The Stinking Rose Cookbook

San Francisco and Beverly Hills are both hosts to the Stinking Rose Restaurant, and between the two locations, over 3,000 pounds of garlic are consumed each month. The San Francisco Stinking Rose opened in 1991 and became an instant hit on Columbus Avenue; its flamboyant interior brought attention from tourists with someone remarking “The most popular restaurant in L.A. is the Stinking Rose in San Francisco!” In 1995, a second location was opened in Beverly Hills. Today, both restaurants serve garlic-themed dishes with boisterous fun and flair.

Chef Andrea Froncillo, assisted by Jennifer Jeffrey, has gleaned sixty-five of the restaurant’s favorite recipes in his new cookbook, The Stinking Rose Restaurant Cookbook. This exuberant collection puts garlic into just about everything, from first-course beverage The Stinking Bloody Mary to a recipe of roasted garlic and vanilla bean infused Garlic Ice Cream.

The first recipe that caught my eye, however, was Garlic Hummus. My hummus recipe is memorized from a Boston restaurant where I worked years ago; it calls for raw garlic, and quite honestly, sometimes we taste it for days afterward. We love it, but have never used it for more than a topping on warm pita. The Stinking Rose uses roasted garlic instead, and the substitution gives the dish a more elegant, sweet flavor, which can also be used as a dipping sauce for roasted meats.

One of the crowd favorites at the Stinking Rose is their Spicy Lamb Ravioli in Fumet, and though the recipe is a bit time consuming, the results make for an elegant first course or entrée. Sautéed ground lamb and garlic are combined with Parmesan cheese, ricotta cheese, curry powder and rosemary, then encased in either fresh pasta dough or wonton wrappers cut in a ravioli shape. A fumet is created with the reserved lamb juices, chicken broth, crushed tomatoes and red pepper flakes. Butter is melted into the reduced fumet to smooth out the acid of the tomatoes and heat from the red pepper flakes, then garnished with more Parmesan and chopped basil. This fragrant, colorful dish is a delightful addition to a summer table.

Froncillo also mentions that garlic’s notoriety as an aphrodisiac has inspired him to use garlic chips liberally; his suggestion to use large elephant garlic cloves and a mandoline to slice them will make “chipping” easier. The wonderful thing is that once the garlic chips are made, they can be stored in an airtight container in a cool, dry place for up to a month. Pasta with Butternut Squash, Fried Sage and Garlic Chips is a favorite in this case: Twists of gemelli pasta are tossed with roasted golden-brown squash, chopped sage leaves fried in butter and garlic chips. This simple dish is a study of toasty ingredients married together, which is finished with a healthy grind of black pepper to open the flavors.

There are very few recipes in Stinking Rose that fall under the garlic radar; Acini di Pepe with Sugar Snap Peas and Oven-Roasted Asparagus are two of them, but I’m sure chef Froncillo wouldn’t frown on the addition of roasted garlic cloves to the ingredient list. A final one of Chocolate Walnut Brownie Martini Mousse is also missing the pungent ingredient, but no garlic addition is necessary in this decadent dessert.

The variety of recipes in Stinking Rose makes for good inspiration when entertaining or preparing a casual family dinner; the instructions are very thorough, and the book is a helpful tool for mastering a most pungent ingredient in a tasteful manner.

Review by Judith Bishop

Judith Bishop is a cookbook reviewer for the Gilded Fork, as well as a culinary writer and reviewer for In Good Taste in Portland, OR. She has cooked professionally in restaurants and catering, and this month has entered the new millennium with her culinary blog, Stepping off the Edge.