Great Food Finds San Francisco: Delicious Food from the City’s Top Eateries

This beautifully produced book, Great Food Finds: San Francisco, is for two types of readers: those who explore new restaurants in their city (though the book covers many restaurants outside of San Francisco proper) and have plenty of disposable income, and cooks who would like to test recipes offered in this book. And of course, visitors to the Bay Area will also find this useful. Carolyn Jung tested and gathered information as well as recipes from forty-one restaurants, mostly high-end. The book is nicely illustrated with professional photos. For each restaurant, Jung gives good contact information and summarizes her finds in a half-page paragraph. The restaurants are conveniently listed in alphabetic order instead of districts. She also includes a few short treatises on subjects such as sourdough bread or coffee. Each restaurant entry is followed by a recipe or two, probably provided by the chefs. Recipe layout is inconvenient because of the small size of the book. They are well written and easy to follow but are very difficult and mainly suited for professionals; only the most accomplished cook would attempt them. Lists of ingredients are long, and shopping will take you many hours, and many ingredients will be hard to find.