Background
Cost was born on June 12, 1945 in Hackensack, New Jersey, United States; the son of Robert Bruce Wilson and Eva June (Cost) St. Thomas.
Middletown, Connecticut, United States
Wesleyan University
New York City, New York, United States
New School
(Describes the characteristics of herbs, vegetables, fungi...)
Describes the characteristics of herbs, vegetables, fungi, meat, poultry, eggs, fish, dried ingredients, condiments, sauces, spices, oils, flours, and noodles used in Oriental cooking
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0688058779/?tag=2022091-20
1988
(First published in 1988, Bruce Cost's Asian Ingredients w...)
First published in 1988, Bruce Cost's Asian Ingredients was immediately hailed as one of the most comprehensive and fascinating books on Asian foodstuffs ever written. Now fully revised and updated, Asian Ingredients offers a wealth of information on identifying and using the often unfamiliar ingredients in traditional bottled condiments. This book's clear black-and-white photographs make it easy to identify ingredients in your local supermarkets or Asian grocery, while Cost's carefully researched notes explain how to select, store, and cook with these wonderful foods. Cost also includes more than 130 simple recipes for sumptuous Asian specialties. Cooks can create the dramatic flavors of China, Japan, and southeast Asia in their own kitchens with this indispensable resource.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006093204X/?tag=2022091-20
2000
(When the first Big Bowl restaurant opened in 1997, its fo...)
When the first Big Bowl restaurant opened in 1997, its founding partners had one mission: to make good, authentic Asian food accessible to American diners. Tired of greasy takeout and soggy egg rolls, they created an entirely different kind of Asian menu-one based on healthy techniques, market-fresh ingredients, and vibrant, traditional flavors. From steaming bowls of handmade noodles to fiery curries and fragrant stir-fries, every dish at Big Bowl became a delicious celebration of homestyle Chinese, Vietnamese, and Thai cooking. Now Bruce Cost, the celebrated cook and a culinary partner behind Big Bowl's spectacular food, reveals how to prepare the house favorites in your own kitchen. Beginning with a basic explanation of Asian ingredients and cooking techniques, Cost's beautifully illustrated guide takes home cooks through the simple steps needed to create an Asian meal, whether it's a one-bowl dinner or a multicourse feast for family and friends. From Thai Chicken Noodle Salad to Blazing Big Rice Noodles with Beef to Shanghai Shrimp, all of Cost's recipes are incredibly flavorful yet easy enough for even the beginning cook to master. The instructions are clear, the ingredients are widely available, and the results are dramatic and delicious. So if you think Asian food at home means little white boxes, think again. Big Bowl Noodles and Rice will show you how to bring the fresh, authentic flavors of Asia to your table any night of the week. Hailed by Alice Waters as "one of the greatest cooks I have ever known," Bruce Cost is an award-winning restaurateur and chef, cooking teacher, and former food columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. He currently serves as the culinary partner in Lettuce Entertain You's immensely popular chain of Big Bowl restaurants. Cost is also the author of Asian Ingredients, a comprehensive guide to Asian foodstuffs now available as a companion to this book.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060194200/?tag=2022091-20
2000
(An intimate collection of more than 175 of the finest Vie...)
An intimate collection of more than 175 of the finest Vietnamese recipes. When author Andrea Nguyen's family was airlifted out of Saigon in 1975, one of the few belongings that her mother hurriedly packed for the journey was her small orange notebook of recipes. Thirty years later, Nguyen has written her own intimate collection of recipes, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, an ambitious debut cookbook that chronicles the food traditions of her native country. Robustly flavored yet delicate, sophisticated yet simple, the recipes include steamy pho noodle soups infused with the aromas of fresh herbs and lime; rich clay-pot preparations of catfish, chicken, and pork; classic bánh mì sandwiches; and an array of Vietnamese charcuterie. Nguyen helps readers shop for essential ingredients, master core cooking techniques, and prepare and serve satisfying meals, whether for two on a weeknight or 12 on a weekend.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1580086659/?tag=2022091-20
2006
Cost was born on June 12, 1945 in Hackensack, New Jersey, United States; the son of Robert Bruce Wilson and Eva June (Cost) St. Thomas.
Cost received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wesleyan University in 1966, where he studied art history. He pursued an interest in photography by enrolling at the New School in New York City, which led to him getting a grant to develop an educational media program for adolescent drug addicts as a way to help them regain control of their lives.
Cost published his first book "Ginger East to West: A Cook’s Tour with Recipes, Techniques and Lore" in 1984, showcasing the ginger root in all its forms. His second book was "Asian Ingredients: A Guide to the Foodstuffs of China, Japan, Korea, Thailand and Vietnam", 1988 and is now considered a seminal guide to Asian cuisine.
In 1989, he opened Monsoon, a high-end, innovative Asian restaurant in San Francisco, where he was a chef. He created a ginger ale recipe at that restaurant. The Monsoon was awarded four stars by the San Francisco Chronicle, but the restaurant closed in three years.
Then he helped open a lower-priced restaurant "Ginger Island" in Berkeley. In 1995, Cost moved to Chicago and was accepted as a chef to a Chinese restaurant concept "Big Bowl" in Chicago. His ginger ale became a best-selling item there, too. After a while, he sold his stake in the food business and left Chicago to move back to New York. His ginger ale started to be stocked at Dean & DeLuca and some Whole Foods in 2010, and restaurants like Momofuku in New York and the Slanted Door in San Francisco.
Cost is a partner with Terry Tang, a co-founder of TMI Trading Company in Brooklyn. By 2014, Cost and Tang were able to move their headquarters to a 20,000 square-foot factory, also in Bushwick, to increase production of the ginger syrup. They work with co-packers in Pennsylvania, Arizona and California for bottling and canning.
In addition, Cost taught courses on Chinese and Southeast Asian cooking in San Francisco for six years and has lectured on Asian food and its history at the Smithsonian, the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and UC Berkeley Extension. He has conducted cooking demonstrations all over the country, including at De Gustibus Cooking School, the annual Food & Wine Classic in Aspen and the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in the Napa Valley.
He has served on panels across the United States and Canada, notably at the International Conference on the Diets of Asia in San Francisco, the Cornell-China-Oxford Project on Nutrition, Health and Environment based at Cornell University and the Oldways Preservation Trust. He has been a panelist twice at the Asia Society in New York to discuss Asian influences on American restaurants. In 1997, Bruce was a guest of the city of Hong Kong to represent the United Sates in picking top chefs at the annual Hong Kong Food Festival along with judges from eleven other countries.
For many years, Cost wrote features for the San Francisco Chronicle and a weekly column in the Washington Post.
(Describes the characteristics of herbs, vegetables, fungi...)
1988(First published in 1988, Bruce Cost's Asian Ingredients w...)
2000(When the first Big Bowl restaurant opened in 1997, its fo...)
2000(An intimate collection of more than 175 of the finest Vie...)
2006Quotations: "If you have a good product, fantastic, but do research numbers-wise to see if it makes sense in terms of food costs and labor costs. Really work on the model since, if you’re trying to raise money, investors can be brutal."
On April 23, 1966 Bruce Cost married Lynn Murphy, with whom he divorced in January 1987. They have a daughter, Eliza and a son, Jennifer. On August 1, 1989 he married Catherine Shen. They have a son, Benjamin Shen.