Editorial Review

Reviews

A VERY Personal Book from Greenspan, September 14, 2010
First, what this book is NOT: an introduction to classical French cuisine. Or even modern French cuisine. As Greenspan herself points out in a post at the eGullet forums,

"Here's what the book isn't: It's not Escoffier. It's not Mastering the Art of French Cooking. It's not a by-the-rules book. It's not a textbook. It's too personal to be any of those things."

This is a collection of recipes that feels like it comes straight out of Greenspan's kitchen: which means that if your cooking style and tastes run with hers, you will like this book. If they don't, you won't. So despite my four-star rating, that is purely a reflection of how well my cooking style agrees with Ms. Greenspan's. I strongly encourage you to check out the table of contents before clicking "Buy" on this one. There are a lot of braises, including three different recipes for what amount to roast chicken. There are two veal stews, and two beef daubes. If that's the food you like to eat, you would be hard-pressed to find clearer, better-written recipes. Naturally Greenspan is not breaking any new culinary ground here: if you have even a medium-sized cookbook collection, you probably already have most of the recipes she presents. What you probably don't have is the exquisite photography (by Alan Richardson), or the extremely well-written recipe instructions. The production values of this book are very high indeed: I am astonished at how low the price is all things considered.

A few favorite recipes of the dozen or so I've made so far: Chicken Breasts Diable, Veal Marengo, Lamb and Dried Apricot Tagine, and the Chard-Stuffed Pork Roast are all very good. In particular I think that the Lamb and Dried Apricot Tagine would be a wonderful dish for an evening with guests: just exotic enough on the US palate to be different, without being totally out of left field. But all of those dishes would go over very well on a typical US dinner table, and some, like the Chicken Diable, are quick-and-easy weeknight meals.

Pros:
* Exceptionally well-written recipes
* High percentage of excellent dishes
* Fantastic production qualities

Cons:
* Not a "learn to cook French Cuisine" book (it doesn't try to be, though)
* Three roast chickens? Really?

Makes my heart and tummy sing!, September 4, 2010
I made the Quiche Maraichere (pg.158), a French Vegetable Tart, the first day I received the book. My husband said it rated a "5 out of 4 stars"! It was delicious both hot and room temperature, and not difficult to make.

Tonight is the second night, and I am making Hachis Parmentier (pg.258)...basically a French Shepard's Pie. The fragrance of the meat cooking and making it's own beef broth is out of this world! Not hard to do, just takes some time.

Clear directions,beautiful photos, and easy to come by ingredients for the American cook; this is my new FAVORITE cookbook. Definitely worth every penny!

The fragrance of the food cooking brings an indescribable sense of home, comfort, and joy in living and being a cook.

It really IS around her french table!, October 18, 2010
I first discovered Dorie Greenspan after reading David Lebovitz's book "The Sweet Life in Paris." I loved the book and started reading everything I could on him. Since Lebovitz and Greenspan are friends, naturally on Google, I soon discovered Dorie's blog, doriegreenspan.com. The first time I went there, I was in search of a Financiers recipe. I used to get them in a wonderful bakery in New Orleans' French Quarter and fell in love with them, and found a good recipe on the blog.

A dear friend sent me Greenspan's latest book "around my french table." When I first opened it, I figured this would be so far out of my league, and probably mostly upscale Parisian food. Not having been to France (yet!) I wondered if I could find anything in the book that would be at my skill set, which is being a very good cook and baker but still, an amateur. I decided to take the book and lay across my bed perusing the recipes. In no time flat, I was off to the desk to get my post-it notes. By the end of the hour session, I had about a dozen recipes marked to make. Far from being anything like the average American envisions French cooking, this seemed to me to be French home cooking. (Actually, she had me on the front cover)...the photo of the recipe "chicken in a pot: the garlic and lemon version" which is depicted on the cover is a very good example of why it wasn't upscale cooking alone. A large, heavy porcelain cast iron dutch oven with a whole chicken, celery, garlic, sweet potato, onions and carrots surrounded by a golden ring of dough (a dough seal) between the pot and the lid. In my mind, this looked straight from Provence, like I know anything about Proven�al cooking!

I ventured into some of the recipes. The first I made was the brown sugar squash and Brussels sprouts en papillote. Two years ago, I despised Brussels Sprouts. Now, I love them. The brown sugar and the squash make a sweet compliment and tone down the sulfuric taste of the sprouts. The dish was a big hit. Yesterday I tackled the cauliflower-bacon gratin. Oh wow.WOW. just delicious. I bet some kids would not even know those are cauliflower and not potatoes. The taste is so good, and this is my new favorite vegetable side dish. I also made the spiced butter-glazed carrots and this is going on the Thanksgiving table! On page 342, one of the simplest, yet most delicious and handy to have on hand recipes is the slow-roasted tomatoes. Seasoned and slow roasted, the flavor is intensified, and I keep them in a jar in the refrigerator. They are great with salads and I am sure would be great on pizza.

There are so many things I want to make, but usually I have to make them on the weekend. I have to make the garlic crumb-coated broccoli, the potato gratin (the photo is just wicked!) I found a French version of a brittle cookie my Mom used to make, but simpler and with an egg wash to make it golden, called salted butter break-ups. I can't wait to make that next weekend. I saw something good for the fall, pumpkin & Gorgonzola flans.

Ok, I am about to make myself sick with hunger, so let me just say: GET THIS BOOK! Your family and friends will want to steal it. Be sure and check out her blog at doriegreenspan.com Some of the recipes featured are in the book.

Did I mention the Marie-H�l�ne's Apple Cake?

delicious cook book, September 22, 2010
I read cookbooks and rarely cook from them. I took one look at Dorie Greenspan's new recipes and knew I would be cooking from the book. They are terrific, trustworthy and great to eat. I made her cheese crackers for a party. They were very easy and really good. My friends were shocked that I used a recipe from a cookbook and that it was wonderful.

Delightful!, October 11, 2010
I love french food. I love to talk about it, I love to eat it. Cook it? Hmmmm, that's an entirely different matter. Where do you begin? Enter Dorie Greenspan's new book "Around My French Table " and I am hooked after the first easy to toss together Tartine. I thought French food would be more complicated and fiddly to prepare? Guess not. The book breaks it down so accessibly, that I'm almost embarrassed by how easy it all is. And delicious. I particularly enjoy the narrative within the sidebars short stories scattered throughout the book.

One of my new food book favorites this autumn!

Wish I had waited to check it out in store..., September 16, 2010
I like DG and have her "Baking From My Home to Yours" book, which is excellent. I also follow her blog and have perused some of her other works and find her to be a great writer. I ordered this book from Amazon based on this, but now wish I had waited to check it out in store. I know the title says "300 Recipes," but, after reviewing the book, I really would have preferred 150 more selective choices. I feel like there is a lot of "filler" in this book to get to 300. There certainly seems to be some terrific ideas (and the previews from her blog over the year pretty much guarantee it) but there are a number of uninspired, plain, or not-very-French dishes that are easy for me to pass up ("Olive-olive Cornish hens, Coconut-lemongrass Braised Pork, Monkfish and Double Carrots"). I know there are tons of books on classical French, and I have no problem with DG wanting to go outside the box, but I really feel the collection of recipes is unfocused and somewhat random - two words I never would have associated with DG.

Better than I ever imagined, October 20, 2010
My family thinks I'm crazy, taking this cookbook to bed with me at night and reading for hours. But I can't help it, Dorie Greenspan's writing is so captivating. Each recipe has a little back story and includes hints and tips. Best of all, she gives the cook flexibility with the recipes - so you can make any recipe work just about any way you like it. Truly, this cookbook is a keeper.

My favorite new cookbook this year -- by far, October 9, 2010
I've been cooking from this wonderful book for several months, as I was lucky enough to snag a copy of the galleys
Every single dish has been a complete success. I've been playing in the kitchen for a long time and have a large collection of dependable recipes, so when I try a new one it has to earn its way into my Make-It-Again-and-Again repertoire. Well, cooking with Dorie has swelled that repertoire considerably.
But owning this book isn't just about great food --it's equally about great writing and spending time with an incredibly warm, caring cook with a gift for friendship And what friends: chefs such as Daniel Boulud, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Pierre Herme and talented home cooks from Paris and throughout the French countryside.-- all of whom have shared recipes and "trucs" (little tricks that make recipes shine).
If you love cooking, eating or just dreaming about French food, you have to treat yourself to this book

These recipes will become every day favorites!, November 3, 2010
I was lucky enough to go to a booksigning and meet Dorie in person last month. She is utterly delightful (she brought us Valrhona chocolate!) and these recipes are clearly near and dear to her. So far, I've made Marie-Helene's Apple Cake, Hachis Parmentier, Pumpkin-Gorgonzola Flans, and the Cafe Seyel Burgers and they were all home runs.
So far, I'd say the book is equal parts recipes you can make any night of the week and recipes that take a bit more time that would be excellent for entertaining. I am loving this cookbook and HIGHLY recommend it! It's a HUGE book full of fabulous stories, gorgeous photos and seriously good recipes.

Bon Appetit!

I want to try every recipe!, October 12, 2010
As with all of Dorie's books, this does not disappoint. Beautiful photographs, little bits of Dorie's hints and wisdom and the most delicious and easy recipes. I always thought of French food as being more intimidating. Nothing very complicated and has definitely made meals more fun. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Reviews

Cupcake, it's not just a noun anymore..., April 15, 2010
"Cupcaking," it seems, has joined the ranks of verbs like "scrapbooking." Where once a cupcake was a tasty treat, now it's an arts and crafts project. I must admit that I came to this book with a misconception. I thought the point was to create something good to eat. It is not. What's New, Cupcake is a triumph of style over substance. To eat the creations in this book is not only beside the point, it's bordering on sacrilege.

Clearly, I am an old-fashioned baker, or at least one cut from a different cloth. "Recipes" from cake mixes and the use of twinkies and mini-donuts as additional construction elements are anathema to me. Now that my biases have been disclosed, I will admit this: The photographs of the projects in this book are AMAZING. The finished projects are gorgeous--more akin to sculptures than snacks. For the, er, baker who aspires to such feats, this book should be equal parts instructive and inspirational.

For Luddites like myself, who are as interested in the edibility of their cupcakes as the attractiveness, there is definitely useful information. I advise using real recipes as a starting place. But there is much that can be learned about types and manners of icing and frosting, how to achieve textures, creative ways to use candies and other decorative elements, and more. It may encourage you to a more ambitious level of creativity.

This is a book for an extreme cupcaker. Perhaps there are far more of you out there than I realize. For you, this book may well be the bible of cupcaking. For the more moderate cupcakers like myself, take what you can from the book and then ooh and aah over the pretty pictures.

Egg mold helpful hints, May 29, 2010
I enjoy this book immensely and find the recipes to be very creative. Anyone else who whines that the recipes are cute to look at but inedible should stick to their boring cake recipe and frosting duo. I can tell you right now, they will never garner as much attention at a party as the recipes in this book do.
The first recipe I tried from this book was the Easter eggs which requires molding eggs out of candy melts from plastic Easter eggs. After a frustrating hour of maybe getting one egg out of 8 to not break while unmolding I ended up with barely three and a half candy eggs and a pile of shattered attempts.
The second recipe I tried was the "all cracked up" or the eggs on the back cover of the book. I dreaded doing egg molding again, but this time I came with several ideas and they worked!! So, I'm passing along my ideas so they can maybe help someone else who ran into the same problems I did.
First, I filled the inside of the eggs with the candy melts and then used a brush to cover up the bare spots. A knife or spoon will not work because they scrape the sides.
Don't be stingy with the candy melts. If the candy is spread too thin it will shatter. If I could see the color of the egg clearly through the candy I would add more.
Using a plastic squeezable bottle I would spread an excess layer of candy melts along the inside edge of the plastic egg on one side. After it chills this layer will harden and create an overextended "lip" of candy to grip with your fingers so you have a place to grip and won't create so much pressure on the sides and shatter the candy in the egg
I put the molds in the freezer simply because I was too impatient for the fridge. I'm not sure if that changed anything, but they were very hard when I took them out.
Next came the unmolding which was always a challenge because even with the plastic eggs greased that candy would not come out no matter how much you tapped the top or pull from the inside of the egg. So, I tried a different approach. While still cold from the freezer I took a hair dryer and used it on the outside of the egg. It only takes seconds and you need to evenly distribute the hot air on all sides (not underside obviously) otherwise you'll melt the candy. Exerting careful pressure and gripping the "lip" you created the egg will easily slip out. If it won't, heat it up a little more.
With this technique I had none break which was a certain change from my experience with the previous recipe. The end result was amazing with candy eggs that when served in the egg cartons made many guests assume that they were real eggs. I will certainly do this recipe again and I hope that these hints will help someone not give up on the "egg" recipes

Too Cute for Words, March 19, 2010
What I found the most striking about What's New Cupcake is the photography by Alan Richardson. The pictures are so vibrant and colorful that they almost seem to jump off the pages. This is a good-sized book, at about 9" x 10", so they are also nice sized and detailed photos. The cover photo with the "Rubber Duckies" cupcakes is too cute for words.

What's New Cupcake starts out like a craft book with a list of needed materials and tools. Nothing unusual is needed and most are items that would be already on hand, except for the variety of colorful candies. The instructions for decorating the cupcakes are clear and the Karen Tack's designs are fun and very decorative.

The first chapter, April Fools Play, has cupcakes that look like something entirely different. How about cupcakes that look like a sub sandwich or a banana split? There are sections with ideas for all of the major holidays and party ideas for children and grown-ups.

Just a couple of examples of the design titles are:

Busy Bees (a honeycomb of cupcakes)
Mum's the Word (beautiful flower cupcakes)
Fur Balls and String Monsters (You have to see it!)
Shower Heads (baby faces)
Knit One, Frost Two (knitting needles and yarn - my personal favorite)

Along with the decorating instructions there are quick dressed up cake mix recipes for cupcakes, frosting, and sugar cookies.

I love this book!!!!, May 14, 2010
This is the best cookbook I have ever gotten! All of the recipies are easy and fun, and it gives you alot of techniques and tips that are very helpful. Some people may say that the candy combinations are gross but it says you can substitute the candy and use different kinds, which I think is good. I think that it is definitley worth the money because it gives you so many different decorating recipies and it even gives you a cupcake recipie and different frosting recipies in the back. So, if a kid like me can say that they are easy and fun(and yummy!)then it is definately worth getting if you love cooking.

I can do these, June 27, 2010
I am not a fan of decorating cupcakes. the area to work within is far too small and the work is labor intensive. These creations can go either one of two ways. really detailed or a serious mess. Mine ususally go for the serious mess. while reading through this book for the first time I found myself saying over and over "I can do that" Each page had detailed instructions and fantastic photos to work from. I am very happy with my purchase and know I will get years of use from this book.

Just Ducky!, May 12, 2010
Loved the book! All the different cupcakes are amazing!!! We have picked out several to make for the next occasion.

Great sequel!, May 1, 2010
Lots of great ideas in this sequel to "Hello, Cupcake". I like having the "easy" rating on some of the cupcakes since I work with kids and they need easy things to do.

Some great ideas..., March 22, 2010
I am a huge fan of the Hello Cupcake book so I couldn't wait to get What's New Cupcake? I love some of the ideas but a few of the designs were similar to what was in the first book. I like the use of jolly ranchers to make some really cool decorations for the cupcakes! More than anything I think both of the books are great for ideas to make your own cupcake decorations...seeing the different candies used is great because sometimes it's hard to think of things in a particular color. All in all I highly recommend this book.

Just as awesome as the original!, March 20, 2010
If you liked Hello, Cupcake!: Irresistibly Playful Creations Anyone Can Make then you'll love this book.
Everything you need to decorate will be candies that you are familiar with (it never asks you to use fondant).
My favorite idea is "Chinese Takeout," where the cupcakes are decorated to look like Vegetable Fried Rice, Pork Lo Mein, and of course, a Fortune Cookie. (This is in the "April Fools" section of the book.)
The first one I will probably make could be "Gingerbread Village," where the cupcakes are decorated to look like Gingerbread houses - for my brother-in-law's housewarming party.
One feature that this book has that "Hello Cupcake" didn't have, is the "EZ" stamp on the more simpler recipes.
As with "Hello Cupcake," this is mainly a how-to-decorate cupcake idea book, and not a recipe book for different flavors of cupcake batters, etc. Although it does have some recipes for different flavors of cupcakes that you can make, it is mainly a decorating book. The pictures are beautiful.
Along with "Hello Cupcake," these are two of my favorite recipe books.

Love the pictures, consider making them!, September 21, 2010
These cupcakes are just adorable but I have to wonder if the time and effort pay off in the end. I have Hello, Cupcake I bought it on my birthday! I made the corn on the cob ones for my neighbors next door! They were expensive to make too! I love these little cupcakes they are just so cute! But! if you just want to make them for fun a batch will cost you over $20 if you don't already have the supplies on hand! The instructions are clear and the pictures are totally the funnest part of the book! I still haven't made any from this book, and I plan to on my winter break I'm thinking on the apple ones :D ... Read more

Editorial Review

Reviews

A history, with recipes and photos, of the cookie at Gourmet Magazine, October 3, 2010
As a longtime subscriber to both Gourmet and Bon Appetit, I used to tell people that I liked Gourmet for its savory recipes and Bon Appetit for its sweets. This new compilation of the best cookie recipes, decade by decade, from Gourmet confronted me with the fallacy of that statement. Some of my long-time favorite cookie recipes, including strawberry tart cookies and cranberry pistachio biscotti, can be found here. The best part of this book, however, is not the recipes, as good as they are, but the history behind them. The division of the recipes by decades offers glimpses into trends, subscribers, changing culinary tastes and abilities, and, of course, the focus of the magazine itself.

Interestingly, when the magazine was first published in 1940s and people baked more than they do today, the cookie recipes were much more simple, with tastes that highlighted a few ingredients: butter, nuts, spices. Even in the 1950s, when baking ingredients were more available, the cookies remained somewhat homey and classic, with gingerbread men, lace cookies, and sesame-seed-coated queen's biscuits taking center stage. In the 1960s, however, Gourmet's cookies started taking on a more international note; as the editors note, commercialized air travel and growing national unrest led to more daring recipes. As the book states, "not a single one of the four cookie recipes that appeared in Gourmet in 1963 was of American origin." With this new internationalism came other recipes with more sophisticated lists of ingredients and flavors. By jumping ahead to the 2000s, Gourmet's final decade, one can see how much American tastes have changed: many of the cookies are classics with gourmet twists that make them look more like professionally baked treats than homemade lunch box snacks. Because the book contains a full page photograph of each recipe, it is obvious that later recipes focused as much on aesthetics as taste, while most earlier ones were content with a plain appearance.

Because this book contains recipes exactly as they appeared in the magazine (with some recipe notes for clarification), contemporary bakers may be somewhat taken aback by the format in the earlier decades, as their directions are "remarkably casual, a kind of mysterious shorthand that assumes that each reader is an accomplished cook." While I dispute that these early recipes require any sort of advanced experience, they are definitely written out as though one person is describing the process to another, with ingredients not listed separately but as part of the instructions. (Separate lists of ingredients don't appear until 1982, when recipes were "no longer able to count on the readers' experience.") In some ways, I found the earlier recipes easier to follow because I didn't have to worry about going back and forth between adding sugar and reading how much sugar was called for. The amount was right there in the text.

But how are the recipes themselves? Absolutely wonderful. Not a single one of the recipes I tried missed, although, obviously, some recipes, such as the sparkling lemon sandwich cookies, took more time and effort. From the humble honey refrigerator cookies to the sophisticated coconut macadamia shortbread, these recipes will please contemporary palates.

-- Debbie Lee Wesselmann

Decent recipes... awful design., November 5, 2010
I was really disappointed with this book, being a lifelong gourmet devotee. The recipes and history of each are good, and up to gourmet standards. But the pictures feel like they were just tossed together in a hurry and are not all that appetizing. The reason for the low star level though, is the layout of the book. It is, to be blunt, horrid.

The photos are on the right hand pages and at the top of the left hand page is the title of the recipe and a blurb about it's history. Aside from a very unwelcoming font, all fine. But after the introductory paragraph is a huge chunk of white space, and then the recipe and directions are crammed together in a small and undifferentiated font in the bottom quarter of the page. It is hard to read and even more difficult to follow when trying to actually cook anything. The result is an altogether cold, difficult to use book. I'll probably copy out my favorite recipes onto recipe cards and resell the book.

Simply Perfection, November 16, 2010
I love the recipes and cookie photographs in this retrospective of the best cookies published in Gourmet Magazine. The bold graphic design of the photographs is stylish and quite attractive although I see some other reviewers disagree. To have a photograph of each cookie is helpful whether the design choice appeals to everyone or not.

Like most pastry cookbooks there is no nutritional information provided, but I don't think any of us want to know that when we are baking cookies. But if looking for a book that caters to a particular dietary restriction, like vegan or gluten free, etc., this is not the book to buy. The pages are high quality paper and I found spills wiped up well. This hardback book stayed open, laying flat on my countertop no matter what page I turned to, so a cookbook holder was unnecessary.

Included are seventy heavenly recipes from Gourmet Magazine's 68 year history. I have many cookie cookbooks so deciding whether to add another one to the group is dependent upon the recipes, so I am listing all of them here in case others use that method when selecting a cookbook. Cookie recipes in the book include: Cajun Macaroons, Honey Refrigerator Cookies, Scotch Oat Crunchies, Cinnamon Sugar Crisps, Date Bars, Moravian White Christmas Cookies, Old Fashioned Christmas Butter Cookies, Jelly Centers, Brandy Snaps, Chocolate Wafers, Navettes Sucrees (Sugar Shuttles,) Palets De Dames, Coconut Bars, Benne Wafers, Biscotti Di Regina (Queen's Biscuits,) Oatmeal Molasses Cookies, Lace Cookies, Brazil Nut Crescents, Gingerbread Men, Pine Nut Macaroons, Brown Butter Cookies, Cottage Cheese Cookies, Curled Wafers, Fig Cookies, Ginger Sugar Cookies, Apricot Chews, Mandelbrot (Chocolate Almond Slices,) Florentines, Galettes De Noel (Deep-Fried Wafers,) Shoe Sole Cookies, Speculaas (Saint Nicholas Cookies,) Dutch Caramel Cashew Cookies, Crescent Cheese Cookies, Kourambiedes (Greek Butter Cookies,) Almond Bolas (Portuguese Almond Cookies,) Lemon Thins, Irish Coffee Crunchies, Bizcochitos (Anise Cookies,) Linzer Bars, Bourbon Balls, Cloudt's Pecan Treats, Chocolate Meringue Biscuits, Spritz (Norwegian Butter Cookies,) Souvaroffs (Butter Cookies with Jam,) Pecan Tassies, Pastelitos De Boda (Bride's Cookies,) Mocha Toffee Bars, Pistachio Tuiles, Cornetti (Almond Cookies,) Mocha Cookies, Jan Hagels (Cinnamon Almond Wafers,) Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti, Aunt Sis's Strawberry Tart Cookies, Basler Brunsli (Heart-Shaped Chocolate Almond Spice Cookies,) Coconut Macadamia Shortbread, Anise-Scented Fig and Date Swirls, Chocolate Coconut Squares, Gianduia Brownies, Skibo Castle Ginger Crunch, Walnut Acorn Cookies, Cranberry Turtle Bars, Scandinavian Rosettes, Biscotti Quadrati Al Miele E Alle Noci (Honey Nut Squares,) Polish Apricot-Filled Cookies, Mini Black and White Cookies, Chocolate Peppermint Bar Cookies, Trios, Glittering Lemon Sandwich Cookies and Grand Marnier Glazed Pain D'Epice Cookies.

The recipes I prepared are Brown Butter Cookies (amazing,) Mandelbrot (visually beautiful and equally delicious) and Gianduia Brownies (I was intrigued by the addition of Nutella in the batter -- fabulous result.) One of the other reviewers mentioned the Strawberry Tart Cookies so I tried those too. They are perfection and as with the other recipes I tested, a keeper. I will make these recipes again and again and plan to continue working my way through the rest of the book.

A variety of flavors and cookie styles grace the pages which should appeal to cookie lovers of all types. This book would make a great addition to any cookbook library and a welcome gift for both novice and experienced bakers.

I love this book !, November 17, 2010
I just received this book in the mail a few days ago and it already is one of my favorite cookie books! I have made several cookies out of the book and they all turned out fantastic !

I have read some of the other reviews (some complaining of the photos) and I have to say I totally disagree - the photos clearly and simply illustrate and show off the cookie in question. I like the little blurbs about each cookie (under the title) and I love the layout - the cookies are listed by year. This way, when I want to bake a more simple (but still tasteful) cookie, I choose one from the 40's (when a lot of ingredients where rationed), and when I want to be a bit more extravagant, I choose one from a later decade.

The only thing I would do differently, is making the print of the recipes a bit larger. However, I do like the fact that the ingredients are in bold print - it makes my mis-en-place much easier .....

Overall, I think this is a very successful cookie book !!

Wow, what horrible design, December 16, 2010
I love a cookbook I can cuddle up with AND with recipes that work. Here, the recipes might be fantastic and I love the listing in chronological order, but for a working book, the design is horrible with minuscule hard-to-read ingredient lists and instructions at the bottom of the page. It's tempting to take the vast white space between the description and the ingredients and rewrite them so they're legible to work from.

The editors in Gourmet never should have approved this. They must have known better.

Picture of every cookie, November 4, 2010
I guess I was hoping for a book that would make me salivate when I opened it and looked at the pictures. I will say that there are pictures of every cookie, which in my book is a book is a plus, but these are not appetizing looking cookies. I feel slightly guilty for saying this, but I wish that I hadn't bought it. The cookie monster inside of me says yuck to most of the cookies. They may be gourmet, but I would have passed on this book had I seen it in a book store. I would not recommend this to any of my friends or family. I would say to look at in a book store if you are able before you try to buy this.

Best cookie book to date., December 24, 2010
This has to be the best compilation of cookie recipes published yet. The 70 recipes included here cover the entire history of the Gourmet Magazines run and include some real favorites. Among my favorite is the Gingerbread Men, Ginger Sugar Cookies, Oatmeal Molasses Cookies, and the Moravian White Christmas Cookies. These recipes are keepers, everyone of them.

With the history behind the cookies, The Gourmet Cookie Book is a real keeper.

I highly recommend.

Peace always

Fun to read, December 4, 2010
I love cookbooks, so I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one. However, when push comes to shove, will I make many of these recipes? Probably not. The earliest ones are pretty old-fashioned now; lard? Dates? Cornmeal? And the more modern ones are fine, but nothing so groundbreaking, or so fantastic sounding, that I feel an urge to get the ingredients and make them ASAP.

The strength of this book is in the historical look back at the food styles of the times, through the fascinating lens of what Gourmet magazine was featuring at the time.

I disagree with other reviewers who say the photos aren't satisfactory; I think the photos are wonderful, and there is one for every single cookie recipe, a full-page photo facing a full-page recipe. I love that.

However, also as other reviewers have said, this book does fall victim to the oh-so-modern problem of using full graphics capabilities to produce a "cutesy" layout that isn't terribly practical for a cookbook. For instance, the introduction is printed in a nice, large, readable font...but the designers chose to print the words in pale gray (on white paper) instead of black. On the recipe pages, there is the description of the cookie, a huge block of white space, then the recipe itself, which is in a small font and in narrative format, with no list of ingredients. For instance: "Take 1 cup of flour, add 1 teaspoon of baking soda and set aside. In a large bowl beat 2 eggs..". Kind of tedious to stand in the kitchen and read a paragraph while you're measuring ingredients.

Recommendation: Would make a nice gift, and I'm glad I read it, but its strength is its great appeal to lovers of food writing -- not necessarily as a go-to cookbook for 21st century cookie bakers in the kitchen.

Gourmet let me down!, December 18, 2010
I bought this book sight unseen because I trust Gourmet to put out a good book. This book is completely uninspired. There is a picture of every cookie, but I think even I could of taken more creative photos. I feel like they just threw it together knowing it would sell with their name on it. Oh, how I miss my Gourmet coming in the mail every month! I'm gonna cry.

Amazing Cookie Book, December 15, 2010
I was a subscriber to Gourmet magazine since the early 90's and so now that it is painfully absent I definitely had to get this book. The book is fascinating as it goes through each decade and looks back at how cookies can tell you a lot about how our country ate. The cookie recipes themselves are excellent. This cookbook includes recipes that I have bookmarked from my past magazines to be on my "must bake" list. I have already baked the Bride's cookies, Cranberry Turtle bars, Chocolate coconut squares, and Pecan Tassies (I use walnuts), and they are really the best of their kind. I find the pictures to be really interesting in a graphic design kind of way. I plan to buy this as a gift for my friends who are avid cookie bakers. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Reviews

An extraordinary book!, October 12, 2008
I recently added this book to my cookbook collection, which numbers more than 1,000 volumes (probably more like 1200 but I'm still cataloging). It has immediately become one of my favorites (and definitely my #1 favorite in English). If you are a serious cook, love to read cookbooks like novels, and view recipes as suggestions rather than as requiring strict adherence to precise measurements, then this is the book for you! (Did I say I LOVE this book?)

I make all of the desserts for my husband's restaurant. If I snag some particularly luscious fruit and want to make it into a dessert, this is the book I reach for first. I don't WANT to be told how to make a fruit sorbet. I already know how. But I love having a list of suggested flavors and products that go with what I already have. It's like having an uber-creative friend at your side saying "hey, why not try THIS?"

And if you are not an experienced cook, this book provides invaluable guidance that a recipe book never could. It is wholly different from every food book I have ever read.

The book is clever, useful, and obviously the product of prodigious research. To the authors, I send my humble gratitude. You have made my life immeasurably easier, and my dishes far more interesting than ever before.

This book is a must-read if you love to eat or love to cook. I have already bought six copies and have given two as gifts. It's THAT good.

Amazing Answer to a Prayer, October 15, 2008
Bought this book w/o a whole lot of information about it. Can't believe it -- I now have the resource I've been looking for --

I'm a cook with some years of experience, a huge cookbook collection, a list of classes taught by renowned experts and cookbook writers, and still I yearned for a reference that gave me the info on what goes with what (w/o me researching my whole library or classnotes. I guess I need "permissions" and this book gave it to me.

Tonight I made redfish (snapper in the book) with a crust of almonds, chives, parsley and dill (methodology learned in all those classes). Served w a favorite zuchinni recipe that included the "go-to" ingredients for snapper, and roasted potatoes with light sprinkling of rosemary and salt (again, a "go-to" herb for the main dish).

It wasn't overkill (my worry) -- it just plain worked and I did it w/o a single recipe. Cut my cooking time in half and raised my personal culinary "thermometer" by a ton of degrees.

If you cook, know methodology and are looking for a silent but knowledgeable help in the kitchen, buy this book. It's a gem!!!

Flavor, because you can't live on Bread and Water alone, September 16, 2008
Flavor is the basis for all food, without it, the world would seem less colorful, lifeless, and bland. Food isn't just about what you can taste in your mouth but also what you can see with your eyes, what you smell with your nose and what you feel in your heart. That's what is presented in this book. (The authors wrote two other acclaimed books, Culinary Artistry and What to Drink with What You Eat.)

Culinary Artistry showcased was that food can be art. That colors structure on a plate can evoke emotions the same as any other art work. And like any art work, is in the eye of the beholder.

What to Drink with What You Eat gave us the understanding that beverages (not just wine) can be paired and should be thought of as a condiment rather than an afterthought

The Flavor Bible talks about, well, flavor; but more then that, it talks about what flavor is and how we perceive it, receive it, balance it and emphasize it. All coming to the climax which is a very in depth list (3/4ths of the book) of ingredients detailing its profile (weak, strong), seasonality, and every herb, spice, fruit, vegetable, meat, fish, poultry and alcoholic related item and what would go exceptionally well with it.

So, if it is so good, why did I give it only 4 stars? The list for the most part is just an update from Culinary Artistry; most flavor companions haven't change since the days of Escoffier. The "new" list does give mention of the seasonality of produce and also the break down of different cuts of meat such as beef, lamb, pork, and poultry into their respected parts and given their own listings.

Culinary Artistry was my best friend going through culinary school and now I have a great addition that I am sure I'll end up burning through as well. I look to this book every time I cook to add that extra something to a dish. So if you are even the slightest bit interested in cooking or making good food taste even better then you can't go wrong buying this book.

Great reference when experimenting with flavors, December 3, 2008
I absolutely love this book! I first discovered it when it was cited as a reference for a cookbook and am glad I did. While I am not a trained chef, I am an avid home cook that enjoys writing my own recipes, experimenting with foods, and as of late, entering recipe contests. This book helps me be more daring in my flavor combinations and has inspired new recipes.

The first section of the book is a great introduction to flavor. It talks about what is perceived by the mouth, what is perceived by the nose, and my personal favorite, what is perceived by the heart, mind, and spirit. It has great passages from chefs from all over the country talking about things like balancing flavor.

The second section expands on this further by talking about things like seasonality, taste, weight, volume, function, region, and flavor affinities. This helps set up the flavor matching chart since many of these dimensions are used to describe key aspects of each ingredient.

The final section, and bulk of the book, is comprised of matchmaking charts. Simply look up a listing alphabetically and you will be presented with a list of ingredients that pair well with it as well as 'flavor affinities' that include the featured ingredient with more than two additional ingredients. This book gives you the ability to look up cheeses, chile peppers, cuisines, fishes, flavorings, fruits, herbs, ingredients, meats, oils, peppers, salts, spices, tastes, vegetables, vinegars and more! Overall these charts are very extensive and include a variety of ingredients from around the world. If you are interested in an ingredient there is a good chance you will find it in here. Also in this section you will find different tips and comments from Chefs that relate to the ingredients as well as examples of dishes (without recipes) that incorporate the ingredient. These can be great in bringing the combinations to life and jump starting ideas.

It is also worth noting that this is really a reference book. There are no recipes in this book. However, this does not bother me at all as I have tons of cookbooks and come to this book when I want to create something on my own.

This is quite a fantastic reference book that I cannot say enough about! I believe it is something that an avid cook who likes to experiment and create their own recipes would find not only helpful, but enjoyable to have in the kitchen.

Interesting combinations...., January 10, 2009
This book has a short introduction with comments from many great chef's giving snippets of sundry approaches to balancing taste. It contains an overview of what goes into "flavor": taste, mouth feel, aroma, plus "the x-factor"(our emotional reaction including presentation, associations, etc.). But the "meat" (pardon the pun) of the book is a listing of most of the common flavorings with lists of flavors that compliment each other. The listings are also interspersed with advice from famous chefs. The authors are not fans of traditional recipes so do not expect "cook by numbers". However, the authors are students of flavoring, so do expect many suggestions for ways to be more creative (or, more systematic and sophisticated in your creativity).

Positives: the introduction is a fun and quickly read, the advice from the chefs is excellent, the flavor combinations are very helpful (I have several new developments underway) and the listings are quite comprehensive (there are a few ingredients missing -- like one quoted chef recommends palm sugar which is not listed, but as it is not available locally either that may make little difference).

Negatives: lack of an index. The flavors are alphabetical, but good luck finding a specific tidbit from a favorite chef. It glances on, but only glances on technique. It would be helpful to flesh out how to get different flavors out of the same ingredients by changing technique.

Overall: a fun book that spurs creativity. I recommend it -- but will not give five stars to any reference without an index.

The next step in the evolution of a cook, August 17, 2009
I started learning to cook by following recipes that were either handed down to me or that I got out of a cookbook or magazine. When comparing this method to professional chefs who pull together wonderful, creative dishes with seemingly effortless ease it seems amateurish and simplistic, however it is a necessary phase. By following recipes I learned crucial techniques as well as what a well prepared meal should look and taste like.

The next phase started when I tried to create my own recipes by first substituting one ingredient for another and later by going off the reservation completely by trying food combinations that I had never encountered in my recipes. Sometimes this worked, sometimes it led to disaster. Enter The Flavor Bible.

A few reviewers have criticized this book for being a mere collection of lists of ingredients. Far from that, I see it as the Rosetta Stone for serious home cooks and professional chefs alike. As I have learned to use fresh, locally grown foods more I am often searching for a way to combine them. Trying to find a recipe that allows me to take advantage of a bumper crop of artichokes, sweet onions and garden grown thyme can be challenging. By using The Flavor Bible I look up artichokes and I can see what ingredients compliment it and I can put together a great tasting dish. However, this is only one element of the book.

Beside listing ingredients and pairing them with other flavors the book also lists cuisines that make use of the ingredient in question. You may also look up a specific cuisine (Indian, Thai, Tex-Mex, Moroccan, etc.) and find commonly used ingredients, Flavor Affinities and often, a paragraph or two from a professional chef. Something else that I liked was that you could look up seasons (summer, winter, etc.) and find what foods are best served when it is hot or cold outside.

The photographs (by Barry Salzman) are top notch and very inspirational. There are not very many of them but I don't think that there needs to be since this is not a cookbook you don't need to see what a particular dish is supposed to look like when completed.

If you are still a little rusty on technique and are unsure about relative proportions you may not be ready for this book. If however you have graduated from only using the recipes of others and would like to explore unique and wonderful flavor combinations, I couldn't recommend this book any higher.

A Great Reference for Experimental Cooking, March 24, 2009
This book is for the person who wants to understand flavor combinations, and a good assist toward cullinary creativity. It's definitely for the more experienced chef - it is assumed that the reader has an understanding of how to work with ingredients to make the classic flavor combinations that are recommended in the book. For example, the book will tell you that carrots and lime go well together. It does not tell you whether to chop, puree or juice the carrots, use lime juice or zest, or what other ingredients to combine with them. That's the part that's up to your creativity as a chef. Get into the kitchen and go wild!

Love Love this book, September 18, 2008
This book is the answer to most of your combination questions.I have created my own recipes from just looking up what I have on hand (anything from a meat to veggies and the book helps you combine just the right flavors.Have already given it as gifts!Love love this book,I spend time just dreaming up new dinners for my family.

The Perfect Book for Real Cooks, October 11, 2008
The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs This is a book for real cooks who want to explore new tastes. It's for people who love to play around in the kitchen, who go to their local farmer's market and find fresh romaine lettuce or chanterelle mushrooms and want to create something different. It's for individualists who don't want to be bound by someone else's recipe, but want to make an original dish of their own, guided by the world's great chefs.

I love this book, even though its not really a book!, September 4, 2010
It's more of a compendium of alphabetical listings of foods that are paired together. The format basically goes something like this:

Blueberries
Season: spring-summer
Taste: sour-sweet
Botanical relatives: huckleberries
Weight: light
Volume: quiet-moderate
Techniques: cooked, raw
Tips: Can subtitute huckleberries

allspice
almonds
apricots
bananas
blackberries
butter, unsalted
buttermilk
chocolate, white
CINNAMON
cinnamon basil
cloves...


It is like a book that is a giant index, which refers you to things that can pair well. This book is more for people who have a willingness to experiment. It gives pointers on what other people think might go good with an item, such as blueberries. You have to figure out your own proportions. Of course, responsible cooks probably want to taste the food they serve beforehand anyways. ;)
... Read more

Editorial Review

Recipes from a very small kitchen by a man with a very large talent.

Nobody better embodies the present-day mantra "Eat real food in season" than David Tanis, one of the most original voices in American cooking. For more than a quarter-century, Tanis has been the chef at the groundbreaking Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, California, where the menu consists solely of a single perfect meal that changes each evening. Tanis’s recipes are down-to-earth yet sophisticated, simple to prepare but impressive on the plate.

Tanis opens this soulful, fun-to-read cookbook with his own private food rituals, those treats—jalapeño pancakes, beans on toast, pasta for one—for when you are on your own in the kitchen with no one else to satisfy. Then he follows with twenty incomparable menus (five per season) that serve four to six. Each transports the reader to places far and wide.  And for grand occasions, a time for the whole tribe to gather around the table, Tanis delivers festive menus for holiday feasts. So in one book, three kinds of cooking: small, medium, and large. ... Read more

Reviews

A book for home cooks that's both accessible and original, November 4, 2010
My wife used to be Somebody in the New York fine dining world. As for me, one of the only two jobs that's required my daily presence was as a French chef. But going out to dinner has pretty much disappeared from our lives.
Our 8.5-year-old is the major reason. She has homework now, and reading, and piano pieces to practice, and although she is the-best-girl-in-the-world, we feel the need to sit with her in the early evening, whip in hand, while she gets it all done. Then there's the bedtime ritual --- my wife delivers a nightly lecture called "Bore Me to Sleep." By then, it's nine o'clock. Two hours until Jon Stewart. Haul in a sitter, rush to a restaurant? I think not.

What's that? At a child-friendly hour, we could take the kid out with us? No, no, no and no. The Princess is in year four or five of a lycopene addiction so severe that her culinary parameters start at pasta and end at pizza --- no way is she going to sit in a real restaurant. And we tire of Sal's Pizza.

So we cook at home. Sometimes for others. Mostly for ourselves.

Few cookbooks are of much use to us. They're too fancy, too formal. They're too basic, too simple. They're too regional, too specialized.

David Tanis, in "Heart of the Artichoke," gets it just right. No shocker there: He's the half-time chef at Chez Panisse --- he lives in Paris the other six months --- and he's a great representative for Alice Waters. That is, his thing is first-class ingredients, served with one twist --- a spice you wouldn't have thought of, a vegetable others would ignore. The result is familiar and novel, which is tr�s cool. To quote Ms. Waters: "David will give me a menu, and I'll imagine what it will taste like, and then it's nothing like what I imagined. That's the thrill to me."

Tanis is well-traveled, and his influences range wide: Mexico, South America, France, Vietnam, Sicily. Indeed, he's such a citizen of the world that our own cuisine is an acquired taste:

"When I cook American food, it's a little like when I conjure up my inner Italian or inner Spaniard --- it's a bit of a masquerade. If I crave American food, I have to go into my pretend-citizen mode. It's as if I'm doomed to travel the world in search of my real culture. It's not that I'm not American, it's that I grew up in Ohio, where there's no discernible regional cuisine --- unless you count funnel cakes. Owing to that particular geographical spot and era, I gained my knowledge of American cooking through other people's reminiscences. And the occasional foray into James Beard. There's something odd about having nostalgia for something I never really knew. It wasn't until I got out into the world that I learned about corn bread and gumbo, Indian pudding, chicken and dumplings, sweet pickles, and fried green tomatoes."

Appreciate the irony: His "American" dishes are more satisfying than those of many American cooks because our cuisine is a midlife enthusiasm. He's sifted and chosen well --- the recipes we like best are native-born, if not exactly unvarnished Americana.

And Tanis has sensible values that our can-do pragmatists would admire: "I'm a restaurant chef who has always preferred to cook at home." What is a home-cooked meal? Sometimes it's "a plate of potato salad and a beer," sometimes it's "much more than that." In this book, you get the range. First, it's divided into seasons. And then there are the secondary categories. "Cooking small" (meals when it's just you). "Medium" (menus for four to six people). And "large" (feasts for crowds).

Tanis has preferences, which he shares in a charming opening section. After a meal, he likes fruit. Cookies? Yes, "but not giant cookies, and not chocolate chip, and not oatmeal." He travels with key provisions, starting --- smartly --- with harissa. He craves a ham sandwich, with butter, on a baguette, in a French bar. (He also likes tripe and makes his own chorizo, which is where we part company.)

Some of his delightfully twisted recipes: fennel soup, zucchini pancakes, pork --- not veal --- scaloppini, fried fish with tarragon mayonnaise, broiled pineapple with rum. Many are shown with photographs you'd happily cut out and eat. (No wonder --- the photographer is Christopher Hirsheimer, half of the Canal House team.)

The chef who really GETS IT!, November 28, 2010
I have given away as presents over 60 copies of David's first book. He cooks as I cook and eat ... only so much better. His book was not widely available in Australia's book shops. I stumbled over it accidentally and couldn't put it down.

This second book, "heart of the artichoke ..." is just as wonderful. The recipes are manageable for the average cook and the taste results are authentic and superb. I cooked the de-constructed turkey for thanksgiving and it was simply stunning. Rave reviews from those at the table including 2 chefs. I will never roast a turkey the old way again. My love of Pho (iconic Vietnamese soup) comes from living a year in Saigon during the Vietnam war. It is the soup I must have often for comfort and confirmation that all is right in my world. David's recipe for Pho is absolutely authentic. The recipes are wide-ranging and very interesting. This book reveals more of David's attitude to food, life, living which has pleased me immensely. Anyone who always travels with chillies in his pocket is my kind of guy! This is a book to buy and never lend out. Everyone should have their own copy. It's the perfect Christmas gift. I have purchased 22 copies to give as gifts in late December.

Not just an artichoke, December 5, 2010
David Tanis presents a cookbook that celebrates in season meals. It is not just recipes but his reflections on cooking these foods. He begins with a section on his kitchen rituals, remembering how he ate oatmeal, the first time he ate an artichoke, among others.

The book is divided into seasonal menus: spring, summer, fall and winter, each with 5 menus His focaccia is amazing, as is the Digestivo with fresh berries and then the Molasses pecan squares are a favorite, we have even substituted walnuts with great success. Another section has 4 feasts and the recipes for them, including a deconstructed turkey.
The index is done by ingredient, but could have used better spacing and highlighting. It is also frustrating to look up Focaccia and not have it listed, because it is not an ingredient.

Tanis believes in simplicity and his food-recipes are not that difficult. They are different and simple but yet complicated flavors. This is an unusual cookbook for those that collect them and for those who would like to cook something that is a conundrum between simple and complex.

Good Eating, December 3, 2010
David Tanis's new cookbook is great! I am a big fan of his earlier book (Figs) and this one is just as wonderful.

Miss leading title, December 20, 2010
I was very excited to see a title of a cook book about articokes. I was not able to review the book inside to see what the recipies intaled. If I would have known that there was either one or two recipies I would not have bothered, now I own this cook book that I am not happy about and would not have bought if I knew that their was such few recipies with such a great title that was misleading. ... Read more

Editorial Review

With The New Best Recipe, we invite you into America’s Test Kitchen where you will stand by our side as we try to develop the best macaroni and cheese, the best meatloaf, the best roast chicken, the best brownie, and nearly 1,000 more best recipes for all your favorite home-cooked foods.

Behind this book is a deeply felt understanding of how frustrating it can be to spend time planning, shopping and cooking only to turn out dishes that are mediocre at best. With The New Best Recipe in hand, you will have access to a wealth of practical information that will not only make you a better cook but a more confident one as well. In fact, as long as you follow our instructions, we guarantee that these recipes will work the first and every time.

We have also included 800 illustrations showing you the best way to do almost everything from how to carve a turkey and beat egg whites properly to how to frost a layer cake and set up your grill. Also, get valuable information on how and when to splurge on that expensive knife or baking pan and when the basic model will do just fine. We also explain the science of cooking since understanding the science of food can help anyone become a better cook.Complete with recipes ranging from appetizers to desserts, The New Best Recipe ... Read more

Reviews

The Cook and the Baker (who hates to cook) both love it, November 5, 2004
I'm the Baker. When my husband-to-be first came to my house to cook me a dinner, he rummaged through my cabinets and said "Where are your pots and pans?"; then he looked through the pantry and fridge and said "Where is your FOOD?" I had to explain that, in my vocabulary, "cook" is a verb meaning "to put into a microwave on high for 4 to 5 minutes." Food? Small boxes in the freezer, of course.

I tell you this so you'll understand how improbable it is that the first thing I tackled from "The New Best Recipe" was chicken stock. A real-deal chicken stock, I'm talking here--the kind that turns to a jelly when cooled, is deep gold, and can improve nearly any dish you add it to--the kind that takes eight or ten hours to make, the classic way.

See, I had picked up this massive (1028-page) book in the bookstore and idly opened to the Soup chapter, where I read a three-page explanation of how to make real chicken stock in one hour. They detailed all the blind alleys they'd explored in trying to come up with the perfect recipe for stock--the different cooking techniques, times, ingredients--until they'd found a way to make rich golden stock in an hour. The technique was, er, unorthodox to say the least, but it all seemed to make perfect sense, so I bought the book and decided to try to make a stock to present to the Cook as a fait accompli.

Holy smoke, it worked! And I gotta tell you, if I can make a couple quarts of chicken stock between the time my daughter gets home from school and the time my husband gets home from work, then you can too.

So, enough anecdote; now for details.

----------

1. The book is a compilations of recipes from Cooks' Illustrated magazine and the America's Test Kitchen TV show (which I've never yet seen). The title seems presumptuous: "best" according to whom? Isn't "best" a matter of taste? Well, yes, but they are at pains to describe for nearly every recipe just what they MEAN by "best." Here's an example, for pound cake:

"...the main difficulty with pound cakes of the classic type is textural. Cakes might be said to have five 'texture points': moist/dry, soft/hard, dense/porous, light/heavy, rich/plain. To contemporary tastes, cakes must be relatively moist and soft; the three remaining texture points are negotiable.
"The problem with pound cake is that we ask it to be moist and soft on the one hand but also dense, light, and rich on the other. This is an extremely difficult texture to achieve unless one resorts to baking powder, with its potent chemical magic. Air-leavened cakes that are light and soft also tend to be porous and plain, as in sponge or angel cakes; moist and dense cakes inevitably also turn out heavy, as in the various syrup-soaked Bundt cakes that are so popular. From pound cake, we ask all things."

Or for broiled salmon:

"We set out to find the best way of cooking a whole side of salmon, enough to feed eight or more guests, in the oven. We wanted fish that was moist but not soggy, firm but not chalky, and nicely crusted, with golden, flavorful caramelization over its flesh. If we would work some interesting flavors and contrasting textures into the bargain, all the better."

Or for roasted potatoes:

"The perfect roasted potato is crisp and deep golden brown on the outside, with moist, velvety, dense interior flesh. The potato's slightly bitter skin is intact, providing a contrast to the sweet, caramelized flavor that the flesh develops during the roasting process. It is rich but never greasy, and it is accompanied by the heady taste of garlic and herbs."

In other words, before telling you how to make X, Y, or Z, they tell you what you're shooting for. I appreciate this. Mostly my goals and theirs coincide, but if they don't I'm aware of it BEFORE I start to cook.

2. After they describe the goal, they tell you the variations they tried to achieve it. This might include fiddling with cooking temperatures and times, number or type of ingredients, cooking techniques, tools, containers, phase of the moon... whatever! The folks in those test kitchens apparently have an infinite supply of time and money, not to mention patience.

So, for the chicken stock, they tried blanching, roasting, and sauteing the chicken; backs, wings, legs, or the whole chicken; carrots, celery, onion: yes or no? A sidebar details issues like what kind of chicken to buy, how to cut it up, and tips for storing the stock once you've made it.

You find out what works, and why, but also what didn't work, and why not. Knowledge really is power. Time after time in the past I've followed a recipe (or so I thought) and messed it up--with no idea of where I went wrong or how to fix it. Most cookbooks assume that cooks just don't make mistakes. This one tells you just about everything you could do wrong, so you won't.

By the way, I LOVE it that they attribute techniques and recipes found in other sources (including, in the case of pound cake, recipes from 1772, 1824, and 1985).

3. Is there some science about your ingredients or techniques or equipment? You'll learn about it. Why is is that butter and eggs for a cake should be at room temperature? Some cake recipes say combine everything at once ("quick mix" technique) and others say to cream suger with butter, then add the eggs and flour. Why do they both work? What's the difference in the end result? And what about those dark non-stick cake pans? Will they change anything? You'll find out.

4. After you understand the issues around your recipe, they give you the recipe itself. Many have three or four variations given after the main recipe. Each step is spelled out clearly, with both visual and time cues (e.g., "until the pork is in small, well-browned bits, about 5 minutes"), often accompanied by clear B&W illustrations and useful sidebars.

5. There are separate mini-essays on ingredients and equipment, comparing them a la Consumer Reports. We learn which are the best brands of chocolate chips for cookies (with different recommendations for thick/chewy vs. thin/crispy, no less!) and which paring knives were rated best.

I found a chart that lists the volume of medium, large, extra-large, and jumbo eggs. For that alone, I'd have bought the book, since the Cook (who's also the shopper) buys XLs, but the Baker's recipes all assume Ls. Now I actually know by how much they differ (8:9 is the ratio, in case you wondered).

6. Have I mentioned that everything I've made so far has rocked?

----

Downside? The Table of Contents and the Index both stink like the stinkiest of stinking fish. Does 22 lines ("Pork... 385", "Cakes... 823") seem to you like enough detail for the contents of a thousand-page cookbook? Me neither, especially as the individual sections don't have their own ToCs. This is ridiculous. But the index is even worse. Tiny print, uniform font sizes for all three levels of indent, no indicator letters at the top of the page to remind you where you are, and a distinct lack of cross-indexing make it a near-total waste of time. Someone could make a lot of people happy by preparing sectional ToCs and a decent index for this massive tome.

We don't accept every single bit of information in this book (the Cook has a serious bone to pick with them vis-a-vis their unflattering assessment of bluefin tuna, for instance), but for each item we disagree with, there are ten that have us nodding in agreement.

It could be described as a scientific cookbook, but that might leave you with the impression that it's dry and colorless. Quite the contrary--I find it fascinating reading, especially the parts about how they screwed up.

The prose is not lyrical or charming, as The Joy of Cooking frequently is, but it's truly engaging in its eagerness to give you all the tools you need to succeed. I doubt there's a cook in America who couldn't learn something from this book. I think it's that rare cookbook that is equally suitable for beginners, experienced cooks, and everyone in between; as much fun to read like a book as it is to use as a manual. Get it!

These Recipes Consistently Deliver, January 6, 2005
I consider myself an experienced cook but I have had frustrating experiences with cookbooks and recipes I'd find in magazines and newspapers. Something would sound wonderful, I'd buy ingredients, spend hours cooking and the results would be...OK. Not terrible, not inedible, but a disappointment none the less. Even cookbooks that I love and contain recipes I think are wonderful would also have recipes that I found pretty so-so. In fact, in many cookbooks the ratio of successes to non-successes is pretty small. Finding The Best Recipe (the edition that preceded this one) was a revelation for me. Each recipe I tried was a success. When The New Best Recipe was published, I bought one immediately and was thrilled to find so many new recipes.

This is now my go-to cookbook, the first place I look when I want to find a recipe, and a book I check other recipes against when considering recipes from other sources. I use this book in the way my mother used the Joy of Cooking when I was growing up in the late 60s and early 70s. And just as Joy was the book she used when she needed a recipe for a classic like beef stew or a then fashionable food such as quiche or cheese fondue, The New Best Recipe has recipes for classics (spaghetti and meatballs, pot roast, coq au vin, shrimp scampi) and also has recipes for foods that have hit the American culinary radar more recently such as pad thai, beef fajitas, and pozole. In fact the huge range of foods is one of the things that makes this cookbook so wonderful; for instance, the pasta section includes recipes for lo mein, tuna noodle casserole and ravioli.

This is a great book for beginners because of the detailed explanations of how the ultimate recipe was achieved which include discussions of different techniques that were considered or used and why they were rejected, as well as the many sidebars which give information on technique and equipment. Plus there is nothing that teaches you to cook like cooking, and nothing that keeps you cooking as much as having success. But it is a book that an experienced cook will find just an interesting and useful. I have been cooking for years and I have learned from this book.

This is not (and does not represent itself to be) a low-fat cookbook. The recipes are about achieving maximum flavor and taste. It is also not (and does not represent itself to be) a cookbook full of fast recipes. However, this book contains so many recipes that low fat and fast recipes can be found among them. The recipes are always clear and easy to follow, and the results will speak for themselves.

I love cookbooks and have many but if I were forced to have only one cookbook, this would be the one

Absolute best cookbook, November 16, 2004
I've been cooking for over 40 years, but I still consider myself a very bad cook. I almost always use a recipe, but if I don't have something, or don't want to bother with some technique, I try to substitute. Not a good idea for me. Or often the recipes don't include little details that they assume cooks will know, but I don't. I look through numerous recipe books and think I've found the best one for something, but it often doesn't come out perfectly. But that's all changed now! This book is amazing at not only giving you terrific recipes, but it explains why the cook made the choices she did in creating the recipe. It is so fun to read the background of how they created the perfect recipe for something and they discuss all the other things I would have done and why those things don't lead to a good product. I've tried one recipe from each chapter and had so much fun because they all came out terrific.

ONE OF THOSE MAMMOTH COOKBOOKS, January 26, 2005
I'll be honest. I've never really been one who likes these huge, mega-recipe cookbooks as I've always preferred smaller, more specialized books. This one did come as a surprise as a friend loaned it to me who just raved about it. The recipes are culled from the pages of Cooks Illustrated Magazine which I am not overly familiar with. With a 1000 pages and 1000 recipes, you're sure to find a LOT that you can use.

One thing important to note is that these recipes are not simply thrown into the book. Cooks Illustrated tests these receipes in their kitches many times, evaluating all facets of the recipe from ingredients and preparation to cook times and equipment. More than just recipes, the book acts as a guide to everyday kitchen techniques, many designed for the novice but certainly still valuable to more experienced cooks. There's also great advice on buying cookware and utensils, as often your receipes are only as good as the equipment you use to make them.

Everything from simple casserole dishes and crockpot favorites to more elegant receipes can be found within its pages. The receipes are VERY step-by-step, obviously written for the beginner in mind and will ensure a great meal everytime. Add to that the editors have put in a generous helping of over 800 illustrations perfectly complement the well-written and well-tested recipes.

If you are going to own just one of these massive type cook books...toss out Betty Crocker...Give the Joy of Cooking the heave-ho...let the Gourmet Cookbook gather dust, and pickup this fantastic book. Simply put it's the best of its kind anywhere! Highest recommendation.

Be the most amazing cook ever, right now!, December 16, 2004
Would you like to be a fabulous cook? Can't afford a ritzy cooking school? Ever wondered if the mortals in your kitchen could learn to cook like GODS??!!

Wonder no more...this cookbook comes to us courtesy of the team at Cook's Illustrated magazine, which while not widely known, is the single best source of cooking information and recipes on the planet.

Cook's takes classic recipes, deconstructs them and puts them back together, streamlined for the home kitchen but sacrificing nothing in terms of knock-your-socks-off flavour. Bonus: these recipes don't fail, unlike those in most other cookbooks.

I was always a decent cook, but after finding Cook's Illustrated I became an amazing cook...this book will make you one too. I didn't know food could taste this good; you will produce dishes that rival 4 star restaurants, I kid you not. The directions are crystal clear, and you get lots of expert advice on how to choose ingredients and equipment. Most recipes show you master-chef level tips and tricks that are easy to learn.

I can personally recommend the Coq au Vin p. 341 (my family literally begs for it), and if you cook the steak and Madeira pan sauce p. 389, they will probably name a religion after you. Other highlights, French Onion Soup p. 43, various pastas with garlic and oil pan sauces p. 238, Fresh Tomato Sauce for pasta (INCREDIBLE!!!) p. 241, Molasses Spice Cookies p. 785, Lemon Pie p. 907, Key Lime Pie p. 908, Creme Caramel p. 958. Well, you get the idea...I could go on and on, the recipes are so utterly delicious.

This cookbook is kick-ass, world class. Everyone you cook for will wonder where you learned to cook like that. I have lots of cookbooks and almost never look at any of my old ones any more. This one is just that good!

Get it, get it now, you will be so very happy you did, and so will any cook you get it for. The Best Recipe rocks.

they've made the mistakes so you do have to, May 21, 2005
I LOVE IT! I'm excited about getting into my kitchen again. I have not had a failure since I bought it. I'm Australian, so American fare is not always my favorite style of cooking, mac and cheese and meatloaf? But living here, I have to deal with American ingredients, and to be honest I've had some spectacular failures since I've moved here. I can't totally blame having to work in oz and F.

I was skeptical about the title and I'm really glad I overcame my bias. This book is good - REALLY good. Most people consider me a good cook, and I have a veritable library of cookbooks and recipes. While I did not really need 1000 more, I was intrigued enough to open the book - it fell open at a meat page which "finally" I was able to find a diagram to tell me what the various local meat cuts equated to what I was used to. I started flicking though earnestly. I stumbled across the Pork area, I'd just made pork chops that turned out the equivalent of industrial brake pads. Cooks test kitchen pointed out that today's leaner cuts of pork, needed to be treated differently. Cooked on a medium heat. I figured that what I just wasted in meat, the investment would be worth it, so I bought it home. Since then I've had tender meat, superb roasts, great pancakes, a fabulous summer pie. The book sits on my kitchen counter - it is the ultimate resource. I still use other recipes, but I find myself always coming back and consulting it and ultimately using the techniques it teaches.

It explains the process of recipe building and talks about recipe variants, a great knowledge to go forth with if you are prone to substituting as I am. I've since subscribed to their magazine, bought their baking illustrated and look forward to their new barbeque and grilling book. I'm more confident than ever in my American kitchen, and I have the America's test kitchen to thank for it.

I think the greatest compliment is I've come back to Amazon to buy a copy for a friend that is about to get married. A true gift of domestic harmony.

Don't throw away your orignal "Best Recipe!", February 20, 2005
This is a wonderful cookbook and I'm looking forward to exploring this edition as I did the original Cook's Illustrated Best Recipe. However if you own the original copy, be aware that this new edition is not simply an expanded version of the original. The editors have eliminated some of my favorite recipes and replaced them with others. The chocolate chip cookie recipe, which is indeed my favorite version of this classic treat, has been eliminated in favor a new thin & crisp variation. The quick cook carrots, which I love, have been dropped. I haven't done a comprehensive comparison between the two editions so perhaps it was just a fluke that several of the first few "old favorites" I tried to cook were missing, but I suggest you keep your original copy around just in case. However the new recipes I've tried have been up to the Cook's Illustrated standard, and I'm thrilled to have more recipes to try in one convenient cookbook.

A great resource for recipes and information, April 24, 2006
I feel I need to refute the previous reviewer's allegations. I've had this book for a year and a half, and while I've always enjoyed cooking, this book has taken me to a new level, in both enjoyment and skill. I read it front to back (and have since subscribed to the magazine) and found it fascinating reading. I love the explanations on the development of each recipe. I've made at least a hundred of the recipes in here, and very few have failed me. Most have been amazing.

Because I have not made either the Osso Buco or Beef Burgundy recipes the previous reviewer mentioned, I cannot attest to their quality specifically. However, one of the goals of these recipe developers is to take culturally traditional food and make it accessible to the American home cook. Many traditional recipes include ingredients and equipment that are not practical or available, and the recipes in this book do their best to work around this and still produce fantastic food.

I have however baked both the Baguette and Rustic Italian Bread recipes from this book. When I removed the baguette from the oven, I realized that I had finally made a great baguette, after trying many other recipes. The crust was great and the crumb was perfect. (The taste was bland-I forgot to add the salt.) I've made the Italian bread several times and gotten a ridiculous amount of compliments on it.

I've found their equipment testings valuable, even more so because they do not advocate buying tools that will be useful for only a specific food. Since reading this book, I've put my breadmaker, egg cooker, and deep fryer in storage, because the stove and oven can do it all. I've also found their tastings useful, especially because the magazine does not accept advertising. The science explanations peppered throughout the book have really wet my appetite for more kitchen science.

I will admit that this book is not for everyone. A lot of people aren't interested in the "best" recipe, they're interested primarily in the easiest or healthiest recipe. Also, there are no color pictures. I don't find this too detrimental because a lot of the focus of the book is on developing the best recipe for classic dishes, like mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli, and I know what those are supposed to look like. There are line drawings to help explain techniques, and these are helpful.

For me, this has been a great book. It's a large resource of recipes from a source that I trust, and because every recipe starts by explaining their goals, I know what to expect from the finished product. I've also been able to take what I've learned here and apply it to everything I cook. Perhaps most importantly, it makes me excited to learn still more about food and cooking.

Indispensable Kitchen Wisdom, November 15, 2004
This book gives you the most thorough description of how and why to cook recipes a certain way for the sake of taste and efficiency that I have ever seen. It also rates various brands of kitchen equipment and provides simple but extremely useful graphics. Best of all, the recipes turn out consistently terrific food. I just got this book a few weeks ago and feel I can't live without it.

I don't know anything about cooking, September 5, 2006
I don't have experience cooking and I sure don't know much about cooking technique. I have personally made all the recipes my family has enjoyed from this book with "technical" help from my wife. When my wife has made "new" recipes from other sources, we don't know what the final product will be like. With this book, not only do they tell you what the final product should be like, it most likely will turn out that way. I've watched America's Test Kitchen and thought that I could make some of the recipes they prepared. I like how detailed the instructions are on the show and the book is even more detailed. I've seen Cook's Illustrated magazine in the book store and this book is similar though slightly condensed (explanations of the testing they did and why the final recipe is the way it is).

While they have incredible detail on how and why, they do have to assume you have some rudimentary knowledge of cooking technique. So, when I tried the brownie recipe and it told me to "fold" the flour into the batter, I was clueless - fortunately, my wife supervises. As others have stated, they purposely change their recipe from "classic" recipes to make it more likely the average home kitchen has the tools required along with the ingredients being available at your supermarket.

The brownies are incredible - the difference between out of the box brownies and the "classic" brownies is why people make food from scratch. Light and fluffy pancakes came out just the way they describe it...not the dense version I usually generate from packaged mixes (my wife had to give me a lesson on flipping pancakes - that's how inept I am in the kitchen). BBQ spare ribs with the BBQ dry rub - just like the ribs I had at "Smokey Bones" in the Atlanta area (the book tells you how to cook grill recipes for charcoal and gas grills). Cheese Straws drew rave reviews at a party (although not as pretty because my daughter and I couldn't get the twists described in the recipe so we just laid it out flat - the guests didn't care). Fallen chocolate cake (molten lava cake) was better than the local Chili's. Every recipe I've made has come out they way they said it would.

As a totally novice cook, if I can get good results, then anyone should be able to do the same. As a novice cook, I do run into problems when timing is important when making a recipe the first time - like frozen dough becoming too warm because I took too long with something else before getting to the dough. They assume the average cook can get something done in X minutes while someone like me takes double the time. Fortunately, from America's Test Kitchen, I knew to just throw the dough back into the freezer when it got too warm.

On my wife's advice, I am writing all over the book with my own notes on each recipe I make with any adjustments on spices or time allotments so each recipe will be MY Best Recipes.

It's a great book. One day, maybe I'll let my kids use it and they can personalize it with the stains/spills they've put into the other recipe books we have (yeah, the books where the results are hit and miss). ... Read more

Editorial Review

From the award-winning champion of conscious eating and author of the bestselling Food Matters comes The Food Matters Cookbook, offering the most comprehensive and straightforward ideas yet for cooking easy, delicious foods that are as good for you as they are for the planet. The Food Matters Cookbook is the essential encyclopedia and guidebook to responsible eating, with more than 500 recipes that capture Bittman’s typically relaxed approach to everything in the kitchen. There is no finger-wagging here, just a no-nonsense and highly flexible case for eating more plants while cutting back on animal products, processed food, and of course junk. But for Bittman, flipping the ratio of your diet to something more virtuous and better for your body doesn’t involve avoiding any foods—indeed, there is no sacrifice here. Since his own health prompted him to change his diet, Bittman has perfected cooking tasty, creative, and forward-thinking dishes based on vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. Meat and other animal products are often included—but no longer as the centerpiece. In fact the majority of these recipes include fish, poultry, meat, eggs, or dairy, using them for their flavor, texture, and satisfying nature without depending on them for bulk. Roasted Pork Shoulder with Potatoes, Apples, and Onions and Linguine with Cherry Tomatoes and Clams are perfect examples. Many sound downright decadent: Pasta with Asparagus, Bacon, and Egg; Stuffed Pizza with Broccoli, White Beans, and Sausage; or Roasted Butternut Chowder with Apples and Bacon, for example.

There are vegetarian recipes, too, and they have flair without being complicated—recipes like Beet Tartare, Lentil "Caviar" with All the Trimmings, Radish-Walnut Tea Sandwiches, and Succotash Salad. Bittman is a firm believer in snacking, but in the right way. Instead of packaged cookies or greasy chips, Bittman suggests Seasoned Popcorn with Grated Parmesan or Fruit and Cereal Bites. Nor does he skimp on desserts; rather, he focuses on

fruit, good-quality chocolate, nuts, and whole-grain flours, using minimal amounts of eggs, butter, and other fats. That allows for a whole chapter devoted to sweets, including Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies, Apricot Polenta Cake, Brownie Cake, and Coconut Tart with Chocolate Smear.

True to the fuss-free style that has made him famous, Bittman offers plenty of variations and substitutions that let you take advantage of foods that are in season—or those that just happen to be in the fridge. A quick-but-complete rundown on ingredients tells you how to find sustainable and flavorful meat and shop for dairy products, grains, and vegetables without wasting money on fancy organic labels. He indicates which recipes you can make ahead, those that are sure to become pantry staples, and which ones can be put together in a flash. And because Bittman is always comprehensive, he makes sure to include the building-block recipes for the basics of home cooking: from fast stocks, roasted garlic, pizza dough, and granola to pots of cooked rice and beans and whole-grain quick breads.

With a tone that is easygoing and non-doctrinaire, Bittman demonstrates the satisfaction and pleasure in mindful eating. The result is not just better health for you, but for the world we all share. ... Read more

Reviews

So far, fantastic!, September 18, 2010
One day with the book, and I've made 3 recipes already and shopped for groceries to make several more. It's very encouraging and the 3 dishes I've made have blown me (and my picky housemates) away.

Breakfast: I tried the Anadama Waffles (p. 283). The flavor came out very hearty, wheat-y and otherwise ok. The texture was good and the flavor made a great base for what you typically put on a waffle. So I was happy and I'd make them again, although I might try another recipe before coming back.

Dinner: Corn and Sweet Potato Chowder with Chipotle. Amazing. I don't like veggie soup and I don't like corn chowder. My housemates don't like sweet potato or overly spicy foods in their respective peculiarities. However, we all love this dish so much that we had a little politeness war over who would have priority on the leftovers :) It's sweet and spicy and I'd make it again. This all coming from a household that loves pork pozolle!

Desert: I cheated a little. In his other book (the one with narrative and recipes), there's a nice recipe for fruit sorbet. I used chocolate and black cherry as the base and it turned out fantastic.

About the book in general:

I'm excited about the recipes I see and encouraged because I know they were built for healthy and responsible living. We'll just have to wait and see if we all magically lose weight.

The layout of the book is visually what you would expect. Information for prep time and yield is available and interesting descriptions appear above each recipe to tell you the background or whet your appetite and set your expectations.

The pages are white which makes the text much brighter than his big-red-book. Also, the pages properly lay open, even in the front and back of the book, without the need to hold the thing open (which would be cumbersome while cooking - I only mention it because some books are very good at closing themselves).

The recipes were clear and easy enough to follow as I've come to expect of Bittman. So far the taste has been great although I can't speak for the whole book as I haven't been through all of it!

Drawbacks:

1. No calorie counts. I know, he isn't about calorie counts and it'd have taken a lot of time and money to do that for each of 500 dishes, but I still hoped it would be there. Not a deal breaker.

2. There is no single list of the recipes in the book or each section. Many other cookbooks I own have a list of recipes in the front of the book or each section and this one doesn't which is a little annoying for meal planning purposes. There *are*, however, 3 lists in the back of the book for 'Fast Recipes', 'Make-Ahead Recipes', and 'Recipes for Pantry Staples'. So at least I have those.

I'll continue to cook my way through this and let you know what I find in an update, but right now I'm thrilled with my purchase and would recommend this book to anyone.

UPDATE: I'm adding a couple photos of things I've made so far. Just snaps from my kitchen, so don't expect studio quality ;)

UPDATE 2: Within a week or two I'll probably add more details about other recipes I've tried. It's still going great, but I wanted to add a comparison for reference. Yesterday I was making a recipe from a recent weight watchers cookbook. In the past, I've found their recipes to be light and tasty, though sometimes a little weird. However, after spending a while eating this plant-heavy food, I was honestly a bit sickened when cooking one of the weight watchers cookbook's chicken recipes. It's funny, but I just felt like it had way too much meat, sugar and fat. I guess it's a good thing, but now I'm a little concerned I won't enjoy a juicy steak dinner ;)

A nice step forward, October 10, 2010
I am thoroughly enjoying this book. This is not a "health-food" cookbook. It simply looks at food through a slightly different lens, such that the emphasis is placed on fruits and vegetables, not meats and dairy. There is still plenty of meat and dairy for those of us who find meat and dairy quite satisfying.

We've been moving toward this kind of diet for some time now. I've lost 25 pounds over the last year by eating this way and by exercising. My blood pressure is at a record low, and my doctor is thrilled with the changes. However, while I'm a pretty decent home cook, I am not the most imaginative cook in the world; this book has given me plenty of fresh ideas.

We have tried enough recipes with success that I feel comfortable recommending this book to others. It's simple food, and my always-skeptical sweetheart has been cleaning his plate. It doesn't matter how healthy it is if they won't eat it.

I think this is a strong addition to any cookbook collection.

Edited 12/25/10: I just wanted to add that I've been using this cookbook for over two months now, and I still find it immensely useful and use it regularly. We've considered tweaking a recipe here or there, which is normal for us. Even though we had already been moving toward this kind of diet, we've made even bigger strides over the last two months. It was a bit of a surprise when we went grocery shopping for Christmas dinner and ended up with cart almost exclusively full of vegetables with half a turkey breast and nearly no simple carbs or processed foods. It's becoming more and more natural for us to eat this way, even on special occasions.

Bittmanesque healthy recipes, October 9, 2010
Another in Mark Bittman's corpus of work. I have always enjoyed his cookbooks, and I have incorporated a number of his recipes into my cooking "cycle." This book focuses on healthier dishes. Early on, he notes (Page ix): "If you swap the basic proportions in your diet--increasing unprocessed fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and whole grains--you'll wind up losing your weight and improving your overall health. . . ."

One thing that he aims to do in this cookbook is to reduce the percentage of calories coming from animal based food or highly processed food. The recipes come in several categories here: appetizers and snacks, soups, salads and dressings, pasta (and noodles and dumplings), rice and grains, beans, vegetables, bread (and pizza and sandwiches and wraps), and desserts and sweet snacks.

While Bittman's recipes cut the amount of meat, he does not present us with a vegetarian/Vegan cookbook. There is a provision of meat or seafood or poultry in a number of the recipes.

Some illustrative recipes: Cucumber-wasabi tea sandwiches; Olives, cucumbers, and tuna, Mediterranean style; Mini potato-parmesan rostis; Provencal soup (a play on ratatouille); Mushroom stew with beef chunks; Smashed potato salad with escarole; Thai beef salad; Pasta with asparagus, bacon, and egg (Odd, but yummy!); Black bean chili mac; Vegetable and shrimp fried rice; Chickpea tagine with chicken and bulgur; Scrambled tomatoes and herbs (easy and tasty); Grilled turkey hash with red wine glaze; Grilled tomato sandwich, with or without cheese.

All in all, an interesting cookbook if you wish to improve the quality of your diet. Recipes are doable. Some seem to me to be fairly bland. But it is a tradeoff--health versus our acquired taste for highly processed food and too much meat.

Really easy healthy recipes, October 15, 2010
I'm really happy with this book, it's had a spot on my kitchen counter ever since I bought it. I'm not a vegetarian, but I was looking to increase the amount of vegetables in my diet but didn't know any good recipes. A lot of other cookbooks have a vegetable section where it's just individual vegetables steamed or cooked some other way as a side dish. I wanted a book that gave me more interesting veggie-heavy main dishes. I don't have that much time to cook dinner and can't be bothered with a huge ingredient list. This book has a variety of good recipes that are tasty and fast. There are still a lot of recipes with meat, especially chicken, but that can be substituted with something else if I don't feel like eating chicken. Highly recommended!

A pathway to healthier eating, November 27, 2010
If you're looking for "health food" this isn't the book. The book features some fried dishes and others that use ingredients such as sausage, not exactly health food. But if you are looking for a tasty way to improve your diet, this cook book is an outstanding starting point. My wife has been moving toward more of a vegetarian diet and I still love my meat (and she hasn't totally abandoned it), so the recipes in this book allow me to have my beloved meat, while she can stay true to her move toward less meat in her diet.

In this book, meat no longer takes the center stage, as has been traditional in the US. Instead meat is used more for flavoring and texture, the way many Asian cuisines use it. We've tried about about 1/4 of the recipes already and have yet to come up with a clunker.

I own roughly two dozen cookbooks. With most I've tried a few recipes, after which they gather dust on my shelf. I only use 3 consistently (The Joy of Cooking, Cooks Illustrated's American Classics and The Barbecue Bible). Since I've purchased this cook book I now have 4 in my regular rotation.

A great cookbook, October 20, 2010
I've been a fan of Mark Bittman for years, and I love the new Food Matters books. This is a great cookbook for anyone looking to have a better diet without dieting. My boyfriend and I cook every night, but recently we had been in a bit of a food rut. We bought this book last week and have tried 4 recipes from it since - each one has been a huge hit, and healthy! We've tried the corn and sweet potato chowder with chipotle (so delicious!), the bok choy, daikon, and tofu stir fry (also great), the steak fajitas (amazing with tequila-lime glaze) and the black bean, corn, and chipotle quinoa. Everything we've tried will we liked enough to make again, and there are dozens more recipes we have marked to try. The little meat/lots of vegetable thing also makes the meals pretty inexpensive to make, which is great for people trying to save money. I would highly recommend it!

Great Book!, November 19, 2010
My wife and I love this cookbook. There are a lot of delicious meals that are easy to cook (less than 30 min). The thing I like most about this book is that it provides a way to eat whole foods in meals that actually taste good. If you are looking for a way to incorporate more grains, beans, tempeh, miso etc into your diet, then I highly recommend this book! We've cooked about 15 of the recopies so far and liked all but one. Three of our favorites were ginger miso chicken, lamb bulgur spinach meatloaf and chicken with chard and steel cut oats. We like this book so much we bought four from Amazon to give as gifts this Christmas to the in-laws and our siblings.

Something For Everyone Whether Vegan, Vegetarian or Omnivore, November 22, 2010
This cookbook contains hundreds of recipes that don't require us to give up anything. He isn't promoting vegetarianism; just suggesting that we use less meat and more plant-based foods in our meals which he says not only helps the enviroment but is also healthier for our waistlines. Bittman also doesn't preach which I appreciate. Instead, he simply offers some great dishes that include updated versions of traditional recipes along with some most of us wouldn't have thought of such as Crisp Noodle Cake with Stir-Fried Greens and Shrimp.

Some of the recipes call for ingredients I'm not sure I will find in my local grocery store but with a little planning I can check at some of the specialty stores in the area. Most seemed to have regular ingredients I recognized. There are some vegetarian recipes in the cookbook along with those that include fish, poultry, and other meats, and of course one can always add meat to a vegetarian recipe or take it out of another if they desire.

I especially liked the soup, bread, and dessert sections of this book which have recipes I think I'm most inclined to try. The Asparagus and White Bean Soup With Parmesan was good and I plan on trying his fruitcake recipe which he promises people will actually like. The Chocolate Chunk Cookie recipe includes a choice of substituting vegan/vegetarian ingredients for the regular ones (i.e. soy or almond milk instead of regular milk, etc.)

This is a cookbook for everyone whether vegan, vegetarian, or omnivore; whether one wants to switch to a healthier diet that uses less meat or wants to be more environmentally responsible.

The only downside of this book is that there are no photos, but given the sheer volume of recipes, that can be overlooked.

This cookbook was given to me by the publishers for review. However, my opinion was not solicited and is mine alone. If I didn't like the book I would say so.

The way we want to eat!, November 12, 2010
When I saw that Mark Bittman had a new cookbook out, I hesitated. I already have 5 of his books, did I really need another 500 recipes from him? The answer to that is a resounding yes!

This book is for anyone who is trying to eat healthier. And really, who isn't? I don't know anyone who goes around saying, "I'm going to eat more processed foods and slurp canned soda!" This book is exactly how I would like to eat more often...more grains and beans, less meat, more fruits and veggies.

The book opens up a section on why food matters. If you have already read his Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating with More Than 75 Recipes, you can skip this part, in fact he tells you that you can skip it, but I read it again, to remind myself of how and why I want to eat better. Then he goes into stocking your pantry and finishes the intro by explaining his icon rating of recipes: fast, make-ahead, and pantry staple. In typical Bittman fashion, he has the recipes in the back also listed by their icon. So, if you were looking to make a fast recipe, there they are all.

The recipe chapters are: Appetizers and Snacks, Soups, Salads and Dressings, Pasta Noodles and Dumplings, Rice and Grains, Beans, Vegetables, Bread Pizza Sandwiches and Wraps, Desserts and Sweet Snacks.

I have been poring over this book, making lists of recipes that I want to try, finally giving up, because there are just too many!

Here are a few, I have marked to try soon:

Raw Butternut Squash Salad with Cranberry Dressing
Roasted Pork Shoulder with Potatoes, Apples and Onions
Baked Pumpkin Orange Custard
Chipotle Glazed Squash Skewers
Roasted Sweet Potato Salad
Mushroom and Pasta Frittata
Pasta with Smoky Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Bacon

As a confirmed carb lover, the pasta section alone is worth the price of the book. Every single recipe sounds great.

I haven't made anything out of the book yet, (I'll be making the Sweet Potato and Bacon Pasta next week), but I don't have to. I've cooked enough, read enough cookbooks and cooked enough Bittman recipes to tell that these are winners. They are easy. They are healthy.

GREAT ADDITION TO CONSCIOUS EATING, December 16, 2010
Bittman has finally awakened to the food nightmare in this country. He employs his usual style in this text: no photos, plain text, no penache, BUT really useful information. He provides the usual reference points, Make Ahead Foods, Fast, Vegetarian, etc. He also has some useful charts and tables, as Bittman fans are accustomed to in his books. The collection of recipes reflects the susbstantial changes he acknowledges making in his own food preparation. Comes across as genuine without being "preachy"--a plus. Admittedly, many of these recipes I will likely NEVER make, BUT there are several great ideas for eating more plant-based meals. I love the way he throws variations out there. Throughout the book, Bittman encourages exploration of your palate and your family's tastes while giving a guiding and informative set of suggestions--the recipes. I was most thrilled to see him get off his high horse and admit that a sustainable, organic, whole-foods approach to the dinner table is the responsible choice for the 21st century cook/chef. Those familiar with Bittman's previous books will recollect his earlier harsh, repeated, and inaccurate statements that organic food was simply "a political stance." It was refreshing to see his attitude changes reflected in both his recipes and his changed philosophy of eating and cooking. ... Read more

Editorial Review

For more than twenty years, Barefoot Contessa, the acclaimed specialty food store, has been cooking and baking extraordinary dishes for enthusiastic customers in the Hamptons. For many of those years, people have tried to get the exuberant owner, Ina Garten, to share the secrets of her store. Finally, the energy and style that make Barefoot Contessa such a special place are shown here, with dozens of recipes and more than 160 breathtaking photographs, in The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook.

Ina's most popular recipes use familiar ingredients, but they taste even better than you would expect. Her Pan-Fried Onion Dip is the real thing, with slowly car-amelized onions and fresh sour cream. Tomato soup is created from oven-roasted tomatoes and fresh basil to intensify the flavors. Meat loaf is as good as your grandmother's, but it's healthier because it's made with ground turkey and fresh herbs. The light and flaky Maple-Oatmeal Scones are baked with rolled oats, whole wheat, and real maple syrup. Now these and other famous Barefoot Contessa recipes can be prepared at home.

Ina says that before she owned a specialty food store she often spent a week making dinner for six friends. Her experience at Barefoot Contessa has given her hundreds of ideas for creating wonderful parties in a few hours. And they're all in this book. Crab Cakes with R�moulade Sauce can be stored overnight in the refrigerator and saut�ed just before the guests arrive. Cheddar Corn Chowder can be made days ahead, reheated, and served with a salad and bread for a delicious autumn lunch. The ingredients for Grilled Salmon Salad can all be prepared ahead and tossed together before serving. The batter for theRaspberry Corn Muffins can be mixed a day before and popped into the oven just before breakfast.

Ina Garten teaches us how to entertain with style, simplicity, and a relaxed sense of fun. There are notes throughout the book for giving cocktail parties, lunches, and dinner parties where everything is done before the guests arrive. And there are easy instructions for creating gorgeous party platters that don't even require you to cook!

With Ina Garten and The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, you have the perfect recipe for hosting parties that are easy and fun for everyone--including the cook. ... Read more

Reviews

magnificent, December 13, 1999
I had people for dinner a few nights ago, and no one can stop talking about the wonderful results. I tried the Indonesian Ginger Chicken, and it sure was tasty. I followed her easy directions, and marinated the chicken overnight-- which is a real lifesaver, since you're not in the kitchen, seasoning, while everyone else is gossiping in the living room. I love recipes where you can prepare ahead, and just pop them in the oven when you want to eat. That seems to be the focus of Ina's book-- have fun with whomever you're entertaining, while a scrumptous meal cooks in the oven. The only thing I would do differently with the Ginger chicken is to buy pre-minced garlic and ginger. Doing it yourself takes forever because of how much is called for in the recipe. All in all, I think this book is terrific, and I've read through each recipe many times, simply imagining the tastes and looks of the food. It's so well put together, and I think Ina owes much of the book's success to the wonderful photography. This is the kind of cookbook you pick up to read just for fun, even if you're not planning to use it that day. Great job! Buy this now!

Simple and Delicious!, July 23, 2001
This is not your ordinary cookbook. It is a visual feast for all your senses. The photographs are stunning, the recipes are simple to understand, and the tips are actually very helpful. Ina Garten expertly walks you through preparation to presentation, and injects personal anecdotes throughout. I was left with the impression that she truly wants her readers to appreciate the simplicity and beauty of a great meal.

The book begins with an introduction to fresh ingredients and again, the emphasis is on quality and simplicity. Ina guides us through a farmer's market of fresh fruits and vegetables, explaining what to look for and how to select the very best ingredients for our meals. In the midst of this primer, she delivers a simple recipe for fresh lemonade (a quick application of what we have just learned!), followed by a glossary of kitchen terms, and all accompanied by beautiful photographs. The first section is devoted to appetizers, and includes detailed instructions on what to serve at cocktail parties (and exactly how to serve it) and how to make and present an elegant, yet simple fruit and cheese platter. My favorite recipe from this section was the vegetable sushi. She then covers Soups (including home made croutons), Salads (the French Potato is tremendous!), Dinner Entrees (including a kitchen clambake and the famous Indonesian Ginger Chicken recipe), Vegetables (with instructions on creating a stunning vegetable platter), Desserts (the country dessert platter is perfect for small groups get-togethers!) and a section simply entitled "Breakfast" with a wonderful recipe for White Hot Chocolate and a short primer on how to make "the perfect cup of coffee". The book ends with details for assembling party food and has a complete resource section loaded with information on how to find specialty items.

I own many cookbooks, but I have found this to be the most inspiring and entertaining that I have read. The recipes are simple, and quite delicious, making this a terrific resource for both the experienced and novice cook.

5 Stars. Magnificent!

A cookbook one can trust, June 26, 2003
When I see more than 100 reviews of a book, I usually balk at adding my own two cents worth to the mix. However, I am a big fan of Ina Garten and own all of her books (3 so far) and wanted to throw my opinions into the ring anyway.

Many reviewers commented on the beautiful photos, but complained about the number of recipes. I can understand that point of view, but I would rather have a really good, dependable cookbook with 25 great recipes (and there are more than that in this book) than a cookbook with 100 recipes that are just so-so. It's the ol' quality versus quantity argument, I suppose.

And about those photos -- I know that color photos add to the cost and bulk of a cookbook, but when they are beautifully done, as is the case with this book, it makes you WANT to try the recipes. On the other hand, I've got some gorgeous cookbooks with some stinker recipes in them. That's another reason why I love this book. You get beautiful photos AND really good recipes.

Do you want a cookbook you can trust? This book fits the bill for me. I have made her recipes for the first time FOR GUESTS -- something that would normally create heart palpitations and have me reaching for that unnecessary extra glass of wine. Yet my guests and I have yet to be disappointed. I'd say that was cause for celebration myself.

One other comment -- Garten emphasizes using fresh and good quality ingredients. If you do you will find her recipes work all of the time. I suspect that one or two of the less than satisfied reviewers here took some shortcuts or perhaps used a less than stellar ingredient.
There is no substitute for fresh thyme for example when it is a PRIMARY flavoring. You might get away with dried thyme in a stew or soup, but not when it is paired with only fresh lemon, garlic, and olive oil for chicken. Stick with fresh herbs and don't buy cheap olive oil or substitute margarine (yuk) for butter and you will get good results. I think this applies to cooking in general, not just to Ina's recipes.

Obviously I highly recommend this book and I think the majority will ultimately agree that it is a good choice. Looking forward to your next book, Ina!

I Used To Hate Cooking..., September 10, 2000
Before I found The Barefoot Contessa I hated cooking. Even after building a new home with a large, beautiful, functional kitchen, I wasn't interested. In fact my oven didn't get used for the first two months. Then a friend recommended Ms. Garten's book and I liked it because it looked pretty on my countertop. Since the day I opened it, my husband says I'm a changed woman.

My first attempt at a recipe was Parker's Split Pea soup, which is as delicious as my mother's (sorry, mom) and sooooo simple. If you can use a knife to chop veggies you're 90% there. The Rosemary Whitebean soup (use FRESH rosemary or don't even bother) enticed my neighbor to ask about the aromas she could smell from her yard. I then moved on to recipes that required more focus but are easily followed like Filet of Beef Bourginon (my husband's all-time favorite) and Swordfish with Tomato and Capers with Parmesan Smashed Potatoes served at a dinner party for eight (something I never would have even considered a year ago) where a guest inquired about whom I used for a caterer! Overall, extremely well written and simple to navigate your way through each recipe. Ina's side column notes are helpful personal touches, like why to use Kosher salt instead of table salt. (I had never even heard of such a thing...) The biggest rewards are hearing guests rave about MY cooking and, of course, enjoying the incredible food in my newly-discovered kitchen.

A great addition to my collection!, January 10, 2000
Truly a beautiful book, with wonderful photographs and simple instructions. Worth its price if only for the Coconut Cupcakes, the Indonesian Ginger Chicken, and the Pan-fried Onion Dip. Be warned, however -- this is NOT low-fat cooking. For example, you can easily third the butter and oil in the Pan-frien Onion Dip with no detrimental effect on taste. Do use it for entertaining -- you will get rave reviews but still avoid a thickening waistline.

Worth the calories!, May 14, 2000
Although I would not reccommend this cookbook to some one on a low fat diet, (butter seems to be a main ingredient) it is great for easy entertaining. The recipes are easy to follow and I have yet to meet with failure! Although, I found the roasted potato fennel soup a bit bland. The roast chicken is a brainless staple in my house. The grilled lemon chicken with satay sauce is perfect summer party food. Crab cakes, spinich pie, turkey meatloaf, onion soup - you name it I have tried it, all to elegant and delicious results! The coconut cupcakes were to die for. They are not light and fluffy (with 5 eggs and half a pound of butter?) but dense like a moist chewy macaroon... yummy! I found that half of the frosting recipe is more than enough. Cook with the Contessa and diet tomarrow!

Garten is a Gourmet Guru for Common and Uncommon folk, August 13, 2001
I cook, a lot. My friends cook, alot. I really dread trying to buy cookbooks on line, hoping that they are worth not only the shelf space but the shipping and handling. I recieved this cookbook a year ago but never really explored it. I made one or two dishes, all were delicious, but until recently I had not delved into its pages. Wow. what a treat. Kind of like finding forgotten money in your pant pocket.I strongly encourage people to try the swordfish,carrots, fennel, beef bouruigon, banana muffins--I could go on and on. Every recipe is a crowd pleaser and they are easy. Garten's recipes involve fresh ingredients--most of which you already have on hand-- that are simply cooked with surprising twists. The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook is a must have for all aspiring and inspiring cooks. Makes a great gift and is a valuable addition to every cook's collection regardless of expertise.

It's a Great Cookbook!, December 14, 1999
I love this book, I know the quantity is large but it really comes in handy when you are cooking for alot of people, parties, etc. All the recipes I have made have come out great! I have had great compliments on all the food I have cooked from this book. I have made the cupcakes for my company party which everyone loved. I have made the eggplant dip, the chocolate buttercream cake, the corn chowder(great), soup, parm croutons(great), Indonisian chicken (great), the shortbread hearts(great). It one of my favorite books!

Beautiful presentation and appealing simplicity, November 6, 1999
We all fantasize occasionally about living the life of the rich and leisured in fabulous places like the Hamptons. So it's wonderful to be able to create the food they devour at their posh get-togethers for our own families and guests. This book is beautifully photographed and its layout is easy to use.The recipes have a simplicity about them that is very appealing. I made the Outrageous Brownies--with all that butter, vanilla and chocolate, they weren't cheap, but the recipe makes a huge pan. And it gave me a good excuse to buy a high quality half-sheet pan from Williams Sonoma! Only a raving lunatic would cut them into 20 pieces as the recipe states. They're far too rich. I cut them into 48, and they're still good-sized brownies that let you know you've been fed. Most of them went to my college-age daughter for finals week, where I'm sure they'll be scarfed down with enthusiasm. Made the Indonesian Ginger Chicken last night. It was a spur of the moment decision, so the chicken did not marinate overnight as the recipe directs, but it was still great and very easy. I chopped the garlic in the food processor and would do the same with the ginger when I make it again. Also note--unlike most in the book, it's a low fat recipe, with no added fat in the marinade ingredients. My meat and potatoes husband loved it, and I didn't tell him it was healthy! I'm looking forward to trying many other recipes, especially as the holidays approach.

Barefoot Contessa is the BEST!, April 30, 2004
With an extensive cookbook collection, it is rare for me to make more than one or two recipes out of a single cookbook. This book would have to be the exception to that rule. I would highly recommend this book to any of you. I have a large family, the recipe sizes do not intimidate, and do not require doubling for our family gatherings. Ingredients are high quality, and fresh. I have made the Pecan Squares and taken them to work, handed out the recipe to nearly everyone. The Maple Oat Scones have been made approximately a dozen times, and are always a hit! Veggies roasted in the oven? Incredible. Buy it, you won't be disappointed. ... Read more

Editorial Review

The bestselling entertaining guide from America's most delightfully unconventional hostess is now available in paperback!


Are you lacking direction in how to whip up a swanky soiree for lumberjacks?A dinner party for white-collar workers?A festive gathering for the grieving?Don't despair.Take a cue from entertaining expert Amy Sedaris and host an unforgettable fete that will have your guests raving.No matter the style or size of the gathering-from the straightforward to the bizarre-I LIKE YOU provides jackpot recipes and solid advice laced with Amy's blisteringly funny take on entertaining, plus four-color photos and enlightening sidebars on everything it takes to pull off a party with extraordinary flair.You don't even need to be a host or hostess to benefit-Amy offers tips for guests, too!(Number one:don't be fifteen minutes early.)Readers will discover unique dishes to serve alcoholics (Broiled Frozen Chicken Wings with Applesauce), the secret to a successful children's party (a half-hour time limit, games included), plus a whole appendix chock-full of arts and crafts ideas (from a mini-pantyhose plant-hanger to a do-it-yourself calf stretcher), and much, much more! ... Read more

Reviews

This book is frickin' insane and addictive! Amy Sedaris rocks!, October 27, 2006
I have been enjoying Amy Sedaris's freaky-weird acting for years, so I had to snatch up this book the second I heard it was out. And, man oh man, I have been laughing for days. This is one addictive book, like a paper drug. I woke up this morning, and instead of thinking about my husband or cats or breakfast or my job, I imagined Amy Sedaris trying on pantyhose, and I thought "No Squirrels." (You'll understand after you read the book.) Then I wondered how on earth I would achieve that baked Alaska featured in her book.

This lady works comedic magic with this book. I have never, ever, ever read or seen anything like this strange book.

Yes, there is a plethora of valuable tips and recipes for entertaining, but the way Amy presents the info is nothing short of comic genius. The pictures are all gold. And her writing is rickety and charming. And wait till you find the secret poster! You will buy a locker just so you can hang it up!

Mark my word, this book will be *the* gift to give this holiday season. It is destined to make Amy Sedaris a household name. Plus, it is extremely useful and entertaining.

Our Parties, Ourselves, November 23, 2006
Partially a cookbook, partially a primer about entertaining and partially the random thoughts of an eccentric actress/caterer, I LIKE YOU is Amy Sedaris's hilarious guide to hospitality.

Recommended for those who enjoy attending parties and people who get a kick out of hosting them, this is a quirky book that succeeds in offering valuable information while charming the pants off the reader. In this way, it accurately could be described as the bodice ripper of cookbooks.

Chock full of photographs, illustrations, notes and invitations, I LIKE YOU can be enjoyed by randomly opening it to any page, but I can guarantee that if you start it from the beginning, you will find yourself engrossed in Sedaris's simple, tasty party chow and quirky but valuable tips and anecdotes about:

* Party Strategy
The second you decide to throw a party start making ice. Sedaris calls buying a bag of it "cheating."

* The Guest List
If everyone is the same, the party is a boring convention. Still you should avoid toxic combinations, like an astrologer and an astronomer, the newly divorced couple, and a serial killer and a drunken teenager.

* Invitations
Be specific about time, location and themes so guests can dress appropriately. If you don't RSVP immediately, hosts will worry you are waiting for a better offer.

* Etiquette
Don't arrive early unless specifically asked to. But do arrive on time, especially for a dinner party. Depending upon the host, consider practical gifts like toilet paper and stamps. If you want to bring wine, ask the hostess what she is planning to serve and bring a bottle of that. If you want to be graceful in an old world sort of way, send a bouquet of flowers the following day.

* Adult Proof Your House
Assume guests will snoop. Plan ahead and fill your medicine cabinet with marbles.

* Try to Turn a Profit
Capitalize on the chance to sell things to a house full of liquored up, generous guests. Set up a table of things you are selling for 25 cents. A strict hostess Sedaris has three rules for party sales: 1) it has to be a quarter, not two dimes and a nickel; 2) you break it, you buy it; and 3) you buy it, you take it away.

Plus completely unrelated to cooking or hospitality, I LIKE YOU covers an array of other idiosyncratic suggestions about curling your eyelashes, staining your lips with cherry popsicles, removing hair color from your forehead, entertaining the elderly, proper rabbit care and the basics of grooming, handicrafts and gift giving. For all of these reasons, I wish I could give it ten stars.

- Regina McMenamin

There are not enough Stars for this GEM!, October 12, 2006
Well...you had me at "IdespiseAndreaHarner", but you are right on all other accounts.

Miss Amy has done something really special this time, and it shows!

First off, this book is HUGE! I hadn't imagined how thick it would be- it is literally jammed packed with everything you can imagine (and more, WAY more) from our hostess extraordinaire. The hard cover edition is solid as a rock, nothing flimsy about it.

The recipes indeed appear to be "JACKPOT" and crowd pleasing-I cant wait to try them out. The scrap book feel to this book is ever-present, with zany crafts, priceless photos (old and new) and authentically stained recipe cards in scrawling print surrounding the main text. The party ideas and themed night suggestions are off-beat and creative. It is a much beloved addition to my Sedaris collection.

Tongue-in-check entertaining advice, November 27, 2006
If you like Amy Sedaris's quirky sense of humor (e.g., Strangers with Candy), and you're into kitsch, then I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence is just the book for you this holiday season. If you avoid Comedy Central, however, and are uncomfortable around irony-laden humor, you best steer clear because Amy Sedaris's new book is a rollicking romp through tongue-in-cheek entertaining, far more amusing and satisfying than anything Martha Stewart could devise.

Armed with her own brand of humor and a bottle of liquor, Sedaris is ready for any situation, from the unexpected guest to a death in the family. She explains in detail how to write invitations, plan a menu (by color, texture, theme, flavor, or decoration), and get guests mingling. But she also includes aspects of party throwing you may not have considered, such organizing some sale items to make a little money for yourself. Sedaris insists that she lets guests have their picture taken with her pet rabbit for 25 cents. Also, consider avoiding the following guest combinations: astrologer and astronomer, psychologist and psychiatrist, and serial killer and drunken teenager.

Sedaris offers numerous recipes throughout the book, including some favorites from her Greek family. From "I Remember the War Cube Steak" for entertaining the elderly to spanakopita for a New Year's Day brunch, you'll have the crowd clamoring for more.

You'll also find plenty of comical desserts like the heart-shaped cake that says "Stepmother" and the "Happy Coming Out" cake in the form of a butterfly. Of course, no meal is complete without Amy Sedaris herself covered in icing and sprinkles, and she gives us just that. (Be sure to check out the poster inside the cover for the pin-up version.)

Throughout the book, Sedaris dresses in dated polyester outfits and drops hints on everything from how to put on pantyhose to how to wear a fall (woman's long hairpiece).

The photos (by Todd Oldham, no less) and illustrations are hilarious, and even the book jacket will have you wiping your eyes.

Armchair Interviews says: Surely, we all know someone this book would be perfect for.

Finally! A book about entertaining I can relate to!, October 17, 2006
I don't think a book about entertaining has ever made me laugh to the point of tears before! Seeing peanuts! Gift ideas for nuns! Dad come home cake! Change your medicine chest from herbal remedies to something that works! The section on guest etiquette is priceless and hits the nail on the head. Todd Oldham's photography with its lurid lighting/drab hues is amazing. And the children's games section alone is worth twice the price of the book.
This isn't kitsch of the moment--this defines an edge of humor that deserves a spotlight. Amy Sedaris gets it! Cheers to her and her wonderful book. It is a generous, warm, inspiring and hysterically funny treasure that knocked me over with happiness. I will enjoy it for years.

Hilarious!, November 28, 2006
This book is awesome- I bought it for a friend for christmas and as soon as it was delivered I ended up reading the whole thing myself! I bought it for a friend who enjoys throwing parties (as I do). The recipes seemed good, and the writing was unmistakeably Sedaris! Even if the food is crap, this book is worth every penny as a conversation piece/entertaining read.

This book is off the hook, December 13, 2006
I had no idea what to expect other than humor, obviously.
This book has information on etiquette and manners, classic recipes, social suggestions, and tips in areas you would never expect. You can read it cover to cover, or open any page and start new every time. I have to mention the ridiculous (in a good way) photography, illustrations and various notes that dot each spread. A refreshing compilation.

The perfect gift for crude moms & gay uncles., October 31, 2006
This book is raunchy, scatterbrained, offensive, and absolutely hilarious. What a purchase! Amy Sedaris has created a book on entertaining that is as freakishly detailed as her home decor. Every square inch of the book (including the book jacket/centerfold) is overflowing with absurd drawings, photos, recipes, crafts, family memories, and helpful hints, such as, "Gift Ideas for Early Menopause." The tone is of a 1960s cookbook with a narcotics problem. Although this is the type of book you want to curl up with and have a laugh - it is actually useful! The recipes are delicious (try the Tiddlywinks Toadstool Pie *yum*) and the entertaining tips take the pretentiousness out of throwing parties. Go Amy!

The Familiar Deadpan Sedaris Humor Infuses Hilariously Off-Kilter Tweak on Martha Stewart, October 20, 2006
It's pretty obvious Amy Sedaris and I come from the same generation because her harmlessly subversive sense of humor and kitsch-driven cultural references feel very cathartic to me. With photos and narration that reflect the becalming tone of kitchen counter magazines like Sunset and Better Homes and Gardens circa 1967, this hilariously off-kilter satire of Martha Stewart's "Entertaining" books has the familiar comic actress in a new guise, the perfect party hostess, though Jerri Blank (her put-upon protagonist in "Strangers With Candy") does show up in the book. Sedaris is smart enough to know the book cannot be a complete satire, so she actually includes honest-to-goodness recipes. The zucchini fritters and the "Li'l Smokey Cheeseball" bring particular flashbacks to me of what my mother would have served at her mah jong parties as they watched "Mannix".

It's the faux-patronizing context and wholly unappetizing photos where she gets to express the dry and sometimes twisted Sedaris wit. For example, the author has a chapter devoted to the particulars of entertaining lumberjacks. I especially like the idea of filling one's medicine cabinet with marbles to catch nosey guests in the act of examining the host's medications. Moreover, she gives etiquette pointers like not divulging a friend's inability to conceive during a guest introduction, and sound advice on what textures to have on your party platters -"crunchy will always punch up soggy," but "never have bumpy and lumpy on the same plate". Sedaris' deadpan approach and over-the-top images are exactly the tweak your lifestyle cookbook collection needs. I am hopeful that a TV series will follow whether it's on the Food Network or Comedy Central.

I like you too!, November 27, 2006
Imagine a beautiful full color cookbook written by a 1950's single girl with a flair for entertaining. Now imagine that girl is drunk, and messy, and just a little bit crazy.

I love this cookbook. It's the funniest thing I've read in ages, and full of ideas designed to educate, or at least entertain. It's jam-packed too, you could pour over just a few pages for quite some time and not catch all the tidbits and visual goodies there are to be found.

Bottom line: buy it for the style, keep it for the substance. It's hilarious. ... Read more

Editorial Review

"Many of the bonds my family has were forged over the dinner table and through the sharing of recipes. Cooking is the way we express our love for one another....I feel so lucky and blessed by the strong support and wonderful memories -- and the incredible recipes -- that my family has brought me. They are the heart and soul of this book."

-- FROM THE INTRODUCTION

Nothing is more important to Paula Deen than her family, and nothing makes that big family happier than sitting down to a meal together. In Paula Deen's The Deen Family Cookbook, Paula and the Deens, Hiers, Groovers, and Orts share their recipes and memories.

Paula's beloved Aunt Peggy makes an Old-Fashioned Meat Loaf that's as good in sandwiches the next day as it is for dinner. Baby brother Bubba Hiers brings his Beer and Onion Biscuits to the table, and his daughter, Corrie, makes a simple but luscious Lemony, Buttery Baked Fish that's perfect for a weeknight dinner. (Her Carrot-Pecan Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting are pretty tasty, too!) Son Jamie makes Huevos Rancheros, perfect for brunch, or try Bobby's Whole Wheat and Honey Pancakes. Husband Michael Groover knows his way around a grill: try his Company's Coming Grilled Steak and Veggie Supper for easy entertaining, and finish the evening with his Irish Coffee.

Of course, there was no way The Lady herself was going to let her relatives have all the fun: Paula is, after all, Paula. She shares her recipe for the Ham and Chutney Biscuit Fingers she puts on the table at every family party as well as the Eggplant and Sausage Lasagna that went a long way toward getting the boys to eat their vegetables. And while there's plenty of butter, bacon, and mayonnaise in these pages, you'll find some of the lighter recipes that Paula enjoys, too: Seared Scallops with Pineapple-Cucumber Salsa is her first choice for a healthful but romantic supper with Michael, and Oven-Fried Chicken Breasts with Honey-Yogurt Drizzle lets Paula indulge in her favorite foods without guilt and with room for dessert.

With more than 140 recipes and dozens of beautiful color photographs, there's something here for everyone. So invite over all those aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends, and treat them to some home cooking, Deen family style. ... Read more

Reviews

Buy the book, April 8, 2009
Omygosh...a cookbook that's a good read. What a concept. Paula makes cooking fun and just a little naughty...I mean...real butter, bacon, sugar and just the right amount of sauce. Thank goodness there are still cooks who create real food. Lots of great recipes...if I had to pick a favorite I guess it would be Michael's sinful twice baked potato...it's a meal unto itself. With the fabulous photography and easy instructions you can't miss...and believe me, I am no cook...but I can wow my guests with these recipes.

love love love it!, April 7, 2009
I love love loved this book! It was so much fun reading all the little family stories that go along with the recipes - Paula's family is just as hilarious as she is (no surprise there, I guess)! The recipes all seem pretty easy to make and they're so creative. My #1 favorite is Aunt Peggy's meatloaf (no boring old meatloaf here!), and I can't wait to try all of the sweets recipes. Her cousin's recipe for whoopee pies looks amazing. And it's even got a healthy family recipe chapter - who would have thought? Looks delicious!

I love this cookbook!, June 27, 2009
I had become tired of buying cookbooks sight unseen, and then being disappointed by the recipes once the book arrived. This had become especially true of some the the "celebrity" chef books of late. So, I decided to check this book out of my local library first and what a pleasant surprise I found. This is a GREAT cookbook with a nice variety of recipes provided not just by Paula and her sons, but also her extended family. And each recipe is accompanied by a story about the person or the recipe and it was a really great read on top of adding some superb recipes to my collection. The recipes are easy to follow and make, and there aren't too many obscure ingredients that you would have to go in search of, and many are made with staples that you probably keep on hand. It covers everything from appetizers to desserts, and I can not wait to make the coconut bread pudding. YUM! I am so pleased with the cookbook, I plan on buying my own copy. You will thoroughly enjoy the book!

Update: I have made two recipes from this book and they were great. The first one was Jamie's Mexican Chicken and Tortilla Casserole. My eight year old son loved it--said it was a "keeper" and I should definitely make it again. The other was Corrie's Christmas Granola Waffles with Buttered Pecan Syrup. We did not use the granola--however, we did make the waffles and they are out of this world. I have made homemade buttermilk pancakes once a week for the past 8 years as either a Saturday or Sunday morning breakfast for my family, and this recipe has replaced that ritual. Both of my kids LOVE them, and they ask for them whenever I am taking breakfast requests. You will not be disappointed!

Recipe Book, May 9, 2009
I love and have all of the Paula Deen cookbooks. This one does not let you down, if you like down home country cookin', the kind you can take to potlucks or family get togethers, then you can find plenty to cook in this cookbook. I just wish there had been more dessert recipe's .

Yummy Y'all!, April 20, 2009
I just checked this book out from the Library and realized that I had page marked over half the book, I decided to buy it instead. This is truly a breath of fresh air that I had been waiting for, been stuck in a Paula Deen rut over the past year. I love how there is a story to most recipes and that you actually see the people who submitted the recipes, little comments on most of the recipes. I also thought the Jamie saving Brooke's fork story was just heart warming. I honestly had no idea Michael could actually cook too!

So far I have made the Smoky Tomato Bacon Pasta which was super easy and tasty. Corrie's Granola Waffles were out of this world and will be my standard recipe now! The Pasta salad was the best I ever had as well. I made the Turkey Spinach Cornbread casserole, last week and that too turned out good.

I truly recommend this book to all Paula Fan's, its a must have!

Fantastic Cookbook, April 30, 2009
Once again, Paula Deen has given us a great cookbook with easy to put together recipes from the South!

Paula Deen Great Book, June 29, 2009
As always, Paula has a great book with some more of her great recipes. You will not regret buying this book. The recipes are easy and tastes fabulous!

Recipes and stories, April 24, 2009
The recipes are exquisite but add the stories behind each one-divine! Also try FINGER LICKING DIFFERENT!!!

A Shining Example of Why Southerners Die Young. And Happily Full., November 29, 2009

For all of the cookbooks I have reviewed, you would think me to be a gourmet or "foodie." Well, no and no. As I have mentioned in other places, I am no one's idea of a great cook, and I don't know chutney from chives. But I like to think I know good recipies when I see them, and I also like to think that I can also see a B.S. "celebrity chef" cookbook that serves up impossible recipies no reasonable person in command of his senses would even attempt. I am pleased to report that I checked this book out, tried a couple of the easier offerings, and became hooked. The "Beer and Onion Biscuits" will spell my death.

Deen's book is a fun read, and the recipies are really not all that difficult. And the food, while sometimes dressy, is hearty food, filling and satisfying. And I like the fact that Deen and her editors give "credit where credit is due" for these recipies, some of which were probably jealously guarded family secrets once upon a time. The book's overall construction is also user-friendly, although not accident-proof.

I will warn anyone, though, that Deen deserves her reputation as "The Queen of Butter." If you want heart-healthy fare, you had best pass this one by. And I really don't see where most of the recipies would remain undiminished by substitution. So, this is not the book for the diet-restricted, to say the least.

Excellent book, serviceable and delicious recipies. Enjoy!

Recommended.

GREAT BOOK, June 24, 2009
This a great cookbook, whether you are experienced or a new cook. The recipe's are down to earth and doable for anyone. My family has really enjoyed the home cooked meals I have created from this book. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Ina Garten, who shared her gift for casual entertaining in the bestselling Barefoot Contessa Cookbook and Barefoot Contessa Parties!, is back with her most enticing recipes yet—a collection of her favorite dishes for everyday cooking. In Barefoot Contessa Family Style, Ina explains that sharing our lives and tables with those we love is too essential to be saved just for special occasions—and it’s easy to do if you know how to cook irresistible meals with a minimum of fuss.

For Ina, the best way to make guests feel at home is to serve them food that’s as unpretentious as it is delicious. So in her new book, she’s collected the recipes that please her friends and family most—dishes like East Hampton Clam Chowder, Parmesan Roasted Asparagus, and Linguine with Shrimp Scampi. It’s the kind of fresh, accessible food that’s meant to be passed around the table in big bowls or platters and enjoyed with warm conversation and laughter.

In Ina’s hands tried-and-true dishes are even more delicious than you remember them: Her arugula salad is bright with the flavors of lemon and Parmesan, the Oven-Fried Chicken is crispy without excess fat, and her Deep-Dish Apple Pie has the perfect balance of fruit and spice. Barefoot Contessa Family Style also includes enticing recipes that are memorable and distinctive, like Lobster Cobb Salad, Tequila Lime Chicken, and Saffron Risotto with Butternut Squash.

With vivid photographs of Ina cooking and serving food in her beautiful Hamptons home, as well as menu suggestions, practical wisdom on what to do when disaster strikes in the kitchen, and tips on creating an inviting ambience with music, Barefoot Contessa Family Style is the must-have guide to the joy of everyday entertaining. ... Read more

Reviews

Outstanding versions of stand-by foods, December 17, 2002
I absolutely love this book! The recipes are entirely in keeping with the title... these aren't fancy or earth-shattering innovations, so people who thrive on that may be disappointed (I seem to notice a trend among some of the reviewers who have posted). They're just really wonderful versions of honest, straightforward food. The recipe for chicken and biscuits is the best I've ever made, the chicken soup is outstanding, the roasted winter vegetables are lovely, and the mashed potatoes and gravy are absolutely sinful versions of old favorites.

As I'm sure you can gather from the previous list, these are recipes for things that you probably already know how to make... it's just that they're absolutely superlative versions of those things. (Much like the chocolate pudding from her Parties! book, if anyone has tried making that: it's just chocolate pudding, after all, but it's heavenly).

So here's my advice: if you're convinced that you already have the perfect recipe for every standard dish under the sun, this book isn't for you. If, however, you love good food and are willing to contemplate the idea that classic dishes could be even better, give it a try. I don't think you'll be disappointed. Furthermore, I think that this would be a wonderful wedding gift or gift to someone who's just starting out: why not begin life with a collection of wonderful recipes for comfort foods?

Easy, Classy Comfort Food, February 6, 2003
I don't normally write in to review books, particulary cook books, but this one is an exception. I am an avid gourmet cook and I'm always looking for new cookbooks. However, I hate investing in them because I usually only end up making one or two recipes out of each book and it feels like a waste of money. Within two weeks of getting the Barefoot Contessa book, I had made almost half of the recipes - to raving reviews from family and friends.

The recipes are easy and fabulous and they can easily be served for a low-key family dinner or a special dinner with company. While they could be considered gourmet, none of the recipes call for exotic ingredients which means everything is already in your pantry or readily available at the grocery store. What I particularly like is that Ina offers menu suggestions in the back of the book so all of the planning is already done for you.

Most importantly, this book is family friendly. There is a section devoted to children's food including favorites like Mac and Cheese and Chicken Fingers. However, my girlfriend's 2-year old couldn't get enough of the Shrimp Scampi (one of the "adult" recipes) and that was enough to get her to buy the book too.

I highly recommend this book for anyone looking for easy, delicious recipes for all kinds of occassions.

Comfort Foods, March 26, 2003
I loved this book's theme/subtitle: to make all your guests feel like family. The beautiful format and layout, as well as the photos, makes this a cookbook to be treasured. Many of the recipes are simple, basic ones that many of us already have, which is why I gave this four stars instead of five.

As usual, every recipe I have tried has been a success (Turkey Lasagna, Banana Sour Cream Pancakes, Shrimp Scampi, Rice Pudding, Mustard Vinagrette). I especially love the simple ingredients and the non-fussy style of the cooking. The recipes please my family and myself and keep my time in the kitchen at a minimum, which makes me very happy.

Although I did not garner as many new recipes from this cookbook as I did her other two, I would not hesitate to give this as a wedding shower gift to a novice cook.

Looking forward to Ina's next cookbook.

Another gem from Ina!!!, February 22, 2006
Another wonderful book from the "Barefoot Contessa" lady!!! And this book seems to be her best yet because family is the center of this idea.

Everything within the covers of her latest cooking effort stresses the point of having "family" be the reason for enjoying a good meal and for making great memories. She gave an interesting comment in the opening of this book that families have changed just a wee bit from the "Ozzie and Harriet" years, but that regardless, being with people we love is family enough. And so she helps us to prepare meals that are fun and delicious and easy to make. Plus, the pages of this book are the delicious glossy look, so the absolutely wonderful photography of her dishes just jump out at you with color and desire.

Here is how the book breaks down:

WELCOME HOME:
This addresses the general points of family entertaining from setting the table and the mood, to how to incorporate traditions without getting it too complicated for simple meals.

PLANNING THE MEALS:
This deals with schedules, picky eaters, and sudden problems.

STARTERS:
East Hampton Clam Chowder
Chicken Noodle Soup
Roasted Vegetable Soup
Brioche Croutons
Smoked Salmon Spread
Buffalo Chicken Wings
Tuna Tartare
Arugala with Parmesan
Green Salad with Creamy Mustard Vinaigrette
Endive, Stilton, and Walnuts (absolutely DEE-lish!)
Parmesan Roasated Asparagus

SALAD FOR LUNCH:
Chicken with Tabbouleh
Montauk Seafood Salad
Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Lobster Cobb Salad
Curried Chicken Salad
Brown Rice, Tomatoes, and Basil
Tomato, Mozzarella, and Basil
Wheatberry Salad
Herbal Iced Tea

DINNERS:
Herb-Roasted Lamb
Sunday Rib Roast
Oven-Fried Chicken
Tequila Lime Chicken
Saffron Risotto
Penne Pasta with 5 Cheeses
Chicken Stew with Biscuits
Short Ribs
Fish and Chips
Lasagna with Turkey Sausage
Real Meatballs and Spaghetti
Linguine with Schrimp Scampi

VEGETABLES:
Roasted Winter Vegetables
Mashed Yellow Turnips
String Beans
Provencal Tomatoes
Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
Zucchini with Parmesan
Sauteed Carrots
Garlic Sauteed Spinach
Mashed Butternut Squash
Sagaponack Corn Pudding
Wild Rice Pilaf
Rosemary Polenta

DESSERTS: (always my favorite part of any book):
Raspberry Cheesecake
Frozen Key Lime Pie
Espresso Ice Cream
Oorange Pound Cake
Raspberry Orange Trifle
Rum Raisin Rice Pudding
Stewed Berries and Ice Cream
Pumpkin Banana Mousse Tart
Flag Cake
Deep-Dish Apple Pie
Coconut Macaroons
Lemon Angel Food Cake
Chocolate Mousse
Summer Pudding
Tiramisu

BREAKFAST:
Blueberry Coffe Cake Muffins
Banana Sour Cream Pancakes
Scrambles Eggs, 3 Ways
Potato Basil Frittata
Smoked Salmon Frittata
Challah French Toast
Hashed Browns
Bagels with Flavored Cream Cheese
Chive Biscuits
Fresh Fruit with Honey Vanilla Yogurt

KIDS:
Parmesan Chicken Sticks
Mac and Cheese (defintitely very kid-friendly!)
Broccoli and Bow Ties
Fruit Juice Shapes
Jam Thumbprint Cookies
Whipped Hot Chocolate
Homemade Marshmallows
Toasted Coconut Marshmallows (you'll have SOOO much fun w/ this)
Birthday Sheet Cake

NINE INGREDIENTS:
Ina's basic recommended kitchen staples

TEN KITCHEN TOOLS:
The equipment she feels are your basic needs

MENU'S:
Menu's for all kinds of events, parties, themes, etc

CREDITS
INDEX
RECIPE INDEX

Like many of the other reviewers have already said, the recipes are delicious and easy, and everyone will have a great time if they want to help out. I myself, haven't quite gotten to the seafood recipes yet, in that I am not much of a seafood person, but I have family and friends who are, so they won't be too far down the track. But as for the rest of the dishes, they really are tasty, satisfying and wonderful; you won't be disappointed.

Another note about what I enjoy seeing, that really doesn't have alot to do directly with the book itself, is the caring and emotion behind her love for her husband Jeffrey. In both her show and in her books, you can feel that beautiful and endearing feeling between the two of them when she either speaks of him or he is in the segment. It's a nice testament to marriage to see in this day and age. Oh well, I digress.

Enjoy the dishes and the sense of bonding that cooking with family and friends can bring, courtesy of our Ina.

Not the best of the three, July 11, 2004
I've had this book for over a year and have only cooked a few recipes from it. Today I stopped and asked myself why, considering I use her other two books almost religiously! A couple things I figured out

1) many of the recipes while they are simple, they require last minute sauteing or preparation while your guests are there. I think that's why her other books are great for entertaining -- the recipes allow you to spend time with your guests.

2) much of the book is taken up by recipes which you probably already know how to make (sauteed carrots, tomato mozzarella and basil salad, sauteed spinach, mashed potatoes, rosemary polenta, roasted winter vegetables, mashed butternut squash).

3) I'm a vegetarian, and many of the recipes are not vegetarian friendly.

There are DEFINITELY great recipes in this cookbook, and if you own Ina's other two books, definitely get this one. If you are buying your first Ina Garten cookbook, go for one of the other two.

Easy, Delicious, what more could you want?, January 20, 2004
This is a fantastic book, as are all of Ina's books. True, this one is easier, but the title indicates family style, which means delicious and simple to me. However, there are some exotic recipes, like Tequila Lime Chicken, Saffron Risotto with Butternut Squash, Espresso ice Cream, and a few others, but mainly it's updated classics. And there are many in here that I would make again. The Penne with Five Cheeses is delicious (you can substitue light cream for all of that heavy cream in a pinch and make sure your oven is completely clean to avoid smoke from the 500 degree temperature. We cleaned ours and we had no problem), the chocolate mousse was what my mother described as 'just like mothers.' And my grandmother was famous for her chocolate mousse. All of my friends love the jam thumprints, and my brother's favorite kind of pancakes is now is Banana Sour Cream (the lemon zest in it makes a great addition). The French toast has a great addition of fresh orange zest, and makes a quick breakfast. My dad's favorite is the Orange Pound Cake. He can't get enough. He brought a slice to a friend at work and she said that she wouldn't mind one bit if I made that cake every day. It is our favorite cake to bring to new neighbors, new babies, and the sick. A friend of my mom's just had a baby and we brought her this cake, in which she and her husband literally ate in two days. But my favorite would have to be the Saffron Risotto with Butternut Squash. My mom and I both agree that it is just such a comforting and delicious meal. It's just so good. All in all, a great book.

Easy- but that's the point, November 7, 2003
For all you complainers out there who claim this book is too 'easy' and not 'gourmet', THAT'S EXACTLY THE POINT!!!!! The cover even says 'Easy ideas and recipes to make everyone feel like family.' To me that indicates that there will not be difficult and challenging food that guests can't even pronounce the name. It's the kind of book that you can depend on when friends and family come over to always be good. It's comfort food and food that you're familiar with while kicking it up a notch. And it's very good comfort food. My father loves the Orange Pound Cake, which can then be turned into a Raspberry Orange Trifle. My mom says the Sagaponack Corn Pudding is better than her own, and my brother can't get enough of the raspberry cheesecake. The Tequila Lime Chicken was enjoyed by everyone. I can't wait to try more recipes for this book. (PS I may only be 12 years old, but I'm still a very good cook, or so people tell me.)

The pros and cons of this one.., February 4, 2003
First off, let me say that I use this book often and, for the most part, I absolutely LOVE it. The first recipe I tried, Sagaponack Corn Pudding, was truly different from other corn pudding recipes I'd tried, living up to Garten's promise that it would not be bland - and it wasn't - nor was it too spicy. It had some added flavor thanks to cheddar cheese and fresh basil but those with less experimental tastes could leave out the basil (as I did when we had small children at dinner one evening) and it would still be delicious.
Another plus to this cookbook: Many of the recipes are not only family-friendly but easy to throw together. There are also plenty of dishes for vegetarians as well as meat eaters, making meal planning easy. Nearly every recipe I tried was wonderful, with the minor exception of the Chicken Noodle Soup (I prefer my recipe).
Now the caveat: If you like extremely exotic or unusual foods, this may not be the ideal cookbook for you. While there ARE recipes which are new and different (like the Saffron Risotto with Butternut Squash or a truly different and yummy Espresso Ice cream, better than any I've had thus far), MOST of the recipes are updated versions of familiar favorites..Rice Pilaf, Hashed Browns, Fried Chicken, etc. Professional or gourmet cooks may want something more challenging.
But I've had a hard time finding cookbooks which contain tasty recipes I can serve, night after night, and still keep my family happy and well-fed while minimizing my kitchen time. For those purposes, this one fits the bill. And if you happen to have any guests drop in at meal time, you can bet they'll be happy too!

Just like her other books, February 10, 2003
Sure some of Family Style's recipes are basic-- but that's Ina's style. A direct quote from one of her books states that her food is " familiar, but better than you remember". Her first two cookbooks contain the most basic of basic recipes-- things like Roast Chicken, Lemonade, Apple Crisp, Chocolate Cake, Apple Cider, and even a cup of Coffee are all included. How is that so different from Iced Tea, French Toast and Blueberry Muffins? The answer is, it's not. Ina's recipes are hardly, if ever, outlandish. She works at writing recipes for good tasting, approachable, cook-friendly food. That's the point of her work. The food isn't poles apart from food most of us grew up with (other than the fact that it's a hundred times tastier)-- but should she put goat's cheese in her fish and chips, so that she could claim her recipes "different"?

I personally think Ina to be a terrific cookbook author. I've tried several recipes from her newest book-- Thumbprint Cookies, Banana Sour Cream Pancakes, and Chicken and Biscuit Stew to name a few-- and, as I expected, all were terrific. And when it comes down to it, that's all I expect from a cookbook.

the perfect cookbook for friends & family, October 29, 2002
Every recipe that I have tried from Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa cookbooks has been a success (and I really mean this). The Apple Crisp and Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk cookies from "Parties" are so requested that every family member has learned to make them. The cookies have been named the best cookies ever made by more than one friend. Her newest cookbook "Barefoot Contessa. Family Sytle" has arrived!!! With the same clear, simple instructions, beautiful pictures, and easy layout, this cookbook is full of so many favorite & potentially favorite foods (from a hearty chicken soup to a sophisicated lobster cobb salad - which looks very doable & delicious) that I predict it will be THE favorite cookbook in my kitchen.I have never found a cookbook in which there are so many recipes that I know I will be trying. If her prior cookbooks are an indication, all recipes will turn out to be delicious ( and actually the way they are pictured)! I have a group of teenage girls to feed tonight (including a few vegetarians). Pasta with sun-dried tomatoes or penne with five cheeses? That is the question. Thank you to "the barefoot contessa;" you have made me look forward to cooking again! ... Read more

Editorial Review

Create a perfect night out by gathering friends and family around a pot of warm melted cheese, chocolate or a cooking style eager to add flavor to your favorite dipper. The Melting Pot dares you to Dip Into Something Different® with this collection of recipes from our fondue to yours. ... Read more

Reviews

Great Great Book!, January 13, 2009
This is my first fondue cookbook and I am just in love with it. Finally I can have the fondues that they make at the Melting Pot without having to shell out some major $$$$.

First, the book is really well made. It's hard bound, and stays open to the page you want quiet easily. It also has a built in ribbon bookmark to easily mark the fondue your making.

Second, Although I don't care for their little notes about what people say about how great their restaurant is - I did love the little notes throughout the book about the history of fondue, or about the different cheeses you will be using, or even about dipping etiquette.

Third, They give you such good directions. At the beginning of the cheese fondue section they have step by step section with pictures for each step, that applies to almost every cheese fondue you will make. I found it really helpful, and now I understand why I have had some issues with fondue in the past! So far I have made the Garlic and Herb Cheddar Fondue (OMG yum! I also added about twice as much green goddess dressing, because I liked it so much). I also made the Feng Shui Fondue, and "The Original" Chocolate Fondue. All turned out just amazing. As others have noted - I had trouble finding Butterkase. But I spoke with an expert on cheeses at my grociery store, and she instead recommended for me to use 2 very different Fontinas in the Feng Shui. (I used Carr Valley Fontina and substituted the Butterkase with Cademartori Fonti) I think an alternative cheese could easily be used in any one of the three recipes that call for Butterkase if you have trouble finding it. Other then that - all of the ingredients are easy to find and get ahold of. I'm making the Goat Cheese Fondue next! Yum!

Also, some people seemed unclear about what it includes, so to clarify these are the sections in the book: Cheese Fondue, Salads & Dressings, Cooking Styles Fondue, all of their dipping sauces, Chocolate fondue, and cocktails and coffees.

Lastly, What I really love about all of these, and they point this out in the book, is that you can make many of these fondues for little $ if your a poor college student, like me, or you can also spend a lot of money and get some quality cheeses and other ingredients to add, like when I go home and my parents are buying the ingredients :) You also don't absolutely need to have a fondue pot or fondue forks - I just use two pots put together and my normal forks. It makes this a truly great gift for any person who likes to cook.

Love It!, December 26, 2008
This is awesome! I can't belive how many receipes they have provided, it's all in there. They even have drinks, salad dressings and marinades. I am so excited to start using this. All the cheese fondues look awesome. If you love the Melting Pot, you won't be disappointed. I would have purchased this book for the Wisconsin Trio Cheese fondue alone, and was amazed at what other recipes they included. I did make the Wisconsin Trio with success. Had a little trouble finding butterkase cheese - but you should be able to locate it at a larger grocery store that sells Boars Head in the packaged cheese department.
Coupons in the back - 3. 1 for free product (wine/garlic and chocolate) 2 others to use for a night out.

If you love Melting Pot, you will LOVE this cookbook, December 1, 2008
I was very surprised to see in this cookbook how many recipes they shared directly from the menu. In fact, I am not quite sure if they left anything out of the book that isn't on the menu. They have everything from cheese, meat, dessert, marinating, sauces. This is by far, my favorite cookbook!

LOVING IT!!!!, October 6, 2009
Loved eating at the resturant and now I can make my favorites at home, from the cheese, to the main course, to the dipping sauce for the meats to my favorite the chocolate. Some ingrediants are hard to find but I just google and find the substitute, It is awesome. We fondue whenever we want now.

Create the Melting Pot experience at home, August 2, 2009
Great cookbook! I was surprised to see how many recipes from the Melting Pot were in the book. The book has everything from the famous cheese fondues to salads, marinades, broth cooking styles, sauces, and deserts. You can really create the Melting Pot experience at home! I have tried many of the cheese fondues and they have all come out well. The only substitution I use is corn starch instead of the suggested flour to help keep the cheese from sticking to itself and make the fondue smooth and creamy.

Fondue lovers need this book!, May 12, 2009
I am very happy with my purchase. After eating at the Melting Pot, my husband and I wanted to bring the experience home to friends. I ordered the book and we followed through with a fantastic dinner for the four of us. The recipes were well written, easy to execute and included everything from the restaurant we were interested in. I was extremely happy that the dipping sauces, marinades and rubs are included. My only complaint is the book leaves out suggestions for dipping (vegetables, breads, etc...). We were able to recreate according to memory from our experience but it would have been great to include dipping suggestions. I am certain that this book will get a lot of use-we've already planned dinner #2!

Informative cookbook!, January 9, 2009
It took awhile to get this baby in my hands, but I love it! I love the Melting Pot restaurant, and this book gives you everything you need to know to make the exact same fondues at home! The cooking styles are included, along with how to begin your bases. The recipes are pretty intense on the ingredients, but I wouldn't expect anything less. The two copies I bought also include three coupons to the restaurant. It also has a ribbon bookmark to keep your place.

This book sells for $30 in store, IF you can find it in store! My local one has been out of stock for maybe 2 months. I called multiple times to get it and never got a response on it. I purchased my first copy a month before Christmas, and it took a couple weeks to get here. I ordered my second copy on Dec 24, and the estimated delivery date was Jan 30 because it was back ordered! However I just received it yesterday (Jan 8) and was pleasantly surprised.

A fancy cookbook that is highly recommended!

Melting Pot Recipe book, December 24, 2008
This book is an awesome substitute for an expensive meal. The recipes were detailed and fun to prepare! The process of making the fondue took several thrilling fun hours, and the results were well worth the preparation time. I suggest this book to anyone who enjoys fondue as an appetizer, meal or dessert!

Great cookbook!, December 12, 2008
I was pleasantly surprised to see the quality of this cookbook. It's beautifully bound in hardcover with lots of pictures. All of my favorite recipes are inside...including the "Green Goddess". I love that they included recipes for some of the mixed drinks served in the restaurant too. I liked the book so much that I ordered a second copy as a Christmas gift for a friend.

Wonderful cookbook, September 17, 2009
I bought this book because we wanted to recreate our experience at The Melting Pot at home with our own fondue set. Well this book made it possible. It is lots of fun and makes cooking all of our favorites possible. It also has some coupons to the Melting Pot in the back of the book which don't expire for years. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Impress your guests and take home entertaining to a new level with the recipes from Great Party Fondues, a guide to everything you need to know about preparing and serving great-tasting fondue with expert advice on fondue pots, ingredients, safety, and even etiquette. Whether they prefer cheese, savory, or dessert fondues, your guests will devour traditional favorites like Classic Swiss Fondue, international dishes like Rumaki, and innovative new recipes like Chipotle Sweet Potato Fondue. Twenty-eight stylish color photographs show will inspire you to follow the straightforward advice and no-fuss recipes. ... Read more

Reviews

Fondue Fun, January 3, 2009
We had so much fun fonduing on New Years. All of the recipes we used were delicious and so easy to follow. We chose not to do the traditional cheese and chocolate fondues and did the sweet potato, mushroom, and tomato vodka for appetizers. For our main course we did the hot pot with chicken and fish fry with shrimp, scallops and swordfish. For dessert we did the very berry and sweet wine and cheese. It was great. We all made different dipping sauces. We had 4 fondue pots going and lots of laughter. Don't think twice about buying this book.

This book is wonderful, November 16, 2008
This book is pleasing to the eye and culinary imagination, is easy to execute recipes from, and produces downright delicious results. We are already planning a holiday get-together based off the multitude of fondue recipes (savory and sweet) offered in this delicious fondue cookbook!

fabululoso!!!!!!!!!, October 21, 2008
This book is incredible and simple to use. I have enjoyed the come back of fondue, it is a great food source and heathy for us. thank you peggy fallon

Fabulous book., March 16, 2010
I tried fondue cooking for the first time and I used this book to get all of my recipes. The items I made were the swiss cheese fondue, midnight chocolate and 4 dips for dipping cooked meat and vegetables into (ponsu sauce, bernaise, peanut butter and mustard). Everthing was absolutely delicious. It was such a success that I actually felt like I was at a fondue restaurant. I'm usually very critical of my own cooking yet I couldn't find a bad thing about any of the recipes I tried. I look forward to another fondue day with new recipes. Also very good information about various types of pots and recommendations on ingredients. Highly recommend this book for beginners or experts.

Great Party Fondues, February 2, 2009
I had forgotten how much fun sharing fondu was in the 70's and 80's. The writer of this book somehow has updated Fondue with enough knowledge about today's food and health obsessions and interest in international flavors to make it more than a nod to nostalgia. I know for sure that we never tried Cauliflower Fondue with asiago and smoked paprika back then.... there may have been smoked something-- but it wasn't paprika. What an improvement on the 70's!

I love the tips on what to serve it with and the very specific instructions for making it come out "right". That Tomato Vodka Fondue is off the charts delicious and Chocolate Midnight fondue is what I hope to be eating at the moment i die.

Fab Fondue, December 31, 2008
This book is a knock out winner. The recipes in this book include both novel and traditional types so there is something for everybody. I have given this book to several friends who love it. Fondue is back!

Fonduliscious, February 17, 2009
Wow! What a fabulous variety of flavors and types of fondues.
All the classics followed up with truly imaginative creations.
It makes you want more than one fondue pot!

Everything is excellent, November 18, 2009
Every fondue and sauce I've made from this book has been delicious, and I've made a bunch. The cauliflower fondue was a nice surprise. I can't wait to make the sweet potato fondue. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants varied fondue recipes. This has cheese, other savory, meat, chocolate, and other sweet fondues.

Great party fondues, February 2, 2009
Great Party Fondue wakes up the 60's and 70's fondue with flavors and foods of today. Every recipe is easy to follow and delicious. Peggy Fallon infuses each recipe with tidbits of information and tips for success.

Great party Fondues, February 1, 2009
I purchased 12 "Great Party Fondues" books by Peggy Fallon as Christmas gifts...the book was a great hit with everyone on my list. A couple of people have had a "fondue dinner party" already and all seem to be
enjoying the variety of recipes in the book. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Thomas Keller, chef/proprieter of the French Laundry in the Napa Valley—"the most exciting place to eat in the United States," wrote Ruth Reichl in The New York Times—is a wizard, a purist, a man obsessed with getting it right. And this, his first cookbook, is every bit as satisfying as a French Laundry meal itself: a series of small, impeccable, highly refined, intensely focused courses.

Most dazzling is how simple Keller's methods are: squeegeeing the moisture from the skin on fish so it sautées beautifully; poaching eggs in a deep pot of water for perfect shape; the initial steeping in the shell that makes cooking raw lobster out of the shell a cinch; using vinegar as a flavor enhancer; the repeated washing of bones for stock for the cleanest, clearest tastes.

From innovative soup techniques, to the proper way to cook green vegetables, to secrets of great fish cookery, to the creation of breathtaking desserts; from beurre monté to foie gras au torchon, to a wild and thoroughly unexpected take on coffee and doughnuts, The French Laundry Cookbook captures, through recipes, essays, profiles, and extraordinary photography, one of America's great restaurants, its great chef, and the food that makes both unique.

One hundred and fifty superlative recipes are exact recipes from the French Laundry kitchen—no shortcuts have been taken, no critical steps ignored, all have been thoroughly tested in home kitchens. If you can't get to the French Laundry, you can now re-create at home the very experience the Wine Spectator described as "as close to dining perfection as it gets." ... Read more

Reviews

for those who love to cook, January 12, 2000
A beautiful book that is nice to browse through for the non-culinary inclined and inspirational to those who love to cook. Keller is a genius, that is evident in the recipes. However, to successfully recreate a French Laundry meal from this book will be a daunting task for the more experienced home cook and virtually impossible for a beginner. The small portion sizes require at least 4 or 5 dishes to comprise an entire meal (although the recipes may be scaled up to more typical serving sizes without much problem). The book can be pretentious (witness the blurb entitled 'the importance of offal'), includes recipes that 99.9% of readers will not bother to attempt (stuffed pigs heads, for example) and more than a few recipes require a very well equipped kitchen to pull off (juicers, mandolines, silipat baking sheets, variety of strainers, etc...), but all seem accessible if you take your time and have mastered some basic cooking skills. A very fun and informative book for those who love to cook and enjoy a challenge in the kitchen. If you are serious, you will have a blast, learn a lot, and eat some spectacular food. If the food tastes this good when I make it, I can only imagine how good it is at the restaurant.

Great restaurant; great book, September 26, 2002
I've eaten at the French Laundry three times now-most recently the first week of September 2002. This makes it spring, summer, and fall. My next trip to Napa will be to see how he (Chef Thomas Keller) manages with winter vegetables.

Chef Keller offers three menus: a five-course dinner menu; a nine-course tasting of vegetables menu; and his 10-course prix fixe menu (which is currently $135). He follows the typical French format:

Amuse Bousche (His signature salmon tartar with sweet red onion cr�me fra�che)
1. Cold Hors d'ouevre
2. Vegetable or Foie Gras
3. Fish
4. Seafood (or second fish course)
5. Rabbit or Veal
6. Pork or Lamb
7. Cheese
8. Sorbet
9. Dessert
10. Mignardise (petit fours and candies)

Sometime in your life, you must experience this restaurant. It will be the best four-hour dinner of your life!

Now for the book review. The book is presented in a way that shows a lot of planning went into it. While the recipes have many ingredients and details, the instructions are written in a manner that everyone can follow. If you're an experienced cook, this may slow you down a bit.

There is plenty of background to the recipes that you won't find elsewhere; such as big pot blanching and how to handle your homemade stocks.

I've made about 10-15 recipes out of this book. All work... eventually. They require three or four read-throughs, full preparation of equipment and ingredients (mise en place) before starting, an understanding of what happens to food when heat is applied, and better-than-average knife skills.

Keep in mind there are a few bugs here and there. For example, the chive chips in the white truffle oil-infused custard recipe says to bake it at 275F for 20-25 minutes and to, "remove the chips when they are golden brown." This doesn't work. Golden brown is a term meaning that the product has reached caramelization (the sugars are browning). Browning does not begin until the product has reached a temperature of 338F - 350F, which will not occur in a 275F oven. I've had my chive chips in the oven for over an hour and they are, at best, an off-yellow color. Maybe they meant 375F? I've made adjustments by cooking them at 350F, but they don't turn out as nice as they do in the restaurant.

The point I'm trying to make is you have to practice. Don't try these recipes and expect them to turn out the first time. Your skill set, more than anything else, will determine the recipe's success. Nevertheless; if you're a foodie, this is a must-have book.

Of the 400 or so cookbooks I have, this is the one that I enjoy reading the most; it's the one that has the most prominent place in my kitchen bookshelf for everyone to see.

Incredible, but be forewarned..., January 2, 2001
To put it simply, this book is amazing. I'll try to sum it up in a few main points...

Design--the design on this book makes it a work of art. The photographs and layout are literally awe-inspiring. A word of caution...the size is very cumbersome and doesn't exactly make for ease in the kitchen.

Text--Very enjoyable text and it is pleasurable reading. Most helpful are pointers on technique and procedure.

Recipes--Most are difficult, a few are pretty easy. Herein lies the caveat/point of caution. To understand this point, one must understand the philosophy of this restaurant/Keller. Food is a work of art and presentation is everything in Keller's mind. With that in mind, be ready to break out the tweezers and forcepts to get this food to appear as it does in the restaurant/book. It can be painstaking and frustratingly over-done.

On the restaurant--It is a very good restaurant and worthy of most of the commendations about it. It is perhaps one of the best dining experiences I've experienced. However, it is becoming, in my humble opinion, slightly over-rated. The wait on reservations has now hit the 3 months+ mark. (From those slightly less demanding, I've heard stories of a 6 month wait.) In other words, if you would like to dine there in April, better make reservations in January at the latest. To be honest, the experience is not THAT fabulous and such a wait is more of a product of hype than of quality. You would be better off going to Terra or Tra Vigne in the same area. It would likely be more enjoyable as well.

Don't get me wrong. This is a fantastic book and it is a fantastic restaurant. It is just not THAT fantastic if you follow me.

But as for the book, purchase it if you understand what you're in for--it will be a valuable addition.

Reflections on America's Culinary Philosopher King, January 6, 2004
I always like to see the Yankees win the World Series and Tiger Woods win a major tournament. This confirmations that there is someone who is certifiably the best at what they do. For the same reason, after reading the pieces about Thomas Keller and the French Laundry written by Tony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman, I am happy to believe that Keller is simply the best chef there is in the United States.

Reading `The French Laundry Cookbook' by Keller, Ruhlman, and the French Laundry staff and `family' does nothing to detract from that opinion. Keller's words enhance my opinion of him as the ultimate culinary artist.

Most successful culinary educators from Martha Stewart to Alton Brown to James Peterson deal primarily with technique. Even major successful chefs who write or demonstrate on TV such as Wolfgang Puck, Mario Batali, and Jaques Pepin deal primarily with techniques with a background doctrine of using fresh, high quality ingredients. The occasional references by Mario or Sara Moulton or Emeril to smells and sounds and tastes often get lost in the woods of prep and firing techniques.

Keller is all about smell and taste and what may seem like totally over the edge concentration on respect for materials. One example is when he insists on storing fresh fish on ice in the same position as they swim so the muscles in the flesh are not stressed out of shape. He is all about providing service and pleasure to his patrons by excellence in the kitchen. One professional observer says the French Laundry kitchen is as quiet as a watchmaker's workshop. This simply fits into Keller's need to have an environment where his staff can experience their preparations with as few distractions as possible.

This, for example is one of the things which separates Rocco DeSpirito from Jamie Oliver in their shows on the opening of their respective restaurants. While Rocco was in the front of the house smoozing with customers, Jamie was in the kitchen at the expediter's table keeping tabs on the quality of what was leaving the kitchen. It was a revelation to see the superficially sloppy Oliver exhort his staff to use gentleness in cooking and plating and his focus on tastes and smells. Needless to say, Rocco has redeemed himself when he did a book, which focused on taste. But, with Rocco, it was reduced to a system understandable by the layman. Keller remains the ultimate empiricist.

This book contains the very first aesthetic justification for small portions at high-end restaurants. The theory is that the patron's first taste senses something wonderful. The second bite confirms the initial reaction, but the reaction is less dramatic. The third bite simply confirms that more of the same is on the way. Keller would rather provide a large number of dishes, each of a few bites, and each providing an exquisitely prepared experience. His doctrine with luxury ingredients such as truffles, foie gras, and caviar is to not skimp on the amount placed on each serving. The rationale is that without that second confirming taste of truffle, the patron may not really know what all the excitement is all about. (I have no idea what the French Laundry charges for a dinner seating, but I'm willing to believe it is pretty expensive. From the evidence of this book, I believe it is worth every penny.)

The book contains recipes actually prepared at the French Laundry. They include all of the whimsically titled dishes reported by Ruhlman and Bourdain, including `Bacon and Eggs', `Macaroni and Cheese', and `Coffee and Doughnuts'. In spite of the fact that some of these recipes are some of the longest I have seen in print, Keller says there is no guarantee this is exactly how they prepare them every day. This harks back to his primary doctrine that the soul of cooking is attention to the individual material in front of you and it's qualities, rather than what is written on a piece of paper. That doesn't mean these recipes will not work in a home kitchen. Madame Keller has in fact, tested them in a home kitchen by her own staff. The recipes in fact elaborate on a number of techniques I have seen before and introduce some which are new to me. The most important is the use of the beurre monte emulsion of melted butter in a very little amount of water. The technique and its uses appear very similar to the beurre fondue technique reported by Tom Colicchio. Both are media for holding or conditioning food in the kitchen rather than sauces used during plating. (I guess it's time I finally read Escoffier). Keller's techniques for shellfish are totally new to me as well. His discussion on cooking lobster is a demonstration of extraordinary sensitivity to his raw material. It easily equals the fussiness of Paul Bertolli in his latest book.
The cuisine is almost entirely based on classic French technique, so it will not be totally foreign to someone schooled by Julia Child and Jaques Pepin. While many recipes are daunting, most are doable by a dedicated amateur and even those recipes which may be beyond ones patience will contain useful techniques.

This is an early celebrity chef coffee table book format, and the photography is worthy of the price. The index is very good and the book includes a good list of sources. The editors have also included a complete list of recipes. The publisher did Eric Rippert's book and with this book they did not make the same mistake of using a font too small. The book also contains a lot more than lip service to the restaurant's suppliers, as it includes several two page essays by Ruhlman on some of the French Laundry's more interesting purveyors.

This book is one of the most lucid characterizations I have seen of the chef's art. This is one source for reading about the very best in American culinary thought and skill.

Lot's of Work but Worth the Time!, November 30, 1999
Keller is, as you have probably surmised from the other reviews, the consumate chef's chef. Food at the French Market is spectacular and the book is worth having if you are interested in cooking at all. However, do not expect to rush home after a busy day and prepare one of these dishes. I would call the ingredient list "Gourmet" and many of the preparations "advanced." Your average main course prep time will be two to three hours (not including shopping). That said, the menus I have tried are accurate and clear in instruction. Guests at your upcoming dinner parties will rave about your culinary prowess.

Great Coffee table book., September 1, 2006
Let me make things clear early in this review. I think this is a great book, but most people who aren't professional cooks will have trouble preparing the recipes verbatim. That's part of why I say it's a great coffee table book.

The other reason I deem it to the den is that it has some great reading that isn't solely about food preparation, rather stories about suppliers of meats and vegetables that Keller uses in his world famous kitchen.

I'm a pretty experienced cook (not chef) and I've cooked about 5 recipes in this book. What I've chosen to do is take certain parts of a recipe and focus on that or use techniques that he recommends and use them to embellish dishes. For instance, he gives a great explanation on getting pan seared fish skin really crispy that has suited me very well. Also, I've used his technique for liver and onions to spruce up my version.

One recipe that is not very difficult, and adds a new twist to a rib-eye steak is the "Yabba Dabba Doo". I highly recommend the novice chef to try that one, since it takes the familiar and (excuse the banality) "kicks it up another notch".

In summation: if you like to peruse wonderful pictures and read about the nuances of food preparation, this is the book for you. If you're a novice chef that wants to emulate Keller's dishes in a sinch, forget about it. Put the $40 or so dollars towards his other book, Bouchon, which is much more approachable and just as good. The recipes are "bistro style" (i.e. they don't involve 5 people working on them simultaneously and an MFA in food artistry) like his haute cuisine at the Laundry.

A Cookbook you can learn from, January 13, 2000
After eating at The French Laundry last year(and being blown away!)I was first in line to buy this book and have yet to be disapointed. Thomas Keller doesn't just sell you a few recepies, he give you a peice of himself, "Chef Keller",the chef who has created one of the most talked about restaurants in the country. His idea of what a dinning experience should be,his tips and sugestions on how to prepare food the way he does,how he feels you should be creative with food, to make it your own, not to be intimadated by it. Isn't that what we are all looking for when buying this book? the masters way of doing it? and that is exactly what you get. Along with a beautiful book to look through, it is a book to learn from, the meals I've created with this book have amazed me,every one better than the one before. Maybe he gave away too much information.

Beautiful, beautiful book!, March 4, 2001
In case you haven't heard, The French Laundry cookbook's recipes range from pretty darn complex to "nearly-impossible-to-make-by-anyone-except-master-chefs-with-three-assistants". However, none of that matters. This is still my favorite cookbook in my collection because it's one of the most beautifully put together and well written cookbooks, scratch that, BOOKS, I've ever seen. The layout is gorgeous, it's full of incredible pictures and all of the short essays written by Thomas Keller (or a few other people) are well written and interesting, be it on an experience he had butchering rabbits to descriptions of plate decorations to the stories behind all the people who grow the vegetables, catch the fish and raise the lamb that goes into the dishes. I can't emphasize how beautiful this book is, it's truly a coffee table book as much as a cookbook. The dishes themselves are, as I said, all startlingly complex and many hav exotic ingredient. But they have been adapted for home cooks and even though I have yet to try any full recipes, there is a fair amount that seems to be within my reach of doing somewhat successfully, and I'm a teenager who's been cooking seriously for less than a year. I did try the garlic chips that accompany some other dishes and they were delicious by themselves, crispy, garlicky and wonderful. Still, even if you don't make one whole recipe, this is still a great book full of facinating stories, wonderful analysis of ingredients and, as I cannot say enough, incredible, incredible photography. I love this book.

A beautiful cooking book but not for everyone, July 11, 2000
We got this cookbook last Christmas and used the recipets on the new year dinner. In the cookbook, most of the dishes are elegant and well present. But it did not mention how much works and patient are involved. We made the lobster soap and it took almost a whole day to cook it. Finally, we spent almost 3 days and 4 people to prepare for that dinner. However, most of the dishes were phenomenal. To be honest, I don't think I will try to use that cookbook again unless special occasion. But I truly enjoy the whole process. Cooking is not only to make a dish to eat. If I just want to eat, I will go to restaurant. But the process, the achievment and the joy are way more important. So, I still think this is a great cookbook. It give us more than food(after a long, painful process). It is the joy. Thank you, Mr. Keller.

Great for inspiration, March 9, 2001
This is a great book if you are looking for inspiration to bring to your own dishes. However, if you are simply looking for new recipes to try this would not be the best book to purchase. The recipes in this book require a great deal of culinary knowledge to create. On the positive side, this book is a great read because it contains some amazing photography coupled with high scale food. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I would make some of the recipes for special occassions but the recipes are too costly and time consuming for everyday cooking for most people. If you are looking for inspiration and examples of creativty and innovation from a great restarant I would definately buy this book. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Entertaining made easy,with Mexican-inspired recipes and handy tipsfrom the celebrity chef and winner ofBravo’s Top Chef Masters.Whether you’re hosting a casual get-together with friends or throwing an outdoor shindig, no one can teach you the art of fiesta like Rick Bayless. With 150 recipes, Bayless offers you the key to unforgettable parties that will have guests clamoring for repeat invitations. There are recipes for small-dish snacking (Mushroom Ceviche, Devilish Shrimp), dynamic cocktails to get the party started (Champagne Margarita, Sizzling Mojito), and Bayless’s signature takes on Mexican street food (Grilled Pork Tacos al Pastor, Roasted Vegetable Enchiladas). Live-fire grilled fish and meat dishes like the “Brava” Steak with “Lazy” Salsa will draw friends and family to the glow of open flames. And if you’re going to throw a truly epic celebration, you’ll need a killer finale like Frontera Grill’s Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars or Dark Chocolate–Chile Ice Cream.

Fiesta at Rick’s offers 150 diverse preparations organized into easy-to-follow chapters. But it’s far more than a collection of recipes. With four complete, can’t-miss menus for parties ranging from a Luxury Guacamole Bar Cocktail Party for 12 to a Classic Mexican Mole Fiesta for 24, Bayless has all your friends covered. Each of these parties has a complete game plan, from a thought-out time line with advance shopping and preparation to a fiesta playlist. Whether a first-time entertainer or a seasoned veteran, anyone can learn from the helpful sidebars, which cover topics such as how to shuck oysters, the perfect avocado for guacamole, and the best way to pick out fresh fish for ceviche preparations. Bayless breaks down the timeless building blocks that make up authentic Mexican food, explaining the value of fresh tortillas and providing surprisingly simple instructions for making your own Mexican Fresh Cheese.

Bayless’s entertaining blueprint eliminates the guesswork, so you can let your inspiration run free. Companion to seasons six and seven of Rick’s Public Television series Mexico—One Plate at a Time, Fiesta at Rick’s is required reading for everyone who loves opening their home to friends and good times. Four-color photographs throughout ... Read more

Reviews

Lots of good recipes, good supplementary Mexican cookbook, not a first reference, July 5, 2010
I view this book as a complement to Bayless's other books: once you are comfortable with Mexican cuisine, this book is a big help when you want to show off your skills for a crowd. He and his wife Deann (co-authur of the book) deal with the logistics of centering a party with various Mexican themes, from a "Luxury Guacamole Bar Cocktail Party for 12" to a "Classic Mexican Mole Fiesta for 24." Included are drink recipes, salsas, guacamoles (the roasted garlic and orange guacamole in particular is excellent), as well as many main dishes and desserts. Included are a surprising number of vegetarian options, important so that those guests don't feel left out of the party. The recipes also scale down well, if you aren't feeding 100 guests. Winners are the enfrijoladas, the guacamoles (not your typical guacs, these!), the Cochito Chiapaneco (grilled pork roast), the Tacos de Arrachera al Carb�n, and his twist on Enchiladas Suizas. I didn't care for the Queso Fundido al Tequila, but so far most of the recipes have ranged from pretty good to great.

If you are looking for an introduction to Mexican cooking from a beginner's standpoint, I'd suggest either "Mexico One Plate At A Time" (by Bayless), or "The Art of Mexican Cooking" by Diana Kennedy. Either of those will provide you with the solid fundamentals that you need before you can get the most out of Fiesta at Rick's.

Pros:
* Detailed party-planning timelines
* Mostly good to excellent recipes
* Easy to follow and understand instructions

Cons:
* A few "clunkers" in the recipes
* Not a good Mexican cooking intro: the recipes make more sense if you are already familiar with Mexican cooking

If you like Mexican food you will like this book, July 9, 2010
Rick has a way to pick his dishes, and to describe them in an appealing way, with clear instructions. I'm biased, sure, I love Mexican food, and I love cooking. Still, having cooked out of dozens of cookbooks I can recommend Rick's books. This one addresses parties, cooking for larger groups of people, in a way that helps you organize the cooking work (which is an art in itself), the selection of the dishes and drinks, and the actual cooking. You'll not over-commit to too complex dishes, or run out of time - your guests arriving with your mole still cooking.

A great book, July 14, 2010
This is a great cookbook with a unique spin. Each section is broken up into an outline for a party from appetizers to main course, including group size and even a suggested playlist. If you want to throw your own Fiesta but arent certain where to start this is definitely the book for you.

Beyond the party blue print there are some great recipes in here. My wife's family is from Mexico and these recipes are very similar to the traditional recipes they use, the main difference is he provides details, something that has been very difficult to get with the traditional recipes. My mother in law did not measure anything using a measuring cup.

Finally the photography and printing in the book are excellent beautiful photographs of nearly every dish.

LIFE IS GOOD WITH THESE RECIPES, August 20, 2010

"Fiesta" is certainly a well chosen word to be included in the title of Rick Bayless's 7th cookbook because each recipe is a delicious celebration of food. Not only is the food the tastiest but with FIESTA AT RICK'S one finds joy in the preparation and most especially in sharing with friends.. Many of us who know how ebullient Rick is on television may be pleasantly surprised to find that this same joie de vivre and encouragement come across on the printed page.

Offered as a companion to the sixth season of Rick's PBS series, "Mexico - One Plate At A Time," this photographed filled volume presents 150 new recipes ranging from"Guacamoles, Nibbles, and Libations" to "Sweet Inspirations from Street Stalls, Bakeries and Ice Cream Shops" (do not, I repeat do not miss the White Chocolate - Mezcal Ice Cream found on page 310 - a little bit of heaven on earth!)

Whether you're cooking for yourself and a significant other or for a party of 20 Rick is a trustworthy guide, offering full menus and easy to understand day or two before the big event suggestions. For instance, since Fall is not too far away he suggests a Classic Mexican Mole Fiesta for 24. Your friends won't soon forget this get-together beginning with a Mexican "Cruidite" Platter with Chamoy Dipping Sauce followed by Lacquered Chicken in Classic Red Mole along with Sweet Plantains, Steaming Corn Tortillas and finishing with "Cafe de Olla" Flan. Yes, you can do this thanks to Rick's Fiesta Game Plan that includes equipment, a timeline (clearly explained day by day), serving strategy, and embellishments. It's a no-fail plan for a never to be forgotten Fiesta. Rick is a wonder at making preparations not only easy but fun.

What is my favorite recipe in FIESTA AT RICK'S? Impossible to say because each is so different treating us to varying taste sensations.

Next time I'm in Chicago my first stop will be the Frontera Grill owned and operated by Rick and his wife, Deann. Until then I've been having my first tastes of Frontera foods (FronteraKitchens.com). We started with Frontera Guacamole Mix - fresh tasting, just spicy enough with hints of tomatillo, garlic, green chile, and cilantro - unbelievably good! We made enough for 18 people and four of us devoured it in under an hour. So easy - simply mash ripe avocados and add mix - presto perfection!

Following that we tried Frontera Roasted Vegetable Soup - only 80 calories, no cholesterol - rich with tomato, corn, pepper, onion, zucchini. Yes, yes I know the directions say "Just heat & serve." However, since it's summer in Texas we served it chilled topped with dollops of sour cream and loved it. Know it will be yummy and warming when cold weather comes.

FIESTA AT RICK'S is a much appreciated book at our house, and Frontera foods are much enjoyed.

- Gail Cooke

Another Awesome Bayless Book!, September 5, 2010
Just finished doing the dishes after a great meal cooked from recipes in this book! Looking forward to cooking more tasty dinners for family and friends. Even the "going all out" menus are simplified with a timeline to help you pull it all off without breaking a sweat. But not everything has to be used for huge gatherings. There's plenty here for everyone!

Viva la Fiesta at Rick's!, August 8, 2010
I admit that I am a Bayless fan and have all but one of his cookbooks and use them regularly when in need of inspiration to cook some great Mexian food.

Here though is a different approach in that it provides sequence of recipes and menus and drinks and music play lists and suggestions for fiesta with friends. This is unique and so useful and a well done resource. Such a variety to choose from as well, e.g. Guacamole Bar Coktail Party; Classic Mole Fiesta; Mexican Tapas Party, and my favorite so far: Street Food Party!

The photos and helpful breakouts on such as Tequilla tasting, Guacomole Basics are truly well done and useful. This guy is expert and can provide all kinds of insights and tidbits to make fiesta so great!

So far tried Roasted Beet Salad with Red Onion, Poblano and Lime; Roasted Vegetable Enchiladas with Creamy Tomatillo Sauce and Melted Cheese; Grilled Rack of Lamb with Honey-Pasilla Glaze; Flaky Turnovers with VArious Fillings; Blueberry-Tequilla Ice Creaml and Mojito Fruit Ice Pops (to which I added some coconut rum).

Another classic from Rick Baless, July 26, 2010
Fiesta at Rick's explores multiple themes in Mexican cooking with multiple recipes organized to be used together for entertaining. In classic Bayless fashion, each recipe has an introduction explaining the dish, with its inspiration and ideas on when to make the recipe. Each section is concluded with an outline of how to throw a fiesta with menu, drink ideas and sound track inspiration.
Fiesta at Rick's explores variations on Guacamole, Mexican inspired cocktails and ice cream/gelato/sorbets much more than in previous books along with sections on taco fillings, seafood appetizers and a great section on wood fired cooking.
Great addition to Rick's collection of cookbooks.
... Read more

Editorial Review

Reviews

Informative, Entertaining and Ever So Useful, January 11, 2005
Don't buy this book if you're looking for recommendations on which brands of applicances to buy -- even Alton Brown would admit that you're better off checking out "Cook's Illustrated" or "Consumer Reports" for that. What this book is brilliant for is the explanations of what the most commonly used kitchen tools do and don't (and can and can't) do and how they work, along with the practical tips for picking the items that suit your needs best. Alton Brown does, from time to time, make specific recommendations, but he tells you why he likes those items so that you can accept or reject them on the merits. Also it should be noted that some of his recommendations run contrary to what he recommends for baking in "I'm Just Here for More Food," so if you bake a lot, you might want to read that book as well before shopping for items such as scales and mixers that are used in both cooking and baking. "Gear For Your Kitchen" covers items used in both, but emphasizes cooking.

Alton covers each type of equipment thoroughly, explaining, for instance, what types of pans are good for different types of cooking applications, and what are the various properties of the different materials out of which they are made. So not only do you end up understanding the diffference between a sauce pan and a saucier, you can figure out whether clad metal or copper is your best bet. This same type of treatment is given for knives, small appliances, etc.

But my favorite part of the book has to do with sanitation and storage. The explanations of why certain sanitary measures need to be taken are coupled with easy ways to do it. I couldn't get a frozen enchilada smell out of my microwave oven until I mixed water and bleach in the proportions Alton recommends in a plastic spray bottle. So simple and obvious and yet...

While reading this (cover to cover in practically one sitting -- it's that readable) I found myself enjoying Alton's humorous descriptions, numerous photos and drawings. But I've found myself going back to the book as a handy reference for ingenious ways to use items I already have and ideas for shopping more intelligently.

Since buying this book I've cleared out and reorganized my kitchen and even though I bought a lot more stuff after reading this book, I have more space and am able to use it more efficiently.

Thanks Alton!

Fine Tune your Kitchen and add fun to your cooking, September 14, 2003
The top five (5) reasons for reading Alton Brown's GEAR For Your Kitchen are:

1. The tabulation of types of `Pots and Pans' materials, their advantages, disadvantages, and relative costs. This chapter alone is worth the price of admission. This section will not save you money except for its advice on non-stick pans. All sources I've seen from Mario Batali to AB agree on not spending a lot for Teflon � lined pans, except be sure to get them with oven proof handles for making frittatas.
2. The thoughtful discussion of knife design and how different design features are important, or not important for different cutting tasks. This section will save you money, unless you are a knife freak.
3. The discussion of most major types of gear, which give you the features you should find most desirable. You may not agree with AB's choices, but he tells you how to make the choice which is best for you.
4. The essay on kitchen sanitation. This is one of many areas where the home cook can learn from professional chefs' practice. I'll bet that even Martha Stewart is not as careful as Alton recommends, and I plan to begin following his recommendations immediately. Note that one can make a little game of finding all the oblique references to Martha Stewart in the book. I've found four (4).
5. The explanation of accuracy versus precision in evaluating measuring devices, especially weighing devices. Being a former chemist, I would argue that AB gives too little credit to the role of the balance, although I concede that using it in the kitchen does require both extra space and special knowledge the average chef may not have.

To the book's credit, it has a wealth of references to actual makes and models, while I have detected no bias to any one manufacturer, in spite of some gratuitous general kudos to OXO. AB's opinions are based on a thorough and thoughtful use of kitchen tools over many years, so his opinions are much better than your Aunt Ida, no matter how good her apple pie may be. However, I take some with a grain of salt. I would not dismiss springform pans unless I heard both Maida Heatter and Nick Malgieri gave them up.

Another minor nit I would pick is in his use of the term multitasking. In computer science, where the word was born, it means the ability to do two things in parallel, not two different things in series! I would especially disagree with some of the uses to which he puts a rolling pin, as some secondary uses may lead to nicks which may harbor microbeasties and impair it function. The solution of sanding said roller may give it an uneven shape. Tsk Tsk.

This book is much better than his first, since it addresses in a comprehensive way a subject which is only dealt with in a very piecemeal way by any other source, including Cooks Illustrated. His first book was just another collection of recipes with humor and some (occasionally) misleading science.

Great Resource for Cooks of Any Caliber, October 12, 2003
"Gear for your Kitchen" provides a fairly in-depth discussion on the whys and hows of choosing various sorts of kitchen implements, from cutlery to pans to small appliances. Alton Brown uses his sense of humor to help present this information in a book that is truly easy and pleasurable to read. There is another book of this nature, a very large and diverse treatise, which attempts to showcase all the various sorts of kitchen gear available to the home cook. But unlike "Gear" it doesn't provide the information that we really need to choose our cookware.

What is great about this book is that in addition to giving actual suggestions of specific products for various sorts of implements, it also goes into great detail to show you how to choose items that will work for you. Brown is careful to highlight areas where paying more money isn't likely in your best interest (e.g. the non-stick fry pans as mentioned in another review, for instance) and where it is (e.g. cutlery).

The goal of having the smallest set of kitchen wear to do all the cooking you need to do is a running theme in this book. In addition to a suggested exercise in minimizing your current kitchen implements, there are many suggestions on how you can use items for tasks other than they are intended, instead of buying specialty pieces (e.g. using the bottom of a heavy fry pan in the place of a meat pounder).

This book is a great resource for cooks of all sorts, from beginners to those with years of experience. It will make a great gift for those people who are just starting out on their own!

Where were you Alton?, October 12, 2004
About a year or so ago I finally gave up. All my knives were dull. All my pans were warped and flaking. All my appliances were not working as I wanted. I decided that I enjoyed cooking, but avoided it because of my equipment. I decided I'd start buying only stuff that'd last a life time or until something better came out.

It started with picking up some Wusthof knives, one every couple months. Then I started getting some new small appliances, and now I'm on to pans. I've cleaned out my "junk" drawer of unitaskers and replaced them with quality instruments.

The bad news, if I had Alton's book, I would have saved a lot of time on research. The good news is, I did fairly well on my own.

I admire Alton and this book in particular for two reason: He's innovative with his tools so that the least number of items can do the most tasks. I used to have four different garlic tools. I now I have one -- a knife. Also, a cooking tool doesn't have to come from a cooking store. Second, I enjoy how Alton doesn't shy from naming names, both the good and bad. In most parts of the book, he explains exactly what he thinks you should have and why. It's up to you if that sounds good to you.

A nice little plus is he gives recipes demonstrating some of the gear he discusses. So when you go out and buy something new, you can try it out.

You'll see a lot of this book on his shows. This is probably what this book is best at, a reference for the TV show. The book is not an authoritative look at what pan is best for this or that, or whatever. Cook's Illustrated is probably a better source for this. This is more of an overview of information. Some parts are more in-depth than others. I get the impression that the book was written from Alton's memory. In other words, Alton relied on past research and experience to write this book without going the extra steps to be more in-depth or complete. Some items are better researched and more in-depth than others, which illustrates this point. If it's important to Alton, he knows it front and back and has tested various products. If not, you just get a rough guide of what to look for.

In short, this book is basically Alton's view on cooking tools, which certainly is impressive, but I would not recommend making this book a shopping list. I don't agree with everything in the book, but it does arm you with enough information to know what you're doing at the store. Case in point, I'm looking for a new roasting pan. Alton incorrectly states that the All-Clad has an aluminum core -- it's only stainless steel. While certainly a quality pan, I'm looking for a more affordable alternative since the big thing with All-Clad is the aluminum core. Alton comes into play on what I specifically want: A stainless steel (non-reactive) pan that is heavy enough to de-glaze on the stove. In this case, I'm looking past Alton's strong product recommendation, but I know exactly what I want and why.

Alton's books and shows made me aware of my neglect for food safety. Some great tips in there. The kitchen truly is the most danger room in the house.

If you enjoy Alton's show and his tips for gear, you'll like this book, even if you've seen every episode. At the very least you'll have something to reference. For everyone else, I'd say page through it at a book store and look up topic you're familiar with. If you agree with what he says, buy it. You'll probably agree with everything else.

I don't like the new Cuisinart either, June 29, 2004
I'm a hobby cook and also a gadget-junkie, so I was delighted to discover this book by one of my favorite people on the Food Network. Brown covers much more than simply can-openers and veggie-peelers, though. His topical chapters cover pots and pans, storage containers, small miscellaneous utensils, safety items, "sharp things," and "small things with plugs," and perhaps the best way to read the book is to browse from the beginning and then read his descriptions, comments, and opinions on certain items as they come to mind. I'm a regular reader of the consumer tests in COOK'S ILLUSTRATED, too, and I think Brown and Christopher Kimball would agree in many ways on what makes a particular tool useful and what features to look for among the products available. Brown's judgments are admittedly personal but he explains them very clearly. Not everything must be specially purchased, either; he recommends a length of dental floss for cutting slices of soft cheese, and he boils eggs in an electric kettle that automatically turns itself off when it reaches a boil. (Great idea!) The book's page design is also quite nice, with good photos and drawings of the tools he discusses, side discussions and tips highlighted in color, and lots of open space. All his sources appear at the back of the book. I certainly hope he does a revised and updated edition in about five years.

Three words: buy this book, November 20, 2004
My fellow reviewers who agreed that this book is worth 5 stars have probably said what I feel better than I could. In a nutshell, this is an excellent resource to have on hand to learn which tools you really need for YOUR kitchen....not Alton's.

The six-month "purge" in the beginning of the book is worth the price of the book alone. It's such a simple technique but it's laid out in such logical detail that anyone who does this will know immediately how much space and money they've wasted on kitchen trinkets, cheap and expensive alike.

The section on cookware is an excellent resource for people who are scraping by on whatever cookware they got from their mother or from the local superstore. It'll help you choose the cookware (and individual pieces) that are best suited for YOU.
I also found his information on cutlery selection to be valuable.

Also, Brown doesn't automatically lean toward the idea that "expensive is better". In fact, he seems refreshingly honest when he tells you that superior tools can often be bought cheaper than at a restaurant supply store. One example is that he opts to use a trowel from the local hardware store rather than buy an expensive "pie server" from one of the houseware vendors.

In other areas, he's candid enough to say, "Hey, this is going to last you a lifetime and if you buy the cheapo, you're going to regret it."

Overall, I thought it was refreshingly honest, thorough and -- well, just plain fun to read.

Regarding the the person who said that "$28 was too much" for a book that "wasn't very big", I'm not sure what the complaint was. Although the book is 200+ pages, well-written and wonderfully designed, that's not even the pragmatic point of the book. It's this: knowing the information in this book will save you a heck of alot more than $28 when buying the RIGHT kitchen gear instead of wasting money on stuff you don't need or shouldn't own. If it does that.....well, in my opinion, it's done its job.

Plus, even if someone knows alot of this stuff, it's a good gift item for the chef/cook in YOUR life. Buy two and give one as a gift!

Can a Kitchen Implement Book Be Interesting? YES!, August 9, 2004
How interesting can a book on kitchen implements be? I have always loved kitchen gadgets and machines, and although I'm the one who drags my wife through the kitchenware sections of stores, I still asked this question about this book. Well, it is a very interesting book, and I wish I had read this before buying most of what's in my kitchen.

Alton Brown is the host of the Food Network show GOOD EATS. The show was first brought to my attention by a local radio morning show DJ. Alton is a sort of combination of Julia Childs and Mr. Wizard with a little wackiness of Jeff Corwin thrown in. After quickly getting addicted to the show, I wondered if Alton had any books, and my search led me to GEAR FOR YOUR KITCHEN.

In the short time I've been watching the show, he's twice lifted his fire extinguisher and said, "This is the only unitasker in my kitchen." That philosophy permeates this book. You will also find that he will often use non-kitchen tools if he feels they perform the task better. He serves pie with a masonry trowel and scapes dough with a drywall taping knife.

He's not afraid to name names, which is extremely beneficial and not often seen in books (Don't want to upset potential advertisers!). So instead of just describing what to look for in an item, he tells you what item(s) meets those requirements. Of course, this risks making the book quickly dated. He is also not afraid to say what items he's abandoned when they were poorly "updated," such as now recommending the Kitchenaid food processor over his once-favorite Cuisinart because Cuisinart changed the toggle switch to a membrane switch. Hopefully, some of the revelation will guide the manufacturers to provide better products.

The book is very easy to read, and reads like listening to the author on his show. The layout is very attractive. The book is punctuated with interesting sidebars giving historical information on the materials and products. There are actually a handful of recipes using the tools described in that section. For example, the section on food processors includes a recipe for Hummus. The book is full of photos of recommended items. There is a several-page table on cooking utensil materials: what they are, what they're good for, and what they're not. Some of these sidebars and tables are very appealing to an engineer like me (Alton Brown, in general, probably appeals to engineers like me), but may be boring to others. You can skip many of them without much damage.

Chapters are Pots and Pans, Sharp Things (knives and slicers), Small Things with Plugs (electric countertop kitchen appliances), Kitchen Tools Unplugged (pretty much any tool that doesn't fall into the other categories), Storage and Containment, and a potentially ho-hum chapter on Safety and Sanitation, which wasn't so bad. I could probably benefit from this last chapter, although (famous last words) I've never gotten sick from anything I made in my kitchen. It's harder explaining to my wife why I'm buying spray bottles and squeegees.

I can offer a few suggestions for improvements. Mainly, additional illustrations are needed to help describe differences in some items. He could use diagrams to describe different kinds of pots and pans, different turners and spatulas, and the different whisks. He does this very thing describing different kinds of knives and the parts of the knives, but falls down on the job in the other sections. There are text descriptions like "straight sides," "curved sides," "flared sides," "sides that curve outward," "they all have an offset angle built into them either at the tip or in the handle," and others. It can be hard to conceive in your mind (or maybe it's really simple, and I'm just messed up because I'm an engineer and he's not describing what plane he's working in, what line he's referring the angle to, etc.) By "straight sides" does he mean "vertical?"

And p. 192 confuses me. Alton insists there is a difference between turners and spatulas, but under "Wide, Solid Turner," he describes a particular product he owns, and there is a photo of it with a caption that clearly describes it as the same item, but calls it a "spatula." Furthermore, the next section, "Cake Spatulas," the first describing spatulas, refers to "the spatula described above." Ugh. Which is it? Are spatulas and turners the same or not?

OK. Minor point.

Mr. Brown does concedes that there may be a few good unitaskers, and admits to owning a few, but only if they do a job you need a done a lot, and it does it very well. Oh...and he does discuss fire extinguishers.

I don't think I'll personally purchase this book since it is in the my local library, and it's not something I think I'll have to refer to frequently. However, if you don't have access to it, or want to keep it around for the recipes (or have an unlimited book budget and bookcase space), I'd highly recommend purchasing GEAR FOR YOUR KITCHEN.

From a fan Great Book, but not a good buy, January 22, 2005
This is a great book, and very informative. As he does in his first book, he explains the concepts behind cooking in an almost scientific. BUT many of the most important tidbits are found in abbreviated with his first book. He also tends not to give the full story when endorsing a particular product. The Pressure Cooker, Stand Mixer, Perfect Beaker, etc. So before you buy, look at the recommendations on this site, consumer reports, and any other nonpartisan source you can.

My suggestion is try and find this book at your library, then decide if you want to buy it. For me I took a few notes, then returned the book. I can always go check it out, and its not the type of book I'll always have out.

(oh and before any of you try this, the terra cotta smoker is great, but not nearly as cheap and convenient as the smokey joe smoker in I'm just here for the food).

A Must-Have, June 10, 2004
Nominated this year for another James Beard Award (for Tools and Techniques), Alton Brown has yet another gem for all to enjoy, "Gear For Your Kitchen". In this wonderful gem, Alton Brown explains how you can declutter your kitchen within 60 days and stock your kitchen with useful tools that you will actually use!

As any "Good Eats" fan will tell you, Alton Brown believes in "multi-taskers." His logic is: Why have a yogurt maker when you only use it once a year? Instead, he shows us, on one of his shows, how he utilizes a heating pad and a couple of canisters to achieve the same results.

Not only does he suggest unusual items for your kitchen (a cigar cutter to chop chives), but he also recommends traditional items. He explains the process with which one should consider before purchasing any item. He does explain how he chose that certain coffee maker, but he explains how we need to figure out which one is best for us.

Being as he is forever in search of a great utensil or appliance, he is quick to point out which items are more difficult to clean, and not worth buying, and which ones are worth buying. In the section devoted purely to pots and pans, he explains each metal used for cooking, the best uses for that metal, how to care for it and the good and bad points with each metal.

Instead of purchasing that expensive imported terra-cotta cookware, he suggests (with diagrams) on how to create your own cookware from flowerpots...I mean, they are both made from the same material. Why pay more because one says "cookware"?

And he doesn't stop there. He also helps his readers by helping them select safety and sanitation supplies for their kitchens!

And if you thought that was not enough, he has a large resource section, in the back of the book, where he recommends some excellent places to purchase your items, either through mail, telephone or Internet!

This book is complete with Alton Brown's sense of humor, wit and enthusiasm. He is one of the only people out there creating books for people who never went to culinary school. I appreciate his thoroughness, and recommend this book to all new cooks, and for the more seasoned chefs as well.

Always fascinating, February 16, 2005
My husband bought me this book (along with the newest set of the Good Eats DVDs). Initially, I didn't think that this book would be for me even though Good Eats is one of my favorite shows. As interesting as Alton Brown is, I didn't think that a book just about kitchen tools would be interesting. Then I started reading it. AB has such a unique way of writing that I was instantly mesmerized. It makes me want to go through my kitchen and purge all the unitaskers I've accumulated over the years. I will get there, though it may take a while. As an added bonus, he includes quite a few interesting recipes (that correspond to the gear he is talking about). I will never again doubt AB. In my opinion, he's the best there is in the cooking world. ... Read more

Editorial Review

In her first ever boxed set, bestselling cookbook author and Food Network star Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa, unites her initial three titles in one beautiful package.
�����������
Here are the books that started it all for Ina Garten, who turned a passion for food into a successful specialty food store in the Hamptons and is now beloved by millions for her Barefoot Contessa television show and cookbooks. The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, Ina's first book, has all of the fabulous, easy recipes that won Ina a loyal following at her retail shop, including Perfect Roast Chicken, French Potato Salad, and those irresistible Coconut Cupcakes. In Barefoot Contessa Parties! Ina shares her very best menus, divided by season, for fuss-free yet gorgeous entertaining, from a summer garden lunch for eight to an intimate fireside dinner for two. Barefoot Contessa Family Style is full of crowd-pleasers you'll make again and again, like roasted asparagus showered with freshly grated Parmesan and a French toast made with challah and just the right amount of grated orange zest and pure vanilla extract to make it sing.�
��
Together, these three titles form a timeless collection perfect for every home cook, whether accomplished or amateur, and for every occasion, whether a weeknight dinner with family or a larger, more festive gathering. With stunning photography and Ina's helpful tips, this boxed set makes the perfect gift for those who love to cook. ... Read more

Reviews

Contessa Cookbook, December 7, 2010
Great book I receive as a gift.
Contessa cookbook provides a variety of recipes that will please almost any appetite.
I recommended,Any cook would appreciate the addition of this cookbook to his collection.

INA IS UNIQUE - SO IS THE CONTESSA COOKBOOK, December 21, 2010



For those who haven't had the pleasure of shopping at Ina Garten's specialty food store in the Hamptons The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook delivers - literally. Some 160 gorgeous photos plus Ina's favorite recipes fill the 252 pages of this indispensable kitchen reference
As Martha Stewart writes in her Foreword, Ina is unique. "There is a freshness in cooking, a total lack of finickiness, a reliance on the freshest and best, and a casualness that I know will be appealing to everyone who uses her book." How true!
Ina stresses freshness, noting that after several weeks in Provence where she found radishes and carrots with "soil still clinging to them," she determined to base her cooking on ingredients from local sources. A lesson for us all.
Hosting a cocktail party, she decided, was not much fun if she spent all of her time running back and forth to the kitchen to get hot hors d'oeuvres out of the oven. So, she does everything possible to be sure that she does not leave the room. For instance, she has a table with all the drink fixings on it, and appetizers that can be served at room temperature so everything is either out or ready to pass when the first guest arrives. Thus we find common sense and uncommonly good appetizers from Roasted Eggplant spread to Guacamole to Smoked Salmon Sandwiches.
Her soups are splendid, most of them starting with sauteed onions "to give a sweet, rich flavor to the stock." Parker's Split Pea Soup, which Steven Spielberg said tasted just like his mother's, is rich, hearty and beautifully presented topped either with toasted croutons or diced smoked ham.
The joy Ina finds in cooking is evident in all of her dishes. She's a cook who makes simple food very, very special.
Highly recommended. ... Read more

Editorial Review

300 Fast and Flavorful Recipes from America’s Most Trusted Test Kitchen

Tired of quick recipes that aren’t really quick or don’t taste very good? While some cookbooks promise 30-minute meals, America’s Test Kitchen delivers. The Best 30-Minute Recipe is packed with more than 300 great-tasting recipes, along with time-saving techniques that will help you become more efficient in the kitchen. You’ll also find honest evaluations of ingredients important to quick cooking, such as chicken broth, preshredded cheese, instant rice, and more. And because the type of equipment you use is important to the success of any recipe—made in 30 minutes or not—we tell you which brands are worth buying.

The Best 30-Minute Recipe features a surprisingly wide range of recipes. You get not only the very best versions of naturally quick dishes like salads and stir-fries, but also quick and easy recipes for typically long-cooking dishes that you’d never even think of making on a weeknight—including meatloaf, lasagna, beef pot pie, and a pad thai so easy that you may never call for takeout again. With efficiency and good taste, The Best 30-Minute Recipe is the time-pressed cook’s guide to getting dinner on the table, night after night. ... Read more

Reviews

Great as a standalone cookbook, problematic for anyone with other ATK material, February 4, 2007
If this is your first cookbook from the ATK/Cook's Illustrated crew, I can almost guarantee you will be very happy with it. It's a very thorough and accessible approach to some cracking good recipes. The prose style is entertaining and informative and helps a less experienced cook get some insight into the tastes and textures that make a "good" recipe.

But if you want to learn more or get further into the style, you may find that you get less geniunely new material with each subsequent purchase. While any one of their books is very much worth having, they tend to endlessly repackage and reissue their recipes in various formats. That's a little problematic for someone who is a fan of the ATK approach, but also is in no way a collector of cook books. If a cook book has 3 or 4 recipes that I haven't seen before and genuinely want to try, I'll be satisfied, and each new ATK issue just barely satisfies that criterion. But the relatively high cost of acquiring these new recipes along with the 5th iteration of, say, mashed potatoes, Chicken Parmesan and skillet tamale pie, may irritate and exasperate some buyers.

One reviewer called these folks "A cottage industry gone amok". That has some truth to it, but it may be a little harsh. A more sympathetic reframing might be that they are simply trying to package their recipes in convenient ways so as to meet the demands of a particular segment of the cookbook market: "Best Recipe" vs "America's Test Kitchen companion series" vs "Cook's Illustrated compilation". And "Quick Meals" vs "Light Meals" vs "Vegetables" and "Soups and Stews". But at some point, the typical cook will probably decide that he or she is being rather cynically exploited by some shrewd entrepeneurs determined to squeeze every possible cent out of about 350 really good recipes, supplemented with some helpful product reviews. I haven't reached that point yet, but I may soon.

So in summary: excellent cookbook, but docked a star for my purposes because I am paying "all new recipe" prices for a "20% (or less)new material" format.

Another Great Cookbook By Cook's Illustrated!, April 21, 2007
This is my eighth book in my Cook's Illustrated (CI) collection and I have really enjoyed it. While it is true that many of CI's cookbooks are packed with repeat and/or repackaged recipes as other reviewers have pointed out, this book stands out from the pack in that it offers techniques in streamlining recipes so that you can get a delicious meal on the table in 30 minutes or less. And yes, every recipe I have tried has lived up to that promise (unlike other famed 30 minute cookbooks!). For people familiar with CI, this is quite a change in pace. My only real complaint with other CI books has been that the recipes can be involved and time consuming and leave your kitchen looking like a disaster area when you're finished. The good people at America's Test Kitchen didn't seem to be aware with how much kitchen equipment they had you dirtying with their recipes! This hardly made CI recipes very appealing on those weekdays when you needed a fast and easy meal on the table. This book changes all that! I can finally have delicious CI recipes even on high-stress, fast-paced days!

It is clear that CI had two very distinct goals when they put this book together...(1)every meal truly must take the average home cook 30 minutes or less to prepare, and (2)every meal must taste great. While this may sound like a given, most other 30 minute/quick meal books do not always deliver on those counts. Not only do they usually take the average cook WAY longer to prepare (do they even take prep time into consideration when they are putting together the recipes?) but even more importantly, all too often the shortcuts they take compromise the overall quality of the dishes, leaving them flat and unexciting. This is not so with CI's 30 Minute Recipe. They truly have found ways to shave time and effort off of so many of their recipes without compromising the overall flavor. How exciting to be able to deliver delicious meals even on the most stressed days! I do also love the "Got Extra Time" feature that some of the recipes come with, which gives you the option of making the meals even better if you have a few extra minutes (like using long grain rice instead of instant or adding a few other components to enhance the overall flavor) but the recipes as written are still perfectly delicious on their own. It's just nice to have that option on days that you have a little extra time to put into the recipes.

While the techniques are different than other CI cookbooks, you can still count on all the features that you come to expect from America's Test Kitchen...the product and equipment ratings, illustrations of techniques, quick tips, and detailed explanations as to how they arrived at their recipes can all be found in this book as well. Even the most seasoned CI veteran can still feel comfortable with this book--the techniques may be different but the governing principles of CI are still front and center!

In short, I love this cookbook! While I'm an avid cook and very often enjoy spending extra time in the kitchen putting together delicious and in-depth meals for my family and friends, even I need a quick, low-maintenance meal from time to time. Thanks to CI, I now have techniques to streamline my cooking processes while still delivering fabulous meals!

Fabulously fast fantastic food!, March 25, 2007
I love all my cookbooks from the Cook's Illustrated line. This one is great, too! The recipes truly are doable in under 30 minutes. And when they say 30 minutes, they mean thirty minutes from start to finish- NOT 30 minutes of prep time and another hour of cooking!

My family loves the teriyaki recipes! I've never had better teriyaki- fast, light and fresh. We also have made some of the braised chicken dishes and they were very good.

This book is in a similar format to many of their others: there is a discussion of ingredients and methods leading up to the recipe and then usually several variations on the actual recipe itself. I like this because it allows for some flexibility if you don;t have certain ingredients on hand. This cookbook gives tips for how to prepare the recipes in the most efficient manner (for example, it says "While meat is browning, chop the onions"). I usually find that when I've cooked a recipe several times, I'm much faster at it becase I figure out what steps to do in what order- these 'quick tips' help me get there sooner.

The resulting food is fab! This cookbok isn't just for rushed weeknight dinners, the recipes are good enough to warrant including in your regular repetoire of things to prepare for guests and special occasions. Quick doesn't have to mean lower quality, the folk from Cook's Illustrated have proven that here with this book!

Outstanding, Easy, and Delicious, October 14, 2006
Have tried four recipes and all have been very quick and easy to make and have been delicious. Have given the book as gifts and plan to give more. An outstanding book in a wonderful series of books. Never a disappointment with Cook's Illustrated books. Highly recommend to beginner or experienced cooks.

Quickly became a favorite cookbook, November 13, 2006
I have yet to find a weak recipe in this cookbook and have used it nightly for several weeks. The recipes are straightforward to follow, use fresh ingredients, and yield excellent results. Highly recommended for any busy person who loves really good food.

The Cook's Illustrated people do it again, January 7, 2007
I love the "Best Recipe" series from the Cooks Illustrated authors. Each recipe has been thoroughly tested and refined so that everyone who can follow directions can mimic their excellent results. The 30-minute recipes are a collection of recipes that I have cooked (they really do take only 30 minutes and are delicious) and plan on cooking in the future. The ingredients are those that are found in well stocked grocery stores and while I find that I often only use a few recipes from most of my cookbooks, I want to cook most of these recipes in this book.

The best part of this cookbook and the rest in the series are the directions and the explanations. They take the time to explain why some choices about ingredients or techniques were made and not others. They take the time to give directions on how to perform cooking tasks; these explanations are very well written and the simple diagrams, when necessary, are effective. I especially like their reviews of products and cooking items. The carefully describe WHY they prefer one item over another in different circumstances. Reading this book makes me feel like I am in a master cooking class and gives me the confidence and the knowledge to try my own ideas in the kitchen.

A large number of great recipes and great cooking lessons. A great deal for the price!

Best Cookbook I have ever owned, February 4, 2007
I gave up on cooking many years ago. In the past, I would spend hours in the kitchen to make one dish that would turn out so so. I was so frustrated that my husband took over the cooking in our home. He can make up his own recipes and the dishes would turn out delicious. I do not have that skill. I have been looking for that one cookbook that had easy to prepare recipes that were fast and delicious. This is that cookbook. So far, I have made 3 meals since Christmas and they have all been easy to make and delicious. The recipes have been so good that I am actually looking forward to my next time cooking. I appreciate the written discussion with the recipes to explain some of the ingredient choices and hints to help with the recipe. With me not being an experienced cook, I need all the help I can get. I have been very pleased with this cookbook.

don't order this from Cooks Illustrated, May 4, 2007
I agree with the reviewer who was frustrated with the amount of repackaging that Cooks does--although it is probably necessary for their business model, given that they accept no advertising. I have always been willing to pay their prices because of the quality of their recipes and of their techniques, and this book was no exception. What drove me over the edge was that, having ordered it from Cooks directly, I inadvertently got signed up for their "Automatic Preview Privilege," which meant that cookbooks just started showing up at my house. It tooks MONTHS to get them to stop. So, while I will keep buying their books and their magazine, I won't be doing it through them--will stick with Amazon, B&N, or my local bookstore.

Great Recipes, January 10, 2007
If you're tired of the same old quick dinners, this book is for you! I have been very impressed with the variety of cuisine in this book, and so far, I have been able to make them all in around 30 minutes. I have used AMT's "The New Best Recipe" for several years and the recipes always turn out as promised. This book has the same trustworthy recipes, but without the 2-3 hour cooking time! The recipes taste great and are easy to make as long as you plan out your shopping list ahead of time as some of the recipes use unusual ingredients. I gave this book to my sister and she loves it too.

Any general-interest public library, especially those catering to busy professionals, will find it a popular lend., February 5, 2007
Plenty of cookbooks promise quick recipes, then either add time or skimp on flavor. Not so in The Best 30-Minute Recipe: each and every recipe here has been tested time and again - some 300 of them - and paired with overall time-saving techniques busy cooks will appreciate. The 'got extra time?' sidebars offer ideas for embellishments such as sauces which may be made when there's need for a little more zip, while recipes blend quick techniques (such as microwaving long-grain rice) with adaptations which retain flavor while speeding prep time. It also includes shopping hints as a way of speeding things all the way around. Any general-interest public library, especially those catering to busy professionals, will find it a popular lend.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch ... Read more

Editorial Review

Calling all food lovers! This addictive trivia game allows players to strut their culinary stuff and prove who is the smartest foodie of them all. With over 1,000 questions on topics ranging from culinary science and celebrity chefs to food history and exotic cuisine, each player is bound to get a full serving of food knowledge. But think fast, because the first player or team to fill in their game board wins!

Includes:
- Deck of trivia cards
- Six game boards
- Color die ... Read more

Reviews

Foodie Fight - great fun for anyone interested in food, February 8, 2008
I got Foodie Fight for Christmas and my friends and I have had great fun playing. You don't need to be a food fanatic or expert to have fun playing. I have learned things and had some great laughs at some of the questions and answers. I only wish they had another set of cards!

Foodie Fight Wins Hands Down, April 20, 2008
I recently attend a weekend cooking school where we played both Foodie Fight and the Trival Pursuit Game dedicated to food. Foodie Fight was much more fun, more interesting questions, better catagories and just the right difficulty. The school was attended by "foodies" and some new to cooking and all enjoyed the game. It's a winner!

fun game that stumped even consumate foodies!, May 20, 2008
Saw this at xmas time and thought it would be a fun gift for a family member. I was worried that the questions would not be challenging enough being that the person is a consumate foodie, as is another family member who would be present during the holiday. We played the game and even they couldn't answer all the questions!
Game is designed really well, good variety of questions even for the novice foodie and I like how you can play a short game or a long game.
Good fun!

Fun, June 22, 2008
Gave this as a gift to my brother who is a masterful chef. He enjoyed it. Good gift idea for those who cook.

challenging and a bit exhausting, June 13, 2008
This game is fun, but can go on for a long time to the difficulty of some of the questions!

Fun and Educational, in a Topic that Grabs You, March 1, 2009
My wife and I enjoy playing this food trivia game, which test one's knowledge of a broad range of cooking-related topics including cooking ingredients, celebrity chefs, restaurant service, and wine selection. When you play you learn new things in a fun-filled way. Particularly valuable are the questions on table etiquette, culinary science, and nutrition. However, the questions are uneven in level of difficulty. Some of the tough queries concern such items as a French chef, a little-known food author, an obscure movie, or a lesser-known type or style of food. This is compensated for by a substantial number of true or false and multiple choice questions. The popular culture questions can be deceptive or just plain difficult, but answers are often within the realm of knowledge of the average person.

A good thing about the game is that it does not come easy for the winner. There are six categories, and the player who gets three questions correct in all six categories fills his six cardboard dinner plates and wins. Answering a question correctly means another turn. However, players who get a question in a category they have completed must still answer the question correctly to get another question, hopefully in an uncompleted category. Therefore, a player who gets ahead often finds other players will quickly catch up. This provides the sort of end-of-the-game competition that everyone will enjoy.

Game review, February 27, 2008
Had a lot of laughs over the game after Christmas dinner (gift to my daughter - a foodie)

Take the byline on the box literally, November 4, 2010
This game is for SERIOUS food lovers. I bought this for my wife last year and we were very excited to receive it. We really enjoy watching Food Network and other cooking shows, so we figured that this would be a great way to have fun on game nights. And it is....after a fashion. We found many of the questions to be somewhere between challenging and insanely difficult. After playing several rounds without anyone getting anything right, we had to relax the rules to move the game along. Even then, we had to be pretty generous with interpreting answers. We had fun after a little while, but it took time to get going Additionally, one of the categories (Company's Coming) seems out of place; it focuses on etiquette and rules for entertaining.
The game can be fun and educational, but can also be frustratingly hard for those of who haven't been to culinary school. As some others have noted, this isn't a good game to try playing with people who aren't REALLY in to food.

Fun, but this is not a game for children - even teenagers (or macho guys who are not into food)., July 20, 2010
This is an original and fun trivia game. However, our family tried to play it last Saturday night, and it was not a hit with our two teenagers and two grade-schoolers, nor my All-American macho husband. Only the three family members who were foodies enjoyed it, and we still did not know a lot of the answers. A more family-friendly trivia game might be Smart Ass.

Good questions, January 23, 2010
I gave this game as a gift and was worried that it would be another one of those trivia games with either really easy questions or really hard ones. It was neither. The questions were legitimate. I mean, they had some really easy ones and some harder ones to challenge you to think and learn. We ended up not using the game pieces and just reading question after question to each other. It was fun. There were about the same number of questions that you would get in one reading box from Trivial Pursuit. I'd definitely recommend this game. It's ended up being a hit! ... Read more

Editorial Review

Urban Pantry is a smart, concise guide to creating a full and delicious larder in your own home. It covers kitchen essentials, like what basics to keep on hand for quick, tasty meals without a trip to the store, and features recipes that adapt old-fashioned pantry cooking for a modern audience. Avid chef and gardener Amy Pennington demystifies canning and pickling for the urban kitchen and provides tips for growing a practical food garden in even the smallest of spaces. Her more than sixty creative recipes blend both gourmet and classic flavors while keeping economy in mind.

Urban Pantry holds sustainability at its center: Take advantage of local ingredients, eliminate wasteful kitchen practices, and make the most out of the food you buy or grow. ... Read more

Reviews

A great addition to my Cookbook Library, May 7, 2010
I have a huge bookshelf full of cookbooks. In fact, I will not allow myself to purchase cookbooks anymore, because I do not have any room to store them. That being said, 'Urban Pantry', which I just acquired, is so worth the small amount of space it takes up! Every single recipe is one that I will try, which is saying a lot--usually I take only 1 or 2 recipes away from a cookbook this size. The author writes in a voice that makes you feel like she's right there in the kitchen with you--and her words are practical and fun.
So far, I've tried the berry syrup, cracker recipe (best!), and am working on the ginger beer. I have been cooking for a long time, and still learned a lot from this book. I have pretty much every ingredient the recipes call for in my pantry, which make the recipes extremely accessible. The pictures are beautiful, and overall the entire reading experience inspiring. You too, can preserve in small batches, make your own crackers and sodapop at home, all without spending a million years and a million dollars doing it!
Highly recommended!

Only 5 dozen?, May 7, 2010
What a great cookbook! I knew from the cover of this book, that it was going to be a good one. I know, I know, "don't judge a book by it's cover." Glass jars of polenta and beet greens, these are a few of my favorite things. And I'm now planning to add open shelves in my kitchen.

Beyond the cover, I thought the author did a great job of keeping it personal with great suggestions, stories and few ingredient recipes. The recipes seem classic, but with a twist to keep the recipe, economical, local, and beautiful. I started out with the cracker recipe, and I HIGHLY recommend that one. I'm no baker, and these turned out so delicious, I want to share them with everyone I know. Next I tried the super easy Carrot-Coconut Milk Soup. So, simple, so delicious, and so easy!

My New BFF, July 28, 2010
When I first saw the title I knew I had to have it. Urban Pantry, Thrifty, Sustainable, Seasonal? Amy's words spoke right to me.

I am a new stay at home mom and we are on a real tight budget, $200.00 every other week for a family of five. I decided to base our grocery list this pay day off of her recipes mainly for two weeks. We spent 190.00 total at Costco for the basics, PCC for a few extras, and our family sized box from our CSA that we receive weekly. We've been eating like kings, and organic none the less! The recipes are so simple yet have that little extra something special. I just made the perfect roast chicken tonight and my husband asked me to marry him...again! Maybe that recipe should be renamed "love bird" or "proposal chicken", no kidding.

I am looking forward to trying EVERY recipe and taking up canning for the first time, and next spring planting a back porch garden all with my new BFF. This book has been so inspirational. I also live in Seattle and my front porch view is dumpsters and a parking lot. I used to think I couldn't wait to have a real yard, but now I can see there's no reason to wait to plant a garden. I used to think my "two butt" kitchen wasn't big enough for canning but, now I can't wait for small batch preserving.

Amy makes the most daunting tasks simple and savvy. Her words are inviting and friendly. Her tips and advice are smart and timely.

I own MANY cook books and just this one speaks to my soul.

I just subscribed to edibleSEATTLE because I heard she's a contributer because, I as well can't wait for her next book.

Great chioces for a busy mom, May 7, 2010
I am very happy I stumbled on Urban Pantry. Being a mom of 5, getting different menu ideas together that evryone loves is hard BUT Urban Pantry by Amy Pennington has solved that hindrance. I made the milk-braised pork and they actually all liked it - I was shocked! Amy Penington shows you how to cook great food wonderfully.
Additionally, the photos are great. You wish you could lick the page.

Nice book!, July 8, 2010
I love the simplicity of the recipes, the healthfulness, and her thinking outside the box. And Amy's enthusiasm is infectious--makes it fun to plan a meal! I think lots of cooks would enjoy sauntering into a pantry such as Amy's.

Delicious Food and Writing!, September 14, 2010
I met Amy at a canning class at a local cooking school and walked away with her book that night. As soon as I got home, I commenced to reading it - no, devouring it - like a novel! It's such fun to read and so witty and practical. A million recipes are dog-eared already. Her batidos are to-die-for, the Peanut Soba Noodles easy and so satisfying if you're in the mood for something a little Thai-ish, and her apricot mustard provided me with a delicious introduction to the world of small-batch canning. Amy rocks, her urban pantry rocks, and your family and friends will think YOU ROCK, too, if you give this book a whirl!

Applicable Even for the Bachelor!, July 8, 2010
As a former cold-pizza-and-warm-beer bachelor, I found great use in Amy's timely and terrific tome, _Urban Pantry_. I eat tastier and cheaper and healthier than ever before.

Simple, Lovely Recipes, October 9, 2010
I have 155 cookbooks. No, I'm not some crazy fanatic who counts her cookbooks. I'm a crazy fanatic who keeps all of her cookbooks in her virtual library on Goodreads. I have seriously cut back on my cookbook buying, so when I do get a new cookbook, I expect a lot from it. Amy Pennington's Urban Pantry: Tips and Recipes for a Thrifty, Sustainable and Seasonal Kitchenwas everything I hoped it would be and more.

Normally, I wait until I've made several recipes out of a book before I review it, but this was just so lovely, I had to share it now. First of all the pictures of her pantry with all the food in jars totally won me over immediately. Put some polenta, or beans, or grains in jars and line them up in your pantry, and I am in love. Then take those simple, lovely ingredients and turn them into simple, lovely meals, I am yours forever.

She divides the book into chapters titled: Breakfast, Appetizers, Soups, Salads & Side Dishes, Main Courses, Garnishes Vinaigrettes & Sauces, Pantry Staples, Pickles & Preserves, and Desserts. Picking just one recipe from each chapter:

*Hippie Hotcakes
*Onion-Thyme Tart
*Herbal Minestrone
*White Bean & Preserved Lemon Salad
*Over Easy Tomatoes with Polenta
*Steeping Fruit
*Homemade Bread Crumbs
*Boozy Blood Orange Marmalade
*Vanilla Quinoa Pudding

And there is lots more! Really, I've marked practically the whole book to make. The vanilla quinoa pudding is next on my list. I was trying to decide last night, what I could quickly make, so that I would have at least tried one of the recipes. I settled on Quick Pickled Chiles, because I love all pickles and because I had just picked some peppers from my garden. These were quick, simple, and a nice spicy garnish for a simple fish dish.

The approachable urban pantry, October 1, 2010
In a world of cake mixes and "real simple" shortcuts Amy Pennington brings us back to what food is supposed to taste like. This cookbook reminds us that good ingredients make good food, it doesn't have to be expensive, complicated or even well plated to satisfy our need for real food. Her down-to-earth approach takes away the intimidation and her carful instructions provide even the most timid chef with the confidence to succeed.

Each chapter, broken down by course, highlights pantry staples such as quinoa, chickpeas, buttermilk, and eggs. Her chapter on kitchen economy reminds us of our grandmother's waist-no-want-not adage with a modern and approachable twist. Simply put homemade chicken broth kept in the freezer tastes better then even the organic kind from the store.

If you have been craving food that satisfies a deep hunger this is the cookbook for you.

For more about Urban Pantry check out my blog [...]

Best of the Basics!, July 9, 2010
I usually have most of these items in my pantry... it is a matter of putting them together to create something healthy and delicious. The portion on canning is really the golden ticket to keeping stocked all year long!! Thanks Amy Pennington, I look forward to your next book!! ... Read more