Top | All Books

Toro Bravo

(book, Liz Crain & John Gorham)


primary-image, l

h4. From the publisher

At the heart of the red-hot food scene in Portland, Oregon, is Toro Bravo, a Spanish-inspired restaurant whose small plates have attracted critical praise and a fiercely loyal fan base. 

But to call Toro Bravo a Spanish restaurant doesn’t begin to tell the whole story. At Toro Bravo, each dish reflects a time, a place, a moment. For chef John Gorham, it’s personal. 

Gorham’s the sort of guy who’d get his sous chef’s name tattooed on his backside; the sort of guy who’ll order rum shots for the table after you don’t believe you can ingest a single thing more. 

Most important, Gorham believes that there’s more to food than mere sustenance. The Toro Bravo cookbook tells that story: from Gorham’s birth to a 14-year-old mother who struggled all her life with drug addiction, to time spent in his grandfather’s crab-shack dance club, to formative visits to Spain, to becoming a father, to opening a restaurant.

It’s about the power of passion, relentlessness, and, of course, food.

The Toro Bravo cookbook also includes 95 of the restaurant’s recipes, adapted for the home kitchen, from simple salads to homemade chorizo, along with an array of techniques that will appeal to both the home chef as well as the most seasoned, forearm-burned cook. 

You’ll want to cook these recipes. And you’ll want to share what you’ve made with the people who mean the most to you.
Radicchio Salad
Tapenade
Harira
White Sangria
Pickled Beets