooking and a mentor to such rising celebrity chefs as Mario Batali, Jeremiah Tower is one of the most influential cooks of the last thirty years. Now, the former chef and partner at Chez Panisse and the genius behind Stars San Francisco tells the story of his lifelong love affair with food -- an affair that helped to spark an international culinary revolution.

Raised in the United States, Australia, and Great Britain, two-time James Beard Award-winner Jeremiah Tower was a man without a country -- until he immersed himself in the borderless world of great cooking and set out to create the "serious simplicity" that would change our notions of fine dining. Stumbling almost by accident into Berkeley's then-unknown Chez Panisse in 1971, he dazzled the San Francisco Bay Area -- and then the rest of the country -- with his dedication to fresh, local ingredients prepared simply. Eager to fulfill his own dining vision, he embarked on his quest to build the ultimate high-style "democratic" brasserie, San Francisco's Stars, where blue-jeaned rockers mixed with tuxedoed operagoers and political figures from around the world. With the expansion of Tower's empire into Hong Kong, Singapore, and Seattle, he became one of the first and most glamorous of the eighties "super chefs."

In this sparkling and candid memoir of his life with food, Tower tells the story of his rise and fall and rise again -- all intimately tied to the state of the culinary arts. More than a brilliant chef, Tower is an engaging storyteller who shares with wit and honesty the real dish on cooking, chefs, celebrities, and what really goes on in the kitchen. He exults in the exotic romance language of menus; the philosophy of brown sauce; the inner workings of a super restaurant; the drugs and sex that fueled the revolution; and culinary tours of Brittany, Morocco, and other glamorous ports. You'll get glimpses of such kitchen greats as the legendary James Beard, Chez Panisse's Alice Waters, renowned critic Craig Claiborne, plus Elizabeth David, Richard Olney, Julia Child, Paul Bocuse, Jean Troisgros, Paul Prudhomme, and Wolfgang Puck -- not to mention luminaries like Rudolph Nureyev, Luciano Pavarotti, and Sophia Loren.

Above all, Tower rhapsodizes about food -- the meals choreographed like great ballets, the menus scored like concertos. No other book reveals more about the seeds sown in the seventies, the excesses of the eighties, and the self-congratulations of the nineties. No other chef/restaurateur who was there at the very beginning is better positioned than Jeremiah Tower to tell the story of the American culinary revolution.

FROM THE CRITICS

The New York Times

Tart … Tower still knows how to dish: his book describes experiences with drugs, encounters with celebrities, his own bisexuality and tiffs with Alice Waters, his Chez Panisse business partner. — Judy D'Mello

The Los Angeles Times

In his fascinating, elucidating and often mean-spirited book, California Dish: What I Saw (and Cooked) at the American Culinary Revolution, [Tower] does everything he can to hammer home his position. It's as if he said to himself, "They still don't get it. They still don't understand that Alice was doing PR, and I was the creator," and so goes about documenting his role, even including his job description at Chez Panisse. — Richard Flaste

Entertainment Weekly

Any foodie worth his coarse salt remembers — in mouthwatering detail — every flavor that shaped his palate. So it goes with chef-restaurateur Jeremiah Tower, who recounts with world-weary relish...the memorable meals on his journey from childhood gourmet to godfather of California's New American cuisine.

New York Times - William Grimes

Mr. Tower does not exaggerate when he refers, in the subtitle of his book, to "the American culinary revolution." He knows. He was there. He helped make it happen. California Dish is his victory lap. And he deserves one.

Publishers Weekly

Tower opens this memoir with the story of going head to head with French chef Guy Savoy at a sort of junket for the culinary press back in 1983 and how he won over his audience with an audacity born of equal parts pride and inexperience. His fusion of cooking talk with more personal gossip and the inclusion of the revealing aside is sure to captivate foodies. But Tower's pacing meanders, and his gracious facade shows more than a few rough and brittle edges. An abiding bitterness is the only thing revealed in Tower's version of the creation of Chez Panisse and the rivalry with Alice Waters that ensued. Other sections-especially the chapters on his running San Francisco's Stars-likewise avoid topics of obvious interest to make room for name dropping and ax grinding. The occasional insertion of menus or recipes is random. Tower's personality comes through in bits and pieces as he frankly remembers the highs and lows of an important career, but the picture as a whole is less than flattering. (Aug.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information. Read all 7 "From The Critics" >

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

California Dish delivers on the double meaning implicit in its title — it serves up a longtime insider's juicy perspective on the key players of the American culinary revolution and recounts, course by course, a career's worth of exceptional meals. It's a great read. I couldn't put it down.  — Sara Moulton

The food of Jeremiah Tower has always satisfied my belly and my soul. He was there from the start and is more qualified than anyone else to tell the story of the American food revolution of the last thirty years.  — Jacques Pepin

"California Dish delivers on the double meaning implicit in its title -- it serves up a longtime insider's juicy perspective on the key players of the American culinary revolution, and recounts, course by course, a career's worth of exceptional meals. It's a great read. I couldn't put it down."
--Sara Moulton, host, Food Network's "Sara's Secrets"

"Twenty years ago I met Jeremiah Tower and I fell in love with his food. I think Jeremiah Tower is one of our great chefs. For anyone interested in the food revolution and the innovative cuisine of California, reading his book California Dish is a must. I highly recommend it."
--Colette Rossant, author of Apricot on the Nile and Return to Paris

"From Chez Panisse to Santa Fe Bar & Grill to Star, my favorite brasserie in San Francisco, the food of Jeremiah Tower has always satisfied my belly and my soul. He was there from the start and is more qualified than anyone else to tell the story of the American food revolution of the last 30 years."
--Jacques P￯﾿ﾽpin

"What a pleasure to have this book. Jeremiah Tower captures the real spirit of California cuisine -- simple, fresh, and crisp. Thank you, Jeremiah. "
--Andr￯﾿ﾽ Soltner, chef-owner, Lut￯﾿ﾽce

"Only one person saw the California culinary revolution through the eyes of Jeremiah Tower. I'm glad to have his riveting, frontline perspective, which is at once fascinating, illuminating, and poignant. Those of us who have built American hospitality careers over the past couple of decades owe a major debt to this bushwhacking pioneer of product, pleasure and promotion."
--Danny Meyer, co-author, Union Square Cafe Cookbook

"This book is a celebrity-studded literary 'tasting menu,' combining the raw, tell-all energy of Anthony Bourdain with the worldliness of Jeffrey Steingarten."
--Rick Smilow, President, The Institute of Culinary Education