MONTCO w16

Fine Holiday
Cuisine
THREE AREA CHEFS SHARE THEIR
FAVORITE HOLIDAY RECIPES
BY FRANK QUATTRONE
ALIZA GREEN
Although she and her family celebrate
Chanukah rather than Christmas,
world-renowned chef, restaurant
consultant, and cookbook author
Aliza Green enjoys the holidays as
much as anyone. But because she’s
always behind the scenes creating dishes that brighten
spirits and tantalize taste buds with sweet or savory holiday
flavors, the longtime resident of Elkins Park is often
working while many of us are out shopping, eating, or
otherwise enjoying this festive season. One of her favorite
mantras—please, take her literally on this—is that “I love
to cook to make people happy.” So she’s come up with a
recipe she feels “will appeal to people who love to bake.
This is a baking time of year, and this recipe is pretty
adaptable. It’s a little sweet, a little savory; it goes well
with drinks; and for pot-luck dinners, it’s easy to transport.
Friends and family will love it because it has some
pizzazz and it stands on its own. Plus, it makes the whole
house smell good.”
Green, who has served as executive chef or consultant
for countless fine restaurants, including Ristorante
DiLullo, White Dog Café, where she pioneered the farmto-table
movement, and Apropos, is now the chef manager
of Baba Olga’s Kitchen & Supper Club at Material
Culture, a sprawling store, auction center, and caterer located
in the East Falls section of Philadelphia.
As such, this enthusiastic and lifelong world traveler
brings her expertise and inspiration to the multicultural
weddings and other large catering events that take place
at Material Culture, including bar or bat mitzvahs; popup
dinners; fundraisers; Caribbean buffets; holiday parties;
Indian, German, Cambodian, Korean, gay or lesbian weddings,
and much more.
Because of her extensive background in cooking and
her avid interest in international cultures, Aliza Green has
been leading culinary tours around the world for several
years, including a sold-out tour to northern India in January
2017. Her next culinary adventure will be to Morocco
in January 2018. People need to book early, as these popular
tours, given by this proud member of the Philadelphia
Inquirer’s Culinary Hall of Fame, sell out quickly.
So do her acclaimed cookbooks, field guides to food
types, and tomes on celebrity chefs. Some of these titles
are The Bean Bible: A Legumaniac’s Guide to Lentils, Peas,
and Every Edible Bean on the Planet!; ¡Ceviche!: Seafood,
Salads, and Cocktails with a Latino Twist, co-authored
with Guillermo Pernot (a James Beard Award winner); Le
Bec-Fin Recipes, co-authored with Georges Perrier; Starting
with Ingredients: Quintessential Recipes for the Way We
Really Cook; Field Guide to Meat: How to Identify, Select,
and Prepare Virtually Every Meat, Poultry, and Game Cut;
Field Guide to Produce: How to Identify, Select, and Prepare
Virtually Every Fruit and Vegetable at the Market; The Soupmaker’s
Kitchen; Making Artisan Pasta; and her latest, The
Magic of Spice Blends.
Aliza Green is Chef Manager, Baba Olga's Kitchen at
Material Culture, 4700 Wissahickon Avenue, Philadelphia,
PA 19144; 215-849-8030 www.materialculture.com;
email:aliza@materialculture.com.
Photos: Paul Wesley
recipe continued on page 73
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