Cat Cora's Kitchen: Favorite Meals for Family and Friends

by Cat Cora, Ann Krueger Spivack, Maren Caruso (Photographer)

What could be better than family and friends gathered around a table laden with laughter and good food? The Food Network's Cat Cora is the perfect companion in the kitchen to help create meals and memories to share and remember. With recipes inspired by Cat's Greek heritage and her roots in the American South, honed by her experiences in restaurants in France and California, Cat Cora's Kitchen shines with simplicity and flavor. Organized by menu, these dishes tempt palates with specialties such as freshly baked Spana-kopita, the traditional Greek favorite of spinach, dill, and feta in pastry, and savory chicken stew, redolent of wine, garlic, and cinnamon. Desserts are also not-to-be-missed, with treats such as the Orange-Scented Almond Cookies or an unusual rolled version of Baklava. The pantry offers basic recipes for homemade stock and a resource section gives suggestions for finding unusual ingredients. With gorgeous photographs throughout, these approachable, elegant dishes will leave everyone asking for the recipe.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking

204 pages, Paperback

First published August 12, 2004

About the author

Born Catherine Ann Cora.
Both on-and off-screen, Chef Cat Cora has made a lasting impression on the culinary community. In 2005, Cora was the first and only female Iron Chef on Food Network's Iron Chef America. The following year she was named Executive Chef of Bon Apptit along with their Teacher of the Year Award.

In 2008, Cora launched CCQ (Cat Coras Que) at Macys new Signature Kitchen restaurant in Californias South Coast Plaza location. Inspired by her own unique barbeque traditions, CCQ defines her passion for global BBQ. Last year, Cora opened Kouzzina (Greek for kitchen) at Walt Disney Worlds Boardwalk Resort, which offers Mediterranean-style cuisine that pays tribute to her Greek roots. She has also authored two cookbooks.

Outside of the kitchen, Cora is known for her philanthropy. She is President and Founder of Chefs for Humanity, an organization founded in response to the 2004 Tsunami disaster."

Reviews

[Steven Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cat Cora is well known as one of the "Iron Chefs" on the Food Channel. Background? On the back dust cover, we note that "Cat Cora was raised in a small Greek-American community in Jackson, Mississippi, where she learned to love both her southern and Greek heritages, including the food." This cookbook reflects that dual heritage. The end result is kind of interesting. Cora herself notes the key influences on her work (Page 1): "For me, one kitchen set me on the path to becoming a chef, and another kitchen changed my views on how I cook. The first was my parents' kitchen in Jackson, Mississippi, and the second was the kitchen of my Aunt Demetra and Uncle Yiorgios on Skopelos, one of the Aegean Islands in Greece."

Fair enough. But it is the recipes that make a cookbook. And, I must say, I find some interesting exemplars here. One can assess a recipe pretty handily after having cooked a bunch over time. And this book contains a bunch of nice recipes that I aim to exploit in the near future.

For instance. . . .

"Chicken stewed in wine, garlic, and cinnamon." Pretty straightforward ingredients (e.g., chicken, cinnamon, kosher salt, freshly ground pepper, cloves of garlic, extra virgin olive oil, chopped onions, dry white wine, water, tomato paste, and grated Myzithra cheese [which I had never known about:]). There is some work with the recipe, but it is clearly doable--and it sounds like the end result would be a delicious treat!

"Slow roasted pork with Bourbon." Kosher salt, black pepper, pork butt/shoulder, cloves of garlic, sage leaves, flour, olive oil, sweet-hot mustard, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and bourbon. Again, the process seems like ordinary cooks can handle it pretty well.

One of the key little pieces of Greek cooking is something called "Tzatsiki" (cucumber yogurt). The recipe here is so straightforward that it is scarcely possible to fail to create something that will be tasty!

"Grilled asparagus with tangerine aioli." This will probably take someone like me a bit of extra effort. But, I really enjoy asparagus, and anything to add some taste highlights makes sense to me. And this recipe surely does that.

All in all, a solid cookbook. The photos that are in the book give a nice sense of the outcome of the process (I wish that there were more such photos). Overall, this book provides a set of recipes that look quite doable and that promise tasty outcomes!

[penny shima glanz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Each Spring I seem to yearn for the bright fresh flavours of the Mediterranean. In recent years this has included rediscovering the tastes of Greece. While I've never visited and I doubt that I've ever had proper Greek food, I find what I read in cookbooks and create to be appealing at this time of year. This is Cat's first cookbook and I like that it lays out a bit more who here influences are than her more recent Cooking from the Hip (which I read first and enjoyed). This book is organized into areas of influence (her childhood in the South, family on Skopelos Greece, her restaurant in Northern California and cooking at home). Furthermore, each section centers on a collection of menus/meals. This layout really appealed to me as while my cooking skills have improved over the years, I still struggle to put a cohesive meal together. I am always taken in by memoir and story sprinkled in with my recipes. (There's a comic strip I'd love to link here, but I'll have to go search further for it).

I should add here that it's not all Greek food all the time, but you definitely can see how Greece has influenced Cat.

However, while I do not doubt this slim volume is the product of a considerable amount of time and planning, I am not very happy with the layout of the recipes. They often break across a page turn and that's very frustrating when cooking. I've been spoilt recently by a rash of craft books published in hardback with dual-coil bindings.

My design nitpicking aside, I think this is a great book to check out and experience an innovative chef and a wonderful cuisine.

[Bridget · Rating 4 out of 5]

Right now I am collecting more for the autographs than actually cooking from them! :) Still need an autograph for this book.