November 2, 2006 Issue                                       

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©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

Former Hill restaurant chef pens 1,024-page cookbook
by LOU PERSEGHIN

Aliza Green, former executive chef at Stella Notte in Chestnut Hill, has just release, Starting with Ingredients: Quintessential Recipes for the Way We Really Cook (Running Press), a revolutionary approach to the way people shop, prepare and think about food. The 1,000-plus page endeavor boasts 100 chapters, each focusing on an individual ingredient.

Despite more than 30 years in the restaurant business, Aliza Green, 54, still has a firm grasp on her roots as a new chef working her way through the industry. It is from those memories that Starting With Ingredients, her seventh cookbook, was published last month.

“I never went to culinary school,” said the Elkins Park resident. “I just worked my way up.” Green got her start doing private catering and moved on to the Chestnut Hill restaurant Under the Blue Moon, which closed in 1997 after 23 years in business. While working as a sous chef at DiLullo’s restaurant, she was asked to become the executive chef in 1979. Despite her admitted lack of experience, she took the position, learning in a trial-by-fire atmosphere.

“I know all the mistakes people make in this business because I made all those mistakes myself,” said Green. “I didn’t have anyone to tell me, ‘no.’”

As a child, Green lived in many places due to her father’s fellowships at various universities. Holland, Israel, Mexico, Canada, Italy, France and many places in the U.S. have all been home to Green through the years, and because of that she has developed a keen interest and passion for the history, culture and stories that surround various ethnic cuisines. Food with a story and meaning is what appeals most to Green, and liberally sprinkled through her 1,024-page tome are stories, both personal and collected, regarding the various recipes and ingredients.

“I like the traditions,” said Green, who was also an executive chef at the now-defunct Stella Notte in the Chestnut Hill Hotel a few years ago, “and I like to be creative. Mostly I’m looking for connections to the past.”

Green’s newest book shifts the focus from that of the typical cookbook to one that groups the chapters and recipes around a specific ingredient. Included are basic items like onions, beef, pasta and potatoes, but there are also many ingredients like chestnuts, quince and pomegranate that are a little less common.

“People go the markets, especially farmers markets, and buy what they have available,” said Green. “If they don’t have tomatoes, you can’t do anything with them. Instead of starting with a recipe, you’re starting with ingredients. In order to cook well you have to have a good understanding of what you’re working with.”

The focus on ingredients, rather than recipes, is due in part to Italian influence of DiLullo’s. “Italian cooking is very ingredient-focused,” said Green. “When I was cooking [there], I wanted some of the specialty Italian things, ingredients such as zucchini flowers. I would have to find a source for all of that, so it got me interested in the ingredients.”

Two of the elements that set Starting with Ingredients apart are the personal interjections and sidebar features. Through all those early childhood travels and her long tenure in the restaurant business, Green has amassed a backlog of stories to go along with many of her recipes. Her Dutch cherry pie, for instance, was a recipe handed down to her from a Dutch physicist and friend of her father. Other recipes have come from various tours of countries, and from the practical experience she has had working in and around Philadelphia restaurants.

“The stories in the book are mine,” said Green, “and also from people I met and who shared recipes with me. I have done food styling consulting, TV, a lot of stuff, so I’ve met a lot of people.” Green even carries a notebook to record stories and recipes on her travels. Compiling the book was clearly a very personal experience, and Green can easily relate a tale for each recipe in the book. It is because of this intimate personal relationship with all of her recipes that she enjoys the trips to the Glenside farmers market and Han Au Reum, a Korean grocery on the corner of Cheltenham and Old York Road. The markets give her a chance to meet face-to-face with the people producing the food, giving her ingredients more life, as well as more stories.

There are a few recipes that are very complex (the majority are not), but the common thread is the simplicity of measurements. All the numbers are easily divided or multiplied, a practice which grew out of training other chefs while she still worked in restaurants.

To promote her book, Green is traveling throughout the fall and early winter, touring cities like Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, Vancouver and San Francisco, with a trip to Italy in between. Undoubtedly she will return with more stories for her archives and plenty of new recipes. She does have some qualms with the touring, though.

“I don’t have as much time to cook when I’m on the road,” said Green, “and sometimes have to eat fast food.”

Starting with Ingredients is published by Running Press, $39.95. It has 100 chapters and 550 recipes and weighs about five pounds. In addition to its stated purpose, it can be used at fitness clubs to build strong wrists and biceps. Aliza can be contacted at www.alizagreen.com.