The Cafe Pongo Cookbook: More Than 220 Recipes from the Hudson Valley

by Valerie Nehez

North of the hustle and bustle of New York City lies an oasis of small-town America, the quiet Hudson River Valley hamlet of Tivoli. Virtually abandoned after its boom years at the beginning of the twentieth century, when steamships carried workers across the river to factories in Saugerties, this no stoplight town has gone through a renaissance along its main thoroughfare, and visitors find themselves relaxing and eating great food inside the welcoming...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684871378
• ISBN13: 9780684871370
• Release Date: August 2001
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

The Mother of all cookbooks.

You may be new or old at cooking, either way you will find recipes in this book that you will remember fondly forever. Nehez will teach you things along the way that will expand your own menu and improve your skills in the kitchen. She is gifted and sincere. Her book is a delight to behold. I like cooking and pleasing others with food even better than I like eating. This is my favorite cookbook.

Here is a classic!

I've eaten (in the company of my wife & our 2 dachshunds) at Cafe Pongo, a joyous place with delicious food & a terrific communal feeling among staff & patrons. But even if I'd never heard of Pongo, this cookbook would have blown me away. Everything about it, the organization & layout (so very critical in cookbooks, which are, after all manuals of survival) & particularly the recipes themselves: original & imaginative & delicious. Here's a sample my wife & I have tried so far (plus a few chosen at random): Poached Eggs with Zucchinhi Fritters and Roasted Red Pepper Coulis; Chilled Sugar Snap Pea Soup with Fresh Mint; Romaine Salad with Lentil Croutons and Lemon-Tahini Vinaigrette; Beet and Shaved Fennel Salad with Clementine Vinaigrette; Potato Pancakes with Peppered Ginger Applesauce; Sesame-Crusted Shrimp; Roast Beef with Preserved Lemons, Figs and Fennel; Baked Cauliflower and Turnips (Yes! Delicious!!). There's lot's more, too. This cookbook now takes precendence over the 75 or 80 of its companions on our shelves. Thank you, Ms. Nehez!

A wonderful resource

I thought The Cafe Pongo Cookbook was extremely well written and very informative. The author's style and the book's layout made the recipes come alive. I could almost taste the various dishes as I read and couldn't wait to get into the kitchen to try them myself. I found that the directions were very easy to follow and the dishes turned out to be every bit as good as they sounded. I highly recommend this book for anybody who lives to try something just a little bit different from the 'run of the mill'. I even gave an entire dinner part based on the recipes in the book and it was a huge success! Give this book a try, I can guarantee you wont be disappointed!

Reads Like a Letter to a Friend

Delightful cookbook with personal notes from the author which gives the feeling of shared treasures. The recipes are the product of a very inventive chef with an eclectic approach and an obvious passion for food. Also interesting were the comments about the sleepy Hudson Valley Village of Tivoli and the renaissance created in that town by the author and her former partner when they opened the doors to Santa Fe, her first restaurant.