Santa Fe School Cooking: Flavors of the Southwest Review

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(More customer reviews)The Santa Fe Cooking School is located just a couple of blocks from the Plaza, and offers a host of opportunities for anyone looking for information on Southwestern cooking. It's well worth checking out the home page of the school listed in the first Comment to this Review.
Santa Fe Cooking School Flavors of the Southwest by Susan D. Curtis, owner of the school, is the second "official" cookbook for the school; the first is The Santa Fe School of Cooking Cookbook.
The first book is a good introduction to the school and its approach, but the second is clearly a better book. There are dozens of new recipes, techniques, traditions and flavors with more of a focus on fresh ingredients, local foods and products, Native American, Mexican, and Spanish flavors. The photographs by Eric Swanson are especially good and add to the value of the book. And, frankly, Curtis has become a better teacher; the recipes seemed clearer and more friendly to this intermediate cook.
Amazon provides a very generous selection of pages from "Southwest Flavors" so I'll not provide a sample recipe. Instead, the following list of recommended Santa Fe oriented cook books was provided by an excellent cook who has spent ten years cooking and eating in Santa Fe. She warns that the quality of the books varies, but "I like to get books and compare their versions of standbys like green chile stew or enchiladas or posole. So it might seem like I have a lot of these, but I use them all at various times for various dishes."
Cafe Pasqual's Cookbook: Spirited Recipes from Santa Fe by Katharine Kagel.
Cooking With Cafe Pasqual's: Recipes From Santa Fe's Renowned Corner Cafe by Katharine Kagel.
The Food of Santa Fe: Authentic Recipes from the American Southwest by Dave DeWitt and Nancy Gerlach.
Coyote Cafe by Mark Miller.
Harry's Roadhouse Cookbook by Harry Shapiro.
The Red Chile Bible: Southwestern Classic & Gourmet Recipes by Kathleen Hansel and Audrey Jenkins.
Green Chile Bible: Award-Winning New Mexico Recipes from readers of the "Albuquerque Tribune." [According to my friend, "This one is really hit and miss as it's a compilation of submitted recipes by everyday people. Some things just seem odd. But then again, they are mostly the way the majority of people here eat."]
The Rancho de Chimayo Cookbook: The Traditional Cooking of New Mexico by Cheryl and Bill Jamison.
I've signed up for a short course at the school, and have been practicing several of the recipes in anticipation of getting professional guidance. I've also put together a collection of these books. It will be great fun to learn about the ins and outs of Santa Fe cooking.
Robert C. Ross 2008

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For over fifteen years, visitors to Santa Fe have learned that the best meal they'll have there may be one prepared by a guest chef at the Santa Fe School of Cooking. Now anyone can share in the expertise of some of this culinary hot spot's top chefs with this follow-up cookbook to the original Santa Fe School of Cooking. Here are dozens of recipes, techniques, traditions and flavors that helped define a region. Fresh ingredients, local foods and products, Native American and Mexican flavors, and the blessed green chile are the hallmarks for Santa Fe-style cooking. All original recipes, exemplifying traditional New Mexican, Spanish, and contemporary Southwest cuisine. Sidebars and features include chiles, equipment, wines of New Mexico, farmers market, techniques for nopales and tamale.

Susan Curtis, with her husband, David, founded the Santa Fe School of Cooking in 1989. She has coauthored several cookbooks, including Tacos and Salsas and Summer in Santa Fe. She has been on the board of directors of the Santa Fe Wine and Chile Fiesta for fifteen years.

Nicole Curtis Ammerman grew up in Santa Fe and is a graduate of the University of Arizona. She handles day-to-day operations of the cooking school.

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