OP: The Four Seasons Spa Cuisine
Simon and Schuster, New York, 1986. Hardcover. Near Fine. First printing.
The Four Seasons opened in 1959. Its location in Mies van der Rohe’s bold new Seagram Building on Park Avenue suggested a refreshing era in dining, as well as in architecture. During its heyday it was the distillation and the symbol of the great culinary revolution of the mid-20th Century. The restaurant saw its peak in the 1980s under its second, and most successful, set of owners and with chef Seppi Renggli at the helm.
Meeting the dining trends of the moment, the restaurant offered “spa cuisine”—low in fat, sodium, and calories—in addition to the regular menu, for their more demanding customers. Renggli sought to refute the notion that “a really first-rate dining experience and good nutrition were incompatible.”
The Four Seasons Spa Cuisine (1986)—showcasing this refined, healthful style—presents two-course menus with each dish’s calories and nutrients listed, for those keeping score. For warm weather months Renggli suggests artichokes stuffed with mushrooms and bulgur wheat, followed by cold, saffron-scented striped bass with a raw mango and papaya garnish. An Indonesian-inspired vegetable roll with gado-gado sauce followed by shrimp and chicken skewers express the chef’s culinary range. You’ll also find a meal of seared, mustard-crusted escalope of veal served with braised broad beans; and another of baked corn- and goat cheese-stuffed tomatoes with chicken in tomatillo sauce.
Despite its orientation as a “diet” book, it is better described as the manifestation of a skilled chef’s capabilities and flexibility in the kitchen. The food is executed at a high level, despite its departure from what one might typically expect from a white tablecloth experience, and Renggli takes the time to explain the techniques which enhance flavor and elegance in the absence of caloric flare.
Our copy is a Near Fine first printing. The only flaws being a very slightly bumped upper fore corner affecting both the book block and case, and the jacket is price clipped.
