Portland, Oregon. When I read a post by Liz Crain about a potluck dinner party that centered around the newly published cookbook Toro Bravo, I knew I had to check it out. Toro Bravo is also a Spanish inspired tapas restaurant that serves fabulous food. Crain co-wrote the cookbook with chef and restauranteur John Gorham – he provided the recipes and she wrote the stories. The recipes are not only incredibly tasty, the stories are insightful and entertaining as well.
The idea for a potluck came from one of Crain’s friends, Chris Damcke. He thought, why not get a group of friends together and recreate some dishes from one of their favorite local restaurants? Damcke reached out and found many willing participants. Each had a copy of the book, picked a couple of recipes to prepare, brought finished and nearly finished dishes to the host house, and over the course of a full evening the party kept bringing out new plates of food. Watch the fun unfold as the small plates are created and shared. Each dish that is in the video also includes the page it can be found on in the book!
The idea to cook your way through a cookbook is a novel way to share good food with friends and family. In Seattle there is a small private group called Cook the Book that gets together to each share 1 or 2 recipes from a different cookbook every month. However you might go about it, it’s an idea worth considering. As Sara Nokes says, after tasting the Squid Ink Pasta, “Oh my gosh, this is amazing! This is why people cook!”
Liz Crain shares two recipes from the Toro Bravo Cookbook that were also made and served in the video: Bacon-Wrapped Dates recipe and Squid Ink Pasta recipe.
