A Jerry's Diner Revue Edward Espe Brown started at Tassajara as a dishwasher in 1966, when it was still a resort, not a zen monastery. The bar became the meditation hall. There was a twelve year gap between Tassajara Cooking and the final book, The Tassajara Recipe Book . Along the way, the Zen Center of San Francisco became a corporation and a restaurant and Greens was started in San Francisco.
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A friend of mine who is a professional cook doesn't like the Bread Book because she finds it impossible to follow any specific recipe backwards and forwards. The actual yeasted bread recipes don't start until the second chapter where you get variations such as rye bread with sour cream, summer Swedish rye bread, and banana sandwich bread. There is no secret. Play, don't work. It includes lots of notes on using and caring for knives, and chopping vegetables in various ways.