Das Cookbook: German Cooking . . . California Style

by Hans Rockenwagner, Jenn Garbee (With), Wolfgang Gussmack (With)

Overview

This modern German-Californian cookbook from longtime Los Angeles chef and restaurateur Hans Röckenwagner features sections on bread-making (yes, pretzel bread!), holiday treats, and bar snacks, along with the most popular recipes from his several Los Angeles restaurants, including 3 Square Cafe on famed Abbot Kinney Boulevard and Cafe Röckenwagner in Brentwood.

Hans Röckenwagner's background spans thirty years of cooking in Germany, Switzerland, Chicago, and Los Angeles. In the 1980s, he won international fame for his fine-dining restaurant in Santa Monica, Röckenwagner; today, he owns several LA-area bakery/cafes and a large wholesale bakery. Hans is known for his individuality, innovative dishes, and his craftsmanship in designing and building his restaurants (he is also a master woodworker). This is his second cookbook.

Jenn Garbee is a food reporter and editor who has written for the Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, Cooking Light, Saveur, and more. An expert recipe tester and developer, Jenn has a culinary degree from Le Cordon Bleu and has worked in professional kitchens across Los Angeles. She is also the author of Secret Suppers and the co-author of the 2015 St. Martin's Press book, Tomatomania!

Wolfgang Gussmack has been Hans's chef de cuisine since 2012. A native of Graz, Austria, Wolfgang started his culinary career cooking spätzle for his family's restaurant and gasthaus. This experience earned him a spot in Austria's only two-star Michelin restaurant and subsequently led him to renowned kitchens in Italy and France before he came to Los Angeles.

Photographer Staci Valentine is based in Los Angeles; her other cookbooks include The Perfect Peach.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781938849633
Publisher:	Prospect Park Books
Publication date:	03/25/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	19 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Hans Röckenwagner was born and raised in Germany, trained as a chef in Germany and Switzerland, and at the mere age of 22 moved to the U.S. to run the kitchen at Chicago’s famed Le Perroquet. Three years later, he opened Röckenwagner in Venice, quickly winning national acclaim for his fresh, inventive Californian take on the German classics of his youth. Today he is the proprietor of several L.A. restaurants, including Cafe Röckenwagner and 3 Square Cafe, as well as a large commercial bakery. He divides his time between homes in Los Angeles and New York.

Jenn Garbee is a writer and editor who has written for Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, Cooking Light, Saveur and more. An expert recipe tester and developer, Jenn has a culinary degree from Le Cordon Bleu and has worked in a number of professional kitchens. She is also the author of Secret Suppers and the co-author of Tomatomania!.

Wolfgang Gussmack has been Hans's chef de cuisine since 2012. A native of Graz, Austria, Wolfgang started his culinary career cooking spätzle for his family’s restaurant and gasthaus. This experience earned him a spot in Austria’s only two-star Michelin restaurant and subsequently led him to renowned kitchens in Italy and France before coming to Los Angeles.

Photographer Staci Valentine is based in Los Angeles; her other cookbooks include The Perfect Peach.

Editorial Reviews

One of Eater National’s Most Anticipated Cookbooks of 2014

One of Tasting Table’s Best Upcoming Cookbooks

"This fall release makes a terrific gift for Angelenos who have eaten at Rockenwagner, Cafe Rockenwagner, and 3 Square Cafe, and are looking for a little insight into the chef's unique fusion cuisine. Recipes range from those unforgettable pretzels that also make for great buns to spring with spatzle with herbs & peas. The instructions for the actual spatzle (a German dumpling-like noodle) make the dish sound doable, even if your gifted is not a whiz in the kitchen."
—LA Weekly Squid Ink

“Every stage of that eclectic career is reflected in his new “Das Cookbook,” written with Jenn Garbee and Wolfgang Gussmack and published by local Prospect Park Books. There is, as they say, something for everyone, no matter which stage of Röckenwagner’s career you prefer.”
—Russ Parsons, Los Angeles Times Daily Dish

“[It] showcases the misunderstood cuisine of his homeland [with] California-inspired riffs on Deutsch recipes like herbed gravlax and spring spätzle with herbs and peas.”
— Los Angeles Magazine

“Das Cookbook finally gives me what I (and I think I speak for all of you) really WANT in a cookbook: bread, pastries, muesli, grilled cheese, strudel, pretzels, potatoes, and, yes, okay, salads. It’s a treasure trove of ingredients and flavors combined with simple, eye-popping, tastebud-teasing recipes. Hans was classically trained and humanely raised in Germany, and he has brought it all here to California and reformulated it for an American-foodie audience. Das Cookbook is a modern, cool, hip take on old-school techniques and secrets. It’s a must-have in every contemporary kitchen.”
— Jamie Lee Curtis, actress and author

“Growing up as a chef in Los Angeles, Hans has always been an inspiration to me. Das Cookbook is just another expression of his creativity and culinary genius.”
— Josiah Citrin, chef/owner of Mélisse and author of In Pursuit of Excellence

“At a time when successful chefs take themslves much too seriously, Hans Rockwagner has created this delectably insightful work and playfully called it Das Cookbook. Yet it is a serious and original blending of California and German cooking, two seemingly antithetical traditions made colorfully harmonious by a chef who is well grounded in both. Thus, the soft appeal of German potato salad provides just the right contrast to Korea’s spicy flank steak, and the first rhubarb, straight from a local farm, gives new and rosy brightness to streuselküchen, the much-loved crumb cake. And he shares many more recipes that modify the solidity of German food with a bright, contemporary California touch, all exquisitely illustrated and meticulously explained.”
— Mimi Sheraton, former New York Times food critic and author of The German Cookbook

“We concluded that German cuisine is awesome. And what better way to enjoy its classic dishes than by cooking them at home as instructe by longtime Los Angeles chef Hans Röckenwagner?”
— Food Republic

One of Eater National’s Most Anticipated Cookbooks of 2014

One of Tasting Table’s Best Upcoming Cookbooks

"This fall release makes a terrific gift for Angelenos who have eaten at Rockenwagner, Cafe Rockenwagner, and 3 Square Cafe, and are looking for a little insight into the chef's unique fusion cuisine. Recipes range from those unforgettable pretzels that also make for great buns to spring with spatzle with herbs & peas. The instructions for the actual spatzle (a German dumpling-like noodle) make the dish sound doable, even if your gifted is not a whiz in the kitchen."
—LA Weekly Squid Ink

“Every stage of that eclectic career is reflected in his new “Das Cookbook,” written with Jenn Garbee and Wolfgang Gussmack and published by local Prospect Park Books. There is, as they say, something for everyone, no matter which stage of Röckenwagner’s career you prefer.”
—Russ Parsons, Los Angeles Times Daily Dish

“[It] showcases the misunderstood cuisine of his homeland [with] California-inspired riffs on Deutsch recipes like herbed gravlax and spring spätzle with herbs and peas.”
— Los Angeles Magazine

“Das Cookbook finally gives me what I (and I think I speak for all of you) really WANT in a cookbook: bread, pastries, muesli, grilled cheese, strudel, pretzels, potatoes, and, yes, okay, salads. It’s a treasure trove of ingredients and flavors combined with simple, eye-popping, tastebud-teasing recipes. Hans was classically trained and humanely raised in Germany, and he has brought it all here to California and reformulated it for an American-foodie audience. Das Cookbook is a modern, cool, hip take on old-school techniques and secrets. It’s a must-have in every contemporary kitchen.”
— Jamie Lee Curtis, actress and author

“Growing up as a chef in Los Angeles, Hans has always been an inspiration to me. Das Cookbook is just another expression of his creativity and culinary genius.”
— Josiah Citrin, chef/owner of Mélisse and author of In Pursuit of Excellence

“At a time when successful chefs take themslves much too seriously, Hans Rockwagner has created this delectably insightful work and playfully called it Das Cookbook. Yet it is a serious and original blending of California and German cooking, two seemingly antithetical traditions made colorfully harmonious by a chef who is well grounded in both. Thus, the soft appeal of German potato salad provides just the right contrast to Korea’s spicy flank steak, and the first rhubarb, straight from a local farm, gives new and rosy brightness to streuselküchen, the much-loved crumb cake. And he shares many more recipes that modify the solidity of German food with a bright, contemporary California touch, all exquisitely illustrated and meticulously explained.”
— Mimi Sheraton, former New York Times food critic and author of The German Cookbook

“We concluded that German cuisine is awesome. And what better way to enjoy its classic dishes than by cooking them at home as instructe by longtime Los Angeles chef Hans Röckenwagner?”
— Food Republic

From the Publisher