Joe Tilden's Recipes for Epicures

Major Joseph Tilden was a legend in his own time. In the bohemian heyday of San Francisco, his table was the one to be invited to, his recipes the ones whispered about among those in the know. This book collects those secrets at last, printed in 1907 by one of his innermost circle who finally agreed to share what Tilden had guarded so carefully. Here are the dishes that defined Pacific Coast fine dining at the turn of the century: French techniques adapted to California ingredients, game preparations from the hills, seafood dishes that still feel modern despite their age. But this is more than a cookbook. It's a portrait of a vanished world, of the artists and writers and bon viveurs who gathered at Tilden's table, of a city that burned and was reborn. For cooks and historians alike, these recipes offer something rare: a taste of the real San Francisco, the one that existed before the earthquake, as imagined by the man who knew it best.