Cooking with the Seasons at Rancho La Puerta

Publishers Information

About Cooking with the Seasons at Rancho La Puerta

Publisher Web Link: http://www.abramsbooks.com/

Recipes from the World-Famous Spa

Great cooking—using fresh, seasonal, local ingredients—is at the heart of the experience offered by Rancho La Puerta, Baja California’s premier resort spa. Cooking with the Seasons transports that regenerative experience to your own home kitchen, changing the way you think about food and cooking—and, just possibly, changing your life.

This is no “diet cookbook,” however. For Rancho’s founder, Deborah Szekely, and co-author Deborah Schneider, food is the very force of life, and eating simply and healthfully is one of life’s most profound pleasures.

The book’s 120 recipes are organized as a series of complete—and luscious—seasonal menus. As spring rouses the earth, you’ll awaken your taste buds with Sorrel and Spinach Salad with Roasted Cumin-Orange Vinaigrette. When summer arrives, your senses will dance with Poached Wild Salmon with Avocado-Tarragon Aioli. You’ll revel in fall’s brilliant colors with Carrot and Ginger Soup with Pears. And, in winter, you’ll welcome the new year with Mayan Chocolate Sorbet. Throughout, sidebar tips give valuable advice on everything from choosing the most healthful grains and flours, to preserving summer’s goodness with dried herbs and homemade jams.

Author Information

About Deborah Szekely

Author Web Link: http://www.rancholapuerta.com/

The life story of Deborah Szekely (pronounced “Say-kay”) is as full of achievements as it is improbable. Born in Brooklyn in 1922 and raised in New York City, Tahiti, and Marin County, CA, Deborah (as she prefers to be addressed) found herself at age 18 jouncing down a dusty road in Tecate, Baja California, Mexico, in an old car with her husband, a 34-year-old Hungarian scholar, philosopher and natural-living experimenter.

Edmond Szekely had been named the Director of the British International Health and Education Society in Leatherhead, Surrey, England, but as the War broke out, he found himself unable to return to Europe. Szekely was in the reserves of the Romanian army (typical of most educated eastern-European men). He had been ordered to report to duty to support Hitler’s ambitions of world domination, and since he was a Jew, this was tantamount to a death sentence. Szekely ignored various orders until finally in 1940, his passport was cancelled, and an order for his arrest was issued by the Romanian government. This, the last straw, he also ignored.

Then U.S. Immigration and Naturalization notified him that if he was found in the U.S. after June 1, 1940, he would be arrested and returned to Romania as a deserter. Britain’s cities were burning, and transport back to England by ship was extremely hazardous. A number of foreign-passport Jewish men in the United States were in a similar position at this time; forced to leave, but with nowhere in Europe to go. Those with adequate funds to wait out the war went to Canada. Those without, crossed over into Mexico.

Without documents, Edmond and Deborah crossed into Mexico, and Mexico welcomed them. All of their possessions rode in a box mounted to the back bumper. (They were, in fact, -undocumented aliens- one of the reasons that she has been a champion of immigrant rights and cross-border cultural and environmental programs throughout her life.) (http://www.rancholapuerta.com/)

Cookbooks by Deborah Szekely

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Cooking with the Seasons at Rancho La Puerta

by Deborah Szekely, Deborah Schneider

About Deborah Schneider

Author Web Link: http://www.chefdebcooks.com/

Executive Chef / Partner of SOL Cocina Restaurant Group, Cookbook author.

Deborah is author of 4 cookbooks that explore her fascination with Mexican food and culture. Amor y Tacos  (Stewart Tabori & Chang) is her long-awaited party book, featuring a modern spin on tequila drinks, inspired tacos and exciting antojitos that will forever change your ideas about Mexican food.

James Beard Award -nominated Cooking with the Seasons at Rancho La Puerta: Recipes from the World Famous Spa (Stewart Tabori & Chang)  celebrates the organic gardens and cooking school of Rancho La Puerta, one of the world’s most famous fitness resorts, where she is a frequent guest teacher. The Ranch was chosen as the world’s #1 spa by Tavel & Leisure Magazine in 2010.

Her first cookbook, ¡Baja! Cooking On the Edge (Rodale), is an adventurous trip through the foods and wines of Baja California. It  was chosen by Food & Wine Magazine as one of the best cookbooks of  2006.  This is the book that inspired SOL Cocina, her exciting new restaurant in Newport Beach.

Along with several other authorities on Latin cooking, Deborah co-authored and wrote the introduction to Williams Sonoma’s Essentials of Latin Cooking (April 2010), latest in their award-winning series of colorful, beautiful cookbooks.

Through her restaurant work and writings, Deborah has been influential in the local farm to table movement and in supporting sustainable fisheries in California and Baja. She has mentored many young chefs and supported many community groups and culinary fund-raising efforts.

She received her CEC ranking (Certified Executive Chef) in 2001 from the American Culinary Federation, recognizing over 20 years of professional cooking and other accomplishments. From 2005- 2008 Deborah was Executive Chef of the exclusive Turf Club at Del Mar Fairgrounds and Race Track.  Prior to that Deborah opened the popular Jsix/Jbar and Hotel Solamar, located in San Diego’s chic Gaslamp District. For six years she was Executive Chef of the four-star Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines, the first (and so far only) woman to hold an executive chef position with the hotelier. Other stops in her 28-year career include the venerable Grant Grill (where she was first female chef, ) Dobson’s Restaurant and La Gran Tapa, all in San Diego.

In the early 1980’s she spent 8 months on a BMW motorcycle exploring France, Spain, the Canary Islands, North Africa, Italy and Greece. While living in Athens, Deborah spent a year working as chef on a succession of luxurious charter yachts. She later worked as a yacht chef in Florida and the Caribbean before switching coasts and settling in San Diego in 1983.

Before cooking took over her imagination, Schneider was Executive Editor of a specialty publishing house in Toronto where she designed magazines, wrote and edited copy, and oversaw production of souvenir books for clients as diverse as the Toronto Blue Jays, Canadian Opera Company, Stratford Shakespearean Festival and Winnipeg Jets hockey team. (http://www.chefdebcooks.com/)

Cookbooks by Deborah Schneider

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My Cookbook

Amor y Tacos

by Deborah Schneider

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Your rating: None

My Cookbook

Cooking with the Seasons at Rancho La Puerta

by Deborah Szekely, Deborah Schneider