Taste: On the Bookshelf October 2006


Local publisher Running Press is expanding its cookbook collection with two well-known names in Philadelphia food

Black Forest Cuisine: The Classic Blending of European Flavors
This, the third cookbook from City Tavern's Walter Staib, is the cookbook Staib most wanted to write: a hard-to-sell exploration of his homeland in Southwestern Germany. He sells it convincingly, and


Black Forest Cuisine: The Classic Blending of European Flavors
This, the third cookbook from City Tavern's Walter Staib, is the cookbook Staib most wanted to write: a hard-to-sell exploration of his homeland in Southwestern Germany. He sells it convincingly, and Black Forest Cuisine is less a memoir than a culinary and cultural tour through the region's home kitchens, gasthauses and hotels. These may not be the foods you naturally crave — pork goulash and sauerkraut casserole? — but the abundant photos and easy-to-follow recipes (including step-by-step illustration of more intimidating techniques) are an easy introduction to this lesser-known cuisine.

Delilah's Everyday Soul
Yes, Oprah, Delilah Winder's macaroni and cheese recipe is right here, in its own chapter even. The relatively simple recipe — seven types of cheese that Winder buys at Di Bruno Bros. is the secret — is proceeded by eight pages of remembrances and photographs of the day Oprah declared the dish to be her favorite. That's Winder, she of Delilah's in Reading Terminal Market and 30th Street Station and Bluzette in Old City. Her breezy vivaciousness permeates every corner of her first cookbook. It makes for engaging reading, but can get in the way of the cooking. By the end of the book, you want to be Winder's friend — look at those parties! — more than you want to follow her Southern and soulfood recipes.