Professional Cooking Books - Page 12

Zagat 2008/09 Atlanta Restaurants (Zagatsurvey: Atlanta Restaurants)

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Tru: A Cookbook from the Legendary Chicago Restaurant

Rick Tramonto, Gale Gand, Mary Goodbody

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In Tru: A Cookbook from the Legendary Chicago Restaurant executive-chefs Rick Tramonto and Gale Gand present 100-plus of the stylish restaurant's most alluring recipes. The tempting dishes, which include the likes of Curried Cauliflower Soup with Cumin Crackers; Roasted Sturgeon with Braised Oxtail and Spiced Carrot Puree; and Roasted Poussin and French Lentils with Bacon Lardons and Truffled Green Brussels Sprouts are clearly presented. Though the majority require special ingredients and a time (and interest) commitment that make them best for special-occasion cooking, all should spark the imaginations (and whet the appetites) of readers interested in seeing what a top restaurant can do when it's at its peak.

Beginning with an introduction to Tru, which includes a discussion of its genesis, culinary approach and service, the book then pursues dishes course by course, with special stops for amuse bouche (appetite-rousing mouthfuls), foie gras, game and cheese specialties, represented by the likes of Roquefort with Pear Chips and Hot Honey Walnuts. Pastry chef Gand then "takes over" and presents a wide range of the restaurant's "multi-course" desserts, including sweet Szechuan Peppercorn Créme Brûlée Spoonfuls, "main-course deserts" like Warm Chocolate Tart with Toasted Almonds Milk Sherbet, and petits fours including Hickory Nut Shortbread. With a section on basic preparations and color photos that depict the dishes in all their creative splendor. --Arthur Boehm

The One-Pan Galley Gourmet : Simple Cooking on Boats

Don Jacobson, John Roberts

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Not just for sailors...great for camping, RV and Dorm use as well. 5 out of 5 stars.
21 of 23 people found this review helpful.

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I bought this book to get some ideas about setting up a galley for camping and RV trips with my ex and her boys. And we used to try out the recipes at home....actually, we never did try any of these on the road. Hmmm.

Well, I am sure they would work...

Anyway, this is a great book for setting up small galley and throwing down some serious chow. The recipes and the prep recommendations work for asphalt sailors as well as the deep-water folks....except you get to stop and pickup anything you forgot.

If you need a recommendation for your "ONE-PAN". I like:Lodge Logic 3-Quart Pre-Seasoned Chicken Fryer. Ya' just ca't beat cast iron cookware.

Editorial Review:

A paperback original

The One-Pan Galley Gourmet has it all: one-pan simplicity; delicious recipes using fresh ingredients; advice for provisioning anywhere in the world; and plenty of spice and personality. Special features include:

• 200 boat-tested meat, fish, and vegetarian recipes
• Soups, stews, breads, and desserts
• Menu plans for cruises of three-day, seven-day, and longer duration
• Provisioning advice emphasizing fresh ingredients with selective canned substitutions

Bills Food

Bill Granger

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Surprisingly good! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Flavorful recipes and dishy chef come together in bill's food. The recipes are simple, turn out surprisingly well and are quite forgiving. The two main strengths of the content are that the book has lots of contemporary ideas (the yogurt pannacotta, for example) and recipes with multiple possibilities (corn cakes work as appetizer / brunch entree). The layout and pictures are attractive, instructions are simple, very much in keeping with the theme of the book: slow down and enjoy your food :-)

Editorial Review:

For Bill cooking is a time to relax, and meals should be stress-free and sociable (his restaurant, bills, is famous for its one communal table). bills food focuses on the pleasures of cooking, eating, and sharing food with friends. His straightforward recipes reflect the casual, comfortable Australian lifestyle, and strike the perfect balance between the exotic and the familiar. The ingredient lists are short, and the sweet (and savory) results are spectacular. There are no complicated steps, and no fancy equipment is required. The stunning photographs accompanying each recipe are sure to spark both creativity and hunger in home cooks, and just might inspire them to head for the simple life down under.

ZAGAT New York City Nightlife 2008/09 (Zagatsurvey : New York City Nightlife)

Curt Gathje

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The New Potluck

Taste of Home Editors

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

For church dinners, family get-togethers, brunch with friends, your family 5 out of 5 stars.
18 of 38 people found this review helpful.

Any time I am required to take a dish for a potluck gathering, I call my mother for ideas. Now Taste of Home has given me a book full of eye-catching choices with their "The New Potluck." (I still have to call my mother.)

This glossy-coated, sturdy book repeats the picture on the cover with its dust jacket. As is my preference, there is a picture with every recipe. The layout on each page is simple and easy on the eye with lots of white space for writing notes (if you like to mark in your books). Did this recipe work for me? Was it fabulous or so-so? Did I double it? And so on.

Cookbook editors organize their books in various ways: by types of dishes, by types of meals, by gatherings. "A New Potluck" is arranged by topics, including Crowd-pleasing specialties, Slow cooker sensations, Fun finger foods, Dishes in a hurry, Breakfast buffets, One-dish wonders, and Festive Favorites.

Festive Favorites offers such fare as Easter Egg Bread, cooked with dyed eggs. Very fanciful! Or gorgeous Poinsettia Cookies or Daffodillies, refrigerated biscuit dough prepared to look like flowers with dilled cream cheese centers.

Dishes in a hurry contains Layered ham and spinach salad (I have always wanted this recipe), Italian meatball hoagies (yum), Shrimp appetizer spread (a full-page beauty), and a tomato-ey Southwestern Bean Soup.


In Crowd pleasing specialties, the recipe I most want to try is Ginger Iced Tea made with Ginger Ale. Others include Mango Nut Bread, Four Cheese Bow Ties (I am making this soon as it is my number one favorite choice in this book according to picture and ingredients), and Sunshine Chicken Wings (one of the best-looking wings recipes ever).

For the Breakfast Buffet there are all kinds of muffins and coffee cakes. What I look for is the real food: Sausage Hash Brown Bake, Cheesy Egg Puffs, Southwest Sausage Bake topped with sliced tomatoes, Ham and Cheese Strata, and French Toast Casserole.

The desserts are spread throughout the book. Here are a few for sweets lovers: Apple Cinnamon Turnovers, Blueberry Lattice Bars, Apple-Cherry Cobbler, Black Forest Crepes (yum), and Seven Fruit Salad.

The Oven Cheese Chowder looks wonderful. A quick and easy dish to prepare on a Friday night is the Taco Stovetop Supper. Or the Tomato Crouton Casserole. Or Nutty Broccoli Slaw, another fabulous salad one sees at Potlucks and doesn't know the recipe. Well, ha, now I do! How about Chive-Cheese Cornbread? And Spinach Phyllo Bundles?

When I first acquire a new cookbook, I sit down, look through every page and every recipe and mentally note what I want to try first. Then I go through again and carefully read the recipes, select a couple, and begin the process of preparing a new dish.

It's all potluck!

The Reach of a Chef: Professional Cooks in the Age of Celebrity

Michael Ruhlman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Fame, money and identity in the land of famous chefs 3 out of 5 stars.
20 of 25 people found this review helpful.

This summer I finally got around to reading Michael Ruhlman's books on the art of cooking, and those who seek to do it professionally. Now I have reached the third book, which expands upon the idea, and takes a deep look at how the recent culinary boom is affecting how all of us eat today.

Ruhlman looks at the current phenomena that surround cooking, one of the most mundane tasks around. These days, food is very big business indeed. Flip on the television and not only are there instructional shows on nearly every sort of cuisine and course, but competition shows where the content ranges from sublime to just plain stupid, reality shows that have a famous chef or two wandering the world in search of new tastes and cultures, or watching another famous chef come in and revamp a dying restaurant. If that's not enough, visit any retail store or megamart and you have various celebrities pimping -- I mean endorsing -- cutlery, cookware sets, books, spices and even processed foods. You can't escape it, and I suspect that the wave is only going to get bigger as time goes on.

This phenomena, known as 'branding' in the industry, is what makes chefs become super-famous and gets them rich. Most chefs can only dream of this, and most of them slave away in kitchens, working themselves into early retirement -- being a chef requires hard physical labour, and stamina, and most can't last beyond their fifties. It certainly has brought about changes in the American culinary scene, as Ruhlman shows in his book, increasing the average home cook's awareness of just what is good food, and the fact that yes, you can indeed do it at home.

Ruhlman focuses in on several chefs here, with Thomas Keller, Grant Achatz, Melissa Kelly, Emeril Lagasse, Rachael Ray, and a surprise that takes it all, and blows it right out of the water. Most of the stories here focus on how they turned into superstar chefs, and their struggle to get to the top. Some of these chefs don't give a damn about the stardom, they just want to do the very best that they can. Unfortunately, this can mean barely breaking even, as we see in the story of Melissa Kelly, and her struggle to provide organic food in its best form. Others have that entertainer quality that defies the odds, and turned them into mega-chefs, with very lucrative television shows, product lines and cookbooks.

It's here, I freely confess, that my natural tendency to sneer comes into play, and my hackles rose as I read. There's something in me that gets suspicious when someone gets fame, but they really don't have the talent or the training to back it up. I can respect Emeril even though his show makes me wince with the theatrical nature, he knows how to cook, he's worked the line and he knows what he's doing. True, it's entertainment at its most hokey at times, but he's done more to bring cooking back into the American household.

Then there's Rachael Ray. Ruhlman shows her meteoric rise from being a buyer for an Albany NY supermarket, her talent for selling something and the fact that in the space of a few short years, she has managed to make to the top. But -- and it's a glaring spot that those who have cooked professionally notice -- she's not a chef. Oh, she throws stuff into pans, and she opens cans and packages and has a line of cutlery and cookware, all in bright day-glo orange -- but there's something false underneath all that giggling, sweet-girl personality. Ruhlman tries to be objective in his depection of her, but there's a hint of infatuation there too, and it was this particular chapter that almost caused me to fling the book at the wall in disgust.

We follow along as Ruhlman describes restaurant openings, famous names, and finally, the restaurants that inhabit 10 Columbus Circle in New York City. Some of the biggest and best names in cooking have opened here, among them Thomas Keller's Per Se, where he's working hard to keep the perfection going that he made so famous with The French Laundry.

And then, I got the surprise, and it redeemed the book for me.

Beside Per Se there is a little sushi place. It's unremarkable, and the chef inside virtually unknown unless you have mega-bucks, and love Japanese food. Inside is Masayoshi Takayama. To dine there is an exercise in attention and the wonder of just how good very fine food can be. It's small, with ten seats at the hinoki wood sushi bar, and several tables beyond that. Expect to drop at least 350$US per person when you eat there. But what sets it all apart is this:

If Masa isn't there, the restaurant doesn't open for the day. Period. He doesn't write cookbooks. He doesn't sell knives. What he does is make food, exquisitely crafted mouthfuls that are presented with respect and all of the passion that he can muster.

And it's here that I found the deciding point. Sure, you can train others to fill in for you, you can open restaurants with your name on them across the country, do television, sell product, write cookbooks and make a bundle. But if your cooking lacks the urge to do the very best, it's going to show to the diner. Eventually you get lazy, sell out, let your ego rule, and down you go, propelled by hubris.

I'll be honest. I don't mind shelling out for a cookbook by a chef that I respect, or taking a hard look at a product that they suggest. And I'm willing to shell out big bucks for a really fantastic meal. Ruhlman carefully skates along that thin line between praise, and gushing, slipping a few times in places. After all, he is writing about his own bread and butter here. Despite his evocative writing, and breezy style, this book really bothered me in places. While he certainly tries to keep the feeling of his previous two books on chefs and fame going, this one didn't seize my imagination the way the other two did.

I'll leave it up to other readers to decide if they like it or not. I only found a few chapters of the book interesting, and it lacks the intensity of what it is to be a professional cook. It's a gossipy, name-dropping book, and frankly, it's a dud at the end, with the only exception being when he discusses Masa. Beyond that, I would suggest it only as a cautionary tale for those who want to be culinary stars, and what it really costs for that fame.

Somewhat recommended. Three stars.

Editorial Review:

The author of The Soul of a Chef looks at the new role of the chef in contemporary culture

For his previous explorations into the restaurant kitchen and the men and women who call it home, Michael Ruhlman has been described by Anthony Bourdain as “the greatest living writer on the subject of chefs—and on the business of preparing food.” In The Reach of a Chef, Ruhlman examines the profound shift in American culture that has raised restaurant cooking to the level of performance art and the status of the chef to celebrity CEO. Bibliophiles and foodies alike will savor this intimate meeting with some of the most famous chefs in the kitchens of the hottest restaurants in the world.

Zagat 2007/08 Chicago Restaurants: Including Milwaukee

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

great buy! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I've been living in Chicago for a year and a half. Before buying this guide I used to go to expensive and not so good restaurants and I was always complaining about it. After buying this guide I found out some amazing places at reasonable prices. Worth every penny!

Comprehensive and Reliable... 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I think these make the perfect gift to anyone relocating to a 'Zagat City'. I really like how the editors construct the descriptions by combining actual reviewer quotes submitted in their survey process. Main restaurant listing is alphabetical, but includes seperate lists by location, cuisine, special features, etc.

If anything, buy one just to sit on your coffee table.

Editorial Review:

Chicago Restaurants covers over 1,100 restaurants in and around Chicago, plus Milwaukee. This handy guide contains Zagat Survey's trusted ratings and reviews for area restaurants based on the opinions of diners like you. The trademark reviews and corresponding ratings for Food, Décor, Service and Cost are organized alphabetically in a user-friendly format. Use the indexes arranged by cuisine, neighborhood and special features like "In" Places, Winning Wine Lists, or Romantic Places to find the perfect restaurant for any occasion.

Moosewood Restaurant Cooks for a Crowd: Recipes With a Vegetarian Emphasis for 24 or More

The Moosewood Collective

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Worthwhile Investment 4 out of 5 stars.
16 of 16 people found this review helpful.

I originally bought this book for the kitchen at our organic farm, where we regularly feed >15 people a day. After reading it myself, I wanted a copy for home too. Anyone who's vegetarian will need to cook in quantity at some point (dinner parties, etc.), and this book makes it easy to do so. No more multiplying like crazy and ending up with haphazard results. I also liked that the ingredients were given by weight, which makes it much easier to measure out.

Editorial Review:

For over 30 years, the chefs at Moosewood Restaurant have mastered the art of preparing enticing vegetarian and ethnic cuisine for hungry crowds. Here they share recipes for more than 250 of their most requested dishes, from stews, pastries, and pasta dishes to festive holiday fare, all meant to feed groups of 24 or more. The book also features a helpful guide to menu planning, a guide to ingredients, and a nutritional analysis for each recipe, ensuring that both veteran and beginner cooks can prepare these delicious recipes with ease and flair. Recipes include:

• Budapest Vegetable Soup
• Thai Noodle Salad
• Tofu "Meatloaf" with Mushroom Gravy
• Black Bean-Sweet Potato Burritos
• Peach Chutney
• Coconut Pound Cake

Heart and Soul

Kylie Kwong

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Not What I Expected 3 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I was hoping for a book more based on Kylie's TV show. The ingredients in this books were too exotic. I want to be able to find most of the ingredients in our local supermarket. I ended up returning the book because I couldn't find one recipe I would even try.

I Love This Cookbook 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I love Kylie Kwong and this cookbook is one of my favorites. Her global Asian approach to food preparation has taken my cooking to a whole new level. I have introduced products that were unfamiliar to me like Chinese Red and Black Vinegars, Palm Sugar, Kecap Manis and Chinese Cooking Wine, to my existing recipes which has taken my dishes to a whole new level. I love the direction my food has taken!!!! This is a great book.

Editorial Review:

Australian-Chinese chef Kylie Kwong shares recipes for the dishes she most loves to cook-whether for a simple supper of Hokkien noodles, a family celebration in her own home or a glamorous cocktail party. She branches out from her Chinese culinary heritage to explore the cuisines of Europe, the Mediterranean and North Africa. With the emphasis on intensity of flavour and using the finest produce, she creates mouth-watering dishes with inspired combinations of Western ingredients and Eastern techniques. From a fresh take on Chinese-restaurant classics to treasured family favourites, this is food to be shared and enjoyed.