The Foreign Cinema Cookbook: Recipes and Stories Under the Stars

By Gayle Pirie, John Clark and Alice Waters

“Earthy recipes, gorgeous photos, and the story of one of San Francisco’s best and most interesting restaurants . . . truly a feast!” ?Paula Wolfert, five-time James Beard Award winner

Foreign Cinema opened its doors in 1999 in the Mission District of San Francisco, pioneers in transforming the neighborhood into a culinary destination. The dramatic experience of dining in the sweeping atrium, where films screen nightly, still enchants visitors today. Now, for the first time, chef-owners Gayle Pirie and John Clark share the best from their distinctive North African, California-Mediterranean menu. Featuring 125 signature dishes, the book spans Pirie and Clark’s award-winning brunch favorites like Champagne Omelet and Persian Bloody Mary, cocktail hour with Lavender Baked Goat Cheese in Fig Leaves, and dinner fare including a Five-Spice Duck Breast with Cassis Sauce and Madras Curry Fried Chicken with Spiced Honey, alongside instructions for how to blend spice staples like Ras el Hanout. With rich storytelling throughout, Pirie and Clark offer home cooks a chance to take the restaurant into their own kitchen.

Includes a foreword by Alice Waters

• Language: English
• Publisher: ABRAMS
• Release date: May 15, 2018
• ISBN: 9781683352211

Book preview

Chapter 1

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN

Cocktails

We launch the book, as we do the dining experience at Foreign Cinema, with the Magnificent Seven—delicious cocktails with stories. Happy hour does indeed make us happy, preparing diners for the seasonally inspired menu to come from the first sip.

In 1999, you would have found glasses, stuffed with mint sprigs and fresh-cut lime wedges, lined up the length of our long bar top, ready to be muddled and blended with rum for mojitos. A No-Jito followed: a rum-free version added in 2001 for our friend and frequent patron Marion Cunningham, America’s most enthusiastic proponent of home cooking, who rewrote The Fannie Farmer Cookbook in the 1970s. From there, managers and bartenders alike have concocted thirst-quenching cocktails with purity of flavor from locally acquired ingredients. Looking to film to set a mood, our bar team thrives on unexpected combinations to seduce the palate and spark the imagination.

Overseeing the bar programs for Foreign Cinema and Laszlo, our DJ bar that fronts Mission Street, Nicky Beyries thinks like a chef, responding to fragrance and taste with seasonally appropriate botanicals. While rooted in the classics, Nicky likes to tease with a twist. She’s aided behind the bar by the legendary Colleen Quinn, bartender extraordinaire with an inner light she’s cast since day one. The exquisite libations conceived and brought to fruition behind that bar express a joie de vivre, a curiosity coupled with the commitment to flavor reflected on our menus.

Selecting just seven cocktails from our list of hundreds of unique drinks wasn’t easy. We chose these because of the story they tell about Foreign Cinema over the years.

STOCKING THE BAR

Below are some tips and potions to help you prepare your home bar for cocktail hour. Some of our drink recipes in the pages to follow call for specific liquors and unusual ingredients; we think they’re worth seeking out (see Sources, this page) or making on your own to experience the most authentic rendition of what you would find at our restaurant, but when possible, we offer some substitutions in case you can’t find them.

Citrus Garnish

We purchase and juice local lemons, oranges, and grapefruits daily, garnishing at the last moment with citrus wedges and peels to preserve their flavor. To make a proper citrus garnish for cocktails, use a vegetable peeler to shave a ¾ by 2-inch (2 by 5-cm) band of the fruit’s outer rind, leaving behind the spongy white pith that clings to the fruit. Gently twist the peel directly over the drink just before serving to allow its fragrant oils to perfume the liquid. For extra punch, rub the twisted under peel along the rim of the glass before dropping it