Cookbook Profile: Mustards Grill

Mustards Grill
Napa Valley Cookbook

by Cindy Pawlcyn

Mustards Grill

As anyone who has spent time in Napa Valley knows, Mustards Grill is an institution in the wine country-the friendly restaurant where locals first started going for a full plate of fabulous food and a glass of Napa's finest. Chef-owner Cindy Pawlcyn, founding chef of San Francisco's original Fog City Diner, put down her roots in Napa over 15 years ago, bringing her midwestern sensibility and flair for reinventing American food to the valley. Ever since then, Mustards has been affectionately known as the fancy rib joint with way, way too many wines.

The cookbook includes gorgeous full-color food photography from Saveur photographer Laurie Smith.

"The recipes in Mustards Grill represent a wonderful marriage between common American foods, California produce and influences from Latin American and Asian immigrants." —New Orleans Times Picayune

"The book is a perfect reflection of its author's eclectic style that melds sophistication and global inspirations with an earthy American quality." —San Francisco Chronicle

"Like its namesake, the cookbook is bright and bountiful, with a touch of tongue-in-cheek flippancy." —Charleston Post & Courier

"A feast for the eyes with no muss and fuss." —The Los Angeles Daily News
"The book is as honest as the chef" and the "dreamy desserts...are the epitome of comfort." —Santa Rosa Press Democrat

"Pawlcyn's casual writing style gives the reader a feel for her restaurant, and her easy-to-follow recipes are accompanied by chatty-and helpful-notes." —Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Mustards Grill is a place that's sophisticated without being pretentious. The recipes in this cookbook are no different." —American Way

"Mustards is universally loved by local residents and tourists alike for its smoky, tender, spicy baby back ribs; cornmeal-coated fried green tomatoes; tasty Asian-marinated flank steak; Chinese chicken noodle salad; and, of course, Mustards' always-crisp tangle of deep-fried onion threads. The enduring vitality of this place comes from the fact [that Cindy Pawlcyn] put all the dishes she loved on the menu: country dishes transformed by her sprightly offbeat style and sparkle." —Patricia Unterman, Food Lover's Guide to San Francisco

"As the first (some would say the best) in a string of successful, precedent-breaking restaurants originated by chef Cindy Pawlcyn. It changed Napa Valley and took the stuffiness out of dining by showing that Americans could be as serious about food and wine as the French, but have more fun." —Caroline Bates, Gourmet

Buy the Book!

Mustards Grill
Napa Valley Cookbook
by Cindy Pawlcyn
Ten Speed Press
ISBN: 1580080456
Hardcover (cloth), 288 pages
$39.95 (CAN $64.00)
Information provided by the publisher.