The Enchanted Brocolli Forest. Mollie Katzen. Berkeley: Ten-Speed Press. 1982.
Chef and author Mollie Katzen was a member of the original Moosewood Collective in Ithaca, New York. The group founded and ran the famous Moosewood Restaurant, which Bon Apetit magazine named one of the most influential restaurants in the 20th century. Katzen’s, The Moosewood Cookbook, is listed in its favorite chef cookbooks of all time.
Members of the Moosewood Collective and founders of the Moosewood Restaurant.
While vegetarian restaurants were not uncommon at the time, it was the savory combination of philosophy and food that made this one stand out in the crowd. As with her first cookbook, Katzen hand-lettered and illustrated the collection of original recipes in The Enchanted Broccoli Forest. In addition to introducing many new vegetarian cooks to “different ethnic cooking styles” and a “wide variety of ingredients,” Katzen turned vegetarian cuisine into a whimsical adventure that put the lie to the idea that vegetarian cooking was the bland, unappetizing fare of brown rice and steamed broccoli.
Over 300 pages of delicately penned text, illustrations, and occasional comic-book style instructions, the EBF created a folk-style celebration of meatless cuisine. The cookbook was published by Ten-Speed Press and sold approximately 1.5 million copies. Ten-Speed Press is now an imprint of Random House’s Crown Publishing Group, but enjoyed four decades of success as an independent publisher.
Katzen went on to become a charter member of Harvard School of Public Health Nutrition Round Table and has recently published her 12th cookbook, The Heart of the Plate: Vegetarian Recipes for a New Generation.
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