Black Forest Cuisine: The Classic Blending of European Flavors

Well-known Philadelphia chef Walter Staib hails from Pforzheim, one of the gateway towns to the famed and fabled southwestern region of Germany known as the Schwarzwald, or Black Forest. In his beautiful and well-assembled Black Forest Cuisine, Staib pays homage to the food of his childhood and early years of culinary apprenticeship in the Black Forest towns of Nagold and Bad Wildbad. The cookbook is a thorough collection of representative recipes, numerous color photographs of food and locales, and interesting regional and personal history throughout. If one wonders, “What exactly is wiener schnitzel?” (it’s a Viennese-style breaded veal cutlet) or, “How do I make a real German apple strudel?” Staib covers these basics and a lot more. He even goes into the more artsy, French-inspired, food assemblage found in elegant area hotels: Herring á là bonne femme, paupiettes of brook trout, frog’s legs Provençal. Dessert recipes include the traditional gingerbread-like lebkuchen and a very detailed recipe (numerous photos) for the classic chocolate-and-cherry-laden Black Forest cake.