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 38 M O N T C O M A G . C O M
W I N T E R 2 0 1 6 33