The legendary vegetarian food served at California's Tassajara Zen Mountain Center is easy to create for your family and friends by using the recipes and guidelines provided here by Tassajara's renowned Zen priest-chef, Edward Espe Brown. This book is a compilation of three of Brown's most popular books: Tassajara Cooking, The Tassajara Recipe Book, and Tomato Blessings and Radish Teachings, re-edited and updated throughout, with new recipes and beautiful line art. The book is a collection of spectacular recipes (from Cardamom-Lemon Soda Bread to Tassajara Smoked Cheese and Spinach Pie), but it's more than that. It's a Zen philosophy of cooking. Edward Brown shows that the care you give any ingredient affects not only the dish, but also those who prepare it and eat it. Brown's cooking style focuses on fresh, seasonal ingredients and whole foods. From soups to desserts, he presents over three hundred easy-to-prepare recipes, along with teachings that urge the reader to have fun cooking, to experiment, and even to delight in the fact that not all dishes come out perfectly. His Zen insights offer keys for living a life that celebrates the preparation and enjoyment of simple food.

Edward Espe Brown is the best-selling author of a number of popular cookbooks and past president of the San Francisco Zen Center. He helped found and run the internationally acclaimed Greens Restaurant in San Francisco with the renowned chef Deborah Madison. He lives in Fairfax, California.