5 comments about Made in Italy: Food and Stories.

1. I'm a cook who studied and worked in Italy. Therefore, I can tell you it is very difficult to find a cookbook that conveys the emotion, passion and devotion the Italians have for their cuisine(s), even in Italy. Therefore, the arrival of Giorgio Locatelli's book on American shores is an event to be celebrated.
   Chef Giorgio does a fantastic job describing ingredients and recipes and includes histories and anecdotes from his own life, making this book more than just a cookbook; it is a rare gem. It is a gift from a celebrated Italian chef who evokes the experiences of Italian food just as his countrymen (and women) see it, taste it, smell it, eat it, live it, and, more importantly, share it.
   Although many recipes are restaurant-grade and can seem intimidating to the amateur cook, there are so many more dishes any experienced home cook can make at home. Plus, Chef Giorgio speaks to the reader with enough confidence so as to make the most intricate dishes "do-able" in your own home kitchen.
   Made In Italy also reads like a wonderful tale and you will spend lots of time reading it on your couch in between selecting which recipes to make. You will really start to relate to the chef as well as to the ingredients he writes at length about.
   By far, this book, along with Gillian Riley's Oxford Companion to Italian Food AND the classic The Silver Spoon are must-haves for any true Italian cook - amateur or professional. If you're new to cooking Italian food or cooking in general, I suggest you get all three books. Start cooking with The Silver Spoon (just like many Italian brides and young Italian professionals have), graduate up to Made In Italy, and always refer to the Oxford Companion!
   Remember, Italian cuisine is a style, not a technique!



2. I purchased this book for my sister-in-law for Christmas. We lived in London for a while and are familiar with Locanda Locatelli, the author's restaurant, and my brother and sis-in-law love Italy and the food, so this was thought to be a good fit. I read through the book before I wrapped it, and I was amazed at how comprehensive it is. There are wonderful stories and all kinds of insight into details of individual ingredients. It is absorbing and I could easily get lost in it, even before thinking about trying some recipes. I think if you are looking for the answer to any Italian food/ingredient/method question, it has got to be in here!



3. If you love food, and the preparation and appreciation of all that goes into it, you will like this book. There are gorgeous photos in it that make the mouth water. And empathetic photos of the people who love to create good food. Locatelli's descriptions of his beginnings as a chef, and the trials and tribulations that made him the outstanding chef that he is, are informative and touching. He pulls the reader into that "conviviality" that makes a great restaurant, and makes us appreciate the love and attention that creates a great meal. I have yet to try out the recipes, but they look doable and delicious. These won't be your quickie meals, but they look like recipes you will enjoy making and savoring.



4. If you are interested in Italian cooking there are simpler books out there. This book is too advanced. The recipes are not accessable, at least to me. I have many other Italian cookbooks and the recipes in those are generally very simple. I have not had any success with this book.



5. I really love this book. I have watched the tv show with Tony and Giorgio on BBC food. Giorgio have collected the heart and soul of Italian cooking in this book. I would recommend it to all who like the Italian cusine.
   It has small lite dishes to the more complex dinner partys. For all who love great food this is a must.
   
   Ciao from The Norwegian Cook.

5 comments about The Pressure Cooker Gourmet: 225 Recipes for Great-Tasting, Long-Simmered Flavors in Just Minutes.

1. I believe a good cookbook should have photo for each recipe it covers to prove the author successfully made them. Besides, the photos make the book attractive. I ordered this book on line; therefore, I could not browse the content. When I received it, I realized it did not have any picture at all.
   
   I tried to make a soup dish once with the pressure cooker but I did not like the taste. I've been using a slow cooker for more than a month now. The taste of the food is good. I find it's more convenient because it automatically turns itself off after it reaches the time set by me. It's also safer because it does not create high pressure inside the pot. Oh, and the price of the slow cooker is much cheapper. I gave this book to my friend.



2. They have many nice receipes if you like fancy receipes with many different "hard to find" spices, etc. I like the simple life, and don't need fancy french dishes to make me happy.



3. I read some other reviews that complained about this, that or another thing regarding this book. The old saying "You can't please everyone" is true, and this book is no exception. There are lots of good recipes, suited to a variety of palates. If you disagree with a particular recommendation (a precedure, time or temperature/pressure for example), then adapt the recipe to your liking. I purchased this at a bookstore after skimming the pages to see if it was a book I'd want to own. I wouldn't have spent the money if I didn't think it was worth it.



4. Book just arrived and I have only made one dish so far and it was phenomenal..I can't wait to try more of these recipes! I rated this only 4 stars because some of the liquid measurements, cooking time, etc. seemed way way off. I made the Bolognese sauce and it was the BEST I have ever tasted! fyi, I have never made a Bolognese sauce before but have tasted it many times in restaurants. Nor did I think it would be something I would make; I just happened to have all the ingredients in my pantry and went with it.
   
   When I saw the amount of liquid the 2 cans of diced tomatoes provided I just knew an hour's cooking time would turn this to tar. So I added a 15 oz can of tomato sauce which made the sauce so much richer anyway, and after 35 mins my husband said "NOW, I have to eat NOW" (it smelled SO good), so I stopped. Good thing too, as even with the extra liquid of the tomato sauce it was almost burnt; a minute more and it would have been inedible. I had my pressure cooker on low too, but do not own the burner plate the author recommends using. But even with one I would still add the tomato sauce and cook only 30-45 mins.
   
   The only reason I can see to cook it a full hour would be to melt the carrots, celery and onion into the sauce. In the future I will mince the veggies VERY FINELY (or use my mini-chopper to pulverize them before sauteeing) so that I can cook this dish faster. I also added cream instead of milk at the end, but just eyeballed it, maybe 1/4 cup. We both ate huge bowls of pasta and sauce and kept oohing and aahing.
   
   I got this book because I was tired of cooking the same 3-4 dishes in my pressure cooker and needed more variety and wanted a more up to date recipe book...I would buy this book just for the Bolognese sauce recipe alone! But be aware that you should follow your gut (excuse the pun) and add more liquid if necessary or keep checking to see that it's not burning.



5. Kuhn Rikon Duromatic Top Pressure Cooker, 5-Quart
   I bought this book to accompany my new Kuhn Rikon pressure cooker. It is very thorough, explains how the pressure cooker works, and is gradually helping me to get through my "beans on the ceiling" fears.

5 comments about More from the Gluten-free Gourmet: Delicious Dining Without Wheat.

1. After going gluten free a year ago, I thought I'd never bake anything good again. But this book and its predecessor, The Gluten-free Gourmet, changed my mind! Because I'm also sugar free, baking is an extra large challenge. But these recipes along with xylitol sweetener have gotten me back in business. What a great find! Thanks, Bette!



2. Thanks to Bette Hagman's clearly written, informative cookbooks, it is very easy to enjoy a gluten/wheat free lifestyle. This book is not only power packed with excellent recipes, but with tips on maintaining a gluten free lifestyle.
   
   It makes me think of the spiritual, "Free At Last." A modified version for the Hagman books could be "Wheat free at last, wheat free at last..."
   
   Thank you, Bette Hagman!



3. I purchased this cook book as a gift for a friend who is restricted to a gluten-free diet. She is a fabulous cook and it has been a challenge finding creative ways to cook on her now, three year wheat-free diet. The cook book is a hit! JC is having a terrific time trying new gluten free recipes and her family has been the recipient of several gourmet meals found in the Gluten-Free Gourmet. The family is amazed how tasteful the meals are and the cook book has been an inspiration to them all. They often shop for gluten free products to be served up by their favorite gourmet cook, JC! A good find and a great gift. CJ



4. We haven't had a "wheat substitute" aftertaste from Bette Hagman's recipes. Her books are the gold standard in living with wheat/gluten sensitivity, and she doesn't use just one substitute flour mix. Also she educates on Celiac disease and issues around wheat sensitivity that impresses my wife, who is an RN. My favorite RN states that Bette Hagman has done more for wheat sufferers than anyone else she knows of, medical or laymen.



5. Very simple and easy to follow recipes for the beginner to understand. Thanks for the great book!

3 comments about Nobu West.

1. I don't really read cookbooks. I don't believe all the great words on the back cover and flyleaf about how wonderful this cook is. Instead I start by scanning the table of contents. And in this book, the top item on the second column is Nobu-Style Paella. Hold On! This is a Japanese cookbook. Paella is a traditional Spanish dish, and one of my favorites. So I had to look. Now I've go to try it.
   
   One problem with esoteric cookbooks is that they often have esoteric ingredients that you can't get in my little town. The Paella recipie calls for Dashi, a soup base made from konbu and bonito flakes. A quick scan on the computer and behold, Amazon, in their Gourmet Foods section sells both of these. So I'll be trying this one day soon.
   
   Then I find Ice Cream Tempura - two good things that have to be better together. And this book has a section on coctails. I have my own recipies for things like Martini's, Cosmopolitians, etc. But I'm always open to suggestions. How about a Lychee Martini?
   
   All in all, several new things to try and what more could you ask of a cookbook.



2. We all knew that Nobu Matsuhisa is a great cook, but the way he combined the west cooking with the east and his influences from Peru is just grandious.
   
   I would consider the best book I bought in years. Simple to follow, extremely well documented and the pictures are just marvelous.
   
   For an amateur like me, an excellent purchase to explore further the pleasures of life.



3. The book has a good presentation but is almost impossible to find the ingredients to do the dishes

5 comments about Le Bernardin Cookbook: Four-Star Simplicity.

1. `Le Bernardin Cookbook' by highly regarded seafood chef Eric Ripert and restaurateur Maguy Le Coze (cofounder of the restaurant with her brother Gilbert) is the first case where I wished I could give a half a star. In many ways, it is a classic restaurant cookbook which is better than average in many ways, but I usually need a little more than `better than average' to give five stars. In comparison to Rob Feenie's `Lumiere' cookbook I reviewed yesterday, `Le Bernardin' exceeds expectations in the following ways:
   
   It is almost entirely a cookbook for all sorts of fish, based primarily on classic French recipes. This means that if you had a shelf of 100 famous restaurant cookbooks and wanted a recipe for fish, you could immediately go to either this book or Bob Kinkead's recent restaurant book, depending on whether you wanted something from Brittany or Baltimore. Oddly, this book also shares with the Kinkead book the fact that at least one recipe author (Bob Kinkead and Gilbert Le Coze) for each book was entirely self-taught.
   
   The story behind this book is about as endearing and as interesting as they come. `Le Bernardin' was originally opened in Paris by brother and sister Le Coze in 1972, after the siblings spend their early life together helping their parents run a struggling little restaurant on the coast of Brittany. After an initial splash and failure based on no experience, they ultimately succeeded in Paris. They followed this with opening the Manhattan restaurant in 1986, just as culinary consciousness in New York made it worth their while to open a restaurant which specialized in fish. All of this would be very ordinary if it were not for the incredible affection brother and sister had for one another, ended with the death of Gilbert at the age of forty-eight in 1994, just a year or two after hiring classically trained Eric Rippert as executive chef at the Manhattan restaurant.
   
   The recipes, many the creation of unschooled Gilbert, tend to be much more original than what you may find in the standard fish cookbooks by Mark Bittman, James Beard, and Alan Davidson. None of the classic bistro recipes for mussels (which you will find in Tony Bourdain's `Les Halles' book) are here. While some tend to the involved, fish recipes tend to be involved primarily in the preparation of stocks, nages, butter sauces and court bouillons. If you get the techniques for doing these things well, many of the recipes devolve into very simple preparations, befitting the generally fast cooking times for fish.
   
   Each recipe has a separate headnote from each author, and the counterpoint between them is almost worth the price of the book in itself. It is not uncommon for Madame Le Coze to really hate a recipe that Monsieur Rippert has just praised up and down the avenue. She usually comes around in the end, but the honesty is so unexpected that you start looking forward to contretemps in the next recipe dialogue.
   
   The recipes are organized in a very satisfactory way for a restaurant book on fish. The first chapter is an especially good collection of recipes for the basics. These are for the stocks, nages, butter sauces and court bouillons cited above. This is one of the few cookbooks I can thing of which includes a shrimp, lobster, and clam stock recipe. And, near and dear to my heart is the fact that the chicken stock recipe cooks for only three hours! The following eight chapters on fish dishes is just a little mixed, in that two chapters represent courses, `Salads' and `Appetizers' while six chapters represent the techniques `Raw Fish', `Poached and Steamed Fish', `Sautéed Fish', `Roasted Fish', `Grilled Fish', and `Shellfish'. The penultimate chapter on `Big Parties' gives seven over the top recipes for entertaining, most giving eight servings rather than the usual four to six servings. The last chapter on desserts seems relatively long, giving 31 recipes, including three for basics such as pastry cream, hazelnut-almond cream, ganache, and sweet pastry dough. With all the pastry books available, you will not be buying this book for the desserts, but it does add to the book's value. As usual, some of the dessert recipes are quite involved.
   
   There are no chapters or separate recipes for vegetables, as all the vegetable side dishes are included in the recipe for the seafood. This means many of the fish recipes may not be as complicated as they seem from their length if you removed the vegetable garnish, but that would take away the cachet of serving a dish as done at the great and famous Le Bernardin!
   
   Ultimately, this book deserves more than four stars because it is a restaurant cookbook that is more valuable than a source of instructive recipes to read. It has lots of great fish recipes that can be made by an amateur at home, as long as you have access to high quality ingredients. My only disappointment in reading the book is the feeling that there is simply no way I would be able to get the kind of fresh fish used by Le Bernardin unless I opened a restaurant in an Atlantic seaport.
   
   The mantra for this book that should be intoned as you look for a recipe is to respect the differences between the fishes. Things that work for skate will not work for tuna and vice versa. Respect the fish and you will be rewarded.



2. A lovely book from one of our favorite New York restaurants. The recipes are flavorful and delicious.



3. If you have a large kitchen staff in your home, or 2-3 days to prepare a meal this is the book for you. The recipes are impractical for anyone at home and I don't understand why they would make a cookbook with such lengthy and involved directions and call it four star "simplicity"



4. The recipes of the best seafood chef in the U.S.
   Great food, very hard recipes.



5. Hello everybody,
   here two lines about this book, too much housewife focused, i was expecting some good tips or any suggestion that can be implemented in a professional environment. Maybe could help if you can highlight clearly the target of clientele.

5 comments about The Gourmet Toaster Oven: Simple And Sophisticated Meals for the Busy Cook.

1. As an empty nester and avid cook, this book is perfect. Very tasty recipes without making huge quantities. The author has done her research and deserves credit for filling a rare niche
   in this cookbook category. Shhh, don't tell my away-at-college children, but they will be receiving a copy of this book along with a nice toaster oven for Christmas. This is a cookbook everyone could use for fresh ideas, from Anzacs to Yogurt Baked Chicken with wine pairings suggested for many dishes. I wish I had thought of it first.



2. I love using my toaster oven to make things, and was extremely excited about this book. But I'm a visual person and it's hard to be motivated to try out these recipes because most of them do not have photos. So if you like to see what you're about to make, I don't recommend this cookbook.



3. Excellent set of sophisticated recipes downsized for small servings & simple execution. If you take the next year to practice each recipe you'll be well on your way to gourmet-hood! For example: Authentic English "High tea" scones.



4. "Gourmet" and "Toaster Oven" in the same title? You bet! I usually don't review cookbooks unless I feel they are special enough to encourage others to purchase them, and this one I recommend highly.
   
   My family has downsized but my cooking enthusiasm has not and I am entertaining more often but with smaller guest lists. Heating up a gas oven for a small quiche to feed four seems a waste of energy (the planet's and my own) and time (my large toaster oven takes four minutes to reach 400 degrees: my oven, almost 15.) Also, with most recipes in the book serving 2-4, there is not the problem of reducing larger recipes and the resulting dreaded calculations. Quality ingredients well combined and engagingly presented replace long grocery lists and too many leftovers for a small family, singles, empty-nesters and the diet conscious (I mean, who of us really wants that chocolate cheesecake that serves 8 sitting temptingly in the 'frige after a dinner for 2-4?!)
   
   The book itself is a quality paperback, large enough for lovely photos, a brief description of the recipe and suggestions, as well as print that is easy to read.
   
   Well organized, with a good index, the book is divided into five sections, (as well as an informative description of toaster ovens and their features) which makes finding a recipe quick and easy. And, sit down for this, there are even wine suggestions for many of recipes...from toaster-oven cooking! Too cool.
   
   The recipe chapters are: Breakfast, Lunch, Appetizers and Sides, Dinner and Tea and Goodies. Short lists of commonly available ingredients make it easy to take a basic recipe and imagine many substitutions for variety and what is available in your larder.
   
   The Herbed Oven-Fried Chicken, Quiche Lorraine, Artisan Whole Wheat-Walnut Loaf, Banana-Walnut Muffins, Savory Cheesecakes (yup, that's what I said), Turkey, Tarragon, and Apple Meatloaf, Chocolate Lava Cakes...if I have to pick "favorites" these are just super. Yes, you can probably find similar recipes in your cookbook collection, but again, you don't have to do the arithmetic. I guarantee that no one will associate that toaster oven sitting innocently on your kitchen counter as the source of these lovely dishes. And you don't have to tell them, you know.
   
   Of course, you will have to re-think baking pans, casserole dishes, etc. for these smaller amounts, but I have found some lovely and very useful such items on sale in most all places that carry cookware. Besides, if you are a true "foodie" imagine how happy your friends and relatives will be to have something new to give you for birthdays and holidays! And, think of all the room you can free up in your kitchen (large baking pans and huge casseroles can be stored under the bed with those "extra cookbooks"...well, it works for me!)



5. I received the book yesterday and must say I am disappointed. Many of the recipes are not very specific regarding amounts, weights, etc., something that should be basic information available in every cookbook. For instance, the author writes about baking a chicken, to cut a chicken in half (or quarters), to bake it, but as everyone knows chickens can range from 3 to 5 or 6 pounds or more. So which it is? This might not be critical information for a conventional oven but is crucial for the small size of a toaster oven. There are too many dessert recipes, in my opinion. Overall, I find this book to be very amateurish and a very disappointing purchase for me, as an avid cookbook collector and experienced cook.

5 comments about The Gourmet Cookbook: More than 1000 recipes.

1. Gourmet's cookbook is a must have for any collection. The range of recipes is incredible and includes everything from the basics to full 'gourmet' meals. The format makes it easy to find what you want to inspire you, and the stories on where each recipes came from make it feel very personal. With so many recipes, you should never run out of ideas on what to make for dinner!



2. I received this book for Christmas of 2006 from my father, who knows about my love of cooking. I'm not a pro by any means, but I do ok. The book is organized well and covers all the standard topics from meats to grains to desserts and soups and salads. After living with it for a year, I've tried probably 30 of the recipes inside it, and they were all tasty and fairly easy to prepare.
   
   My main complaints are these: the ingredients are often "upscale," such as sirloin tip for beef stroganoff and obscure peppers for southwest dishes. This makes the average meal cost about $25 instead of $10-15. Also the ingredients seem to be east-coast based. The seafood section is pretty much entirely made up of east coast fishes that are simply not available here in Vancouver, BC. Highly disappointing. There are also many quite advanced recipes that I haven't tried because they seem to be too daunting or too much work for the payoff.
   
   If you're into gourmet style cooking though and some impress-your-friends recipes, this book is good for you!



3. Sure many of the recipes require exotic and sometimes expensive ingredients, and every spice known to man, but that is the level of cooking I enjoy. Everything I've tried has been wonderful. Highly recommended.



4. I was concerned when I read the complaints about the yellow type in the book. Oh no - I've wasted all that money.
   
   Oh no! No I didn't waste anything except the time it took me to finally get to this cookbook. The gold/yellow type that is in the book did not phase me. I had no problems reading it. Years of searching for the best recipes paid off for the authors. I have yet to make a recipe from this book that didn't get terrific reviews from my fiance' for whom I cook. Nearly any recipe you would want you'll find in this book. True gormet taste without needing culinary school gormet skills. Mmm...great stuff.



5. A co-worker friend shared this book with me, and I had to get a copy for myself. Great information on techniques, types of food & ingredients, etc. The authors really tried to include every type of recipe and ethnic variety. It's big and bulky, but what a resource. I know this cookbook will be referred to for many years--I love it.

5 comments about The Escoffier Cookbook and Guide to the Fine Art of Cookery: For Connoisseurs, Chefs, Epicures Complete With 2973 Recipes.

1. "The Escoffier Cookbook" is a heavily abridged American version of Auguste Escoffier's 1903 book "Guide Culinaire". It is a fascinating look at the art of professional European cookery at the beginning of the 20th century.
   
   However, to appreciate this book fully, it's important to understand exactly who it was written for. Escoffier's original guide was never for a second intended for the home cook. Escoffier was a pioneer with respect to the education of professional chefs, and originally wrote this book for the use of those working in grand houses, in hotels, on ocean liners, and in restaurants who might not have had access to contemporary recipes. Accordingly, the original book does not attempt to teach basic cooking or food preparation techniques. The American translation does include some details on cooking techniques and utensils unfamiliar to the average American chef (such as poeleing, worth the cost of the book alone, and the old French form of braising), but even in the translation it is assumed that the reader is a trained, experienced chef.
   
   The recipes themselves are clear and simple to follow, but represent only a small subset of French cooking of the early 20th century. An earlier reviewer mentioned that there was no recipe for onion soup; this is true, but it should be understood that onion soup would never have been accepted by the class of restaurant patron Escoffier cooked for. Much of what has arrived on this side of the Atlantic as "French cooking" - dishes such as pot-au-feu, onion soup, and steak frites - is distinctly middle-class, and consequently would have been rejected by the clientele of quality restaurants of the time as being unspeakably boorish. Escoffier personally enjoyed bourgeois cooking, but as an astute, intelligent businessman he provided the haute cuisine his clients demanded.
   
   One interesting difference between modern cooking and the cooking featured in this book is that Escoffier uses few spices, and indeed declaims on the foolishness of using large amounts of spices in meat dishes. This appears bizarre from our vantage point, but Escoffier had sound economic reasons for his proscriptions. Most diners of the time grew up in the days before refrigeration, when old deteriorating meat was heavily spiced to make it palatable. Fresh, unspiced meat was a sign of the highest quality. The association between strong spices and poor quality was powerful enough to survive long into the 20th century, as any reader of a 1950s American cookbook can attest.
   
   As for the recipes themselves, I doubt that many of them could be prepared by the North American home cook. Most of us cannot afford (if we can even find) foie gras, truffles, or capons, and few have espagnole sauce or fish fumet available at all times. However, many recipes can be adapted for the modern cook - using cepes or porcini mushrooms for truffles, for instance - and those that can be prepared really are delicious.



2. `The Escoffier Cookbook' is an English translation of the `Guide Culinaire' by the renowned French chef, Auguste Escoffier, the most important figure in modern professional French culinary practice. One may argue that Antonin Careme is more important simply because Careme influenced Escoffier and write many books on culinary technique, but I suspect every culinary professional reads Escoffier today and few outside academic circles read Careme's original works.
   
   One of the most reliable symptoms of Escoffier's importance can be found in the first essay of Michael Ruhlman's `The Soul of a Chef' dealing with the Certified Master Chef examination given at the Culinary Institute of America. Whenever the candidates were presented with a problem in an unfamiliar area and had the night to consider the problem, they consulted Escoffier for their preparation. This is because most of the situations in the problems came straight from the practice defined by Escoffier a 100 years ago.
   
   For these and many more reasons, this book is THE standard by which all French culinary issues should be judged. Therefore, my review is less on why this is a good book and more on why you should pay attention to it if you are serious about cooking.
   
   For starters, this 920 page book with 2,973 recipes lists for about $20. Admittedly, the text describing many of those recipes is pretty terse, being based on techniques from one or more earlier recipes. Therefore, you must be committed to really getting involved with this book and mining it for its riches rather than expecting to make a quick search for a particular recipe you can copy or scan at the library on the way home. Of course, if you are already a fairly experienced chef, many of the recipes suggestions are all you need to follow up with a good improvisation based on techniques at your fingertips.
   
   The very first thing you learn from this book is that professional French culinary doctrine was concerned about lightness, using fresh ingredients, and eliminating excess fat a century ago. This is not an invention of modern nutritionists and Alice Waters. The next most important lesson is less surprising. This is the importance of sauces in French cuisine and therefore, the importance of stocks, fonds, consommés, essences, and glazes. James Peterson's great book, `Sauces' may be just a bit more accessible to modern readers, but this is the book from which he got all his material. Stocks, sauces, and many other basics are covered in `Part I Fundamental Elements of Cooking'. These 135 pages should be read from front to back by anyone who is remotely serious in doing good cooking and adapting the ability to improvise with food.
   
   Readers like myself who are impressed by Alton Brown's footwork with details about cooking technique will be happy to discover that the French like Escoffier knew a thing or two about careful observation and measuring, as when Escoffier discusses temperatures of various frying media such as butter, various animal fats, and vegetable oils.
   
   Next comes `Part II Recipes and Methods of Procedure', organized by how various dishes typically appear on standard menus. This means chapters on:
   
   Appetizers
   Eggs
   Soups
   Fish and Seafood
   Releves and Entrees of Meats
   Poultry and Game
   Roasts and Salads
   Vegetables and Starchy Foods
   Appetizers and Snacks
   Desserts and Sweets
   
   A quick look at the egg chapter shows 192 egg recipes, almost as many as in my favorite book dedicated entirely to egg recipes. There are 22 recipes dedicated entirely to poaching. These counts just suggest the depth to which Escoffier covers this subject, as many recipes will refer to one or more recipes in other parts of the book, as we find for `Careme Hard-Boiled Eggs' which involve a timbale crust and a Nantua sauce from other chapters. One small symptom of how `modern' Escoffier is with his recipes is in his recipe for scrambled eggs. Many authorities, including James Beard, will insist on scrambled eggs being done in a water bath (bain-marie). Escoffier allows that it can be done on direct heat, as long as the cook is especially careful with using only moderate heat.
   
   One thing you may have noticed from some of my quotes is that you will need or expect to acquire knowledge of basic French cooking terms to understand this book, even in this excellent English translation. Learning the term `releves' will take you deep into the history of French cuisine and how that contrasts with the Russian style of service popularized in France by Antonin Careme. The Russian style of one course following another became so popular that today we are inclined to think that is a French invention. Not so! By the way, entrees are dishes based on tender cuts of meat and releves are braised, poached, or roasted dishes done with less tender cuts of meat. You will not be able to dip into a recipe at random in this book without a firm handle on terms such as poach, braise, sautee, croquette, blanch, julienne, and several other terms.
   
   This is the one book I believe a food lover should unequivocally have on their bookshelves. Cook all you want from Saint Julia's `Mastering the Art of French Cooking', but come to Escoffier to really understand the underpinnings of French culinary practice.



3. Fantastic! A "must read" for ANY chef or "want-to-be chef"! Highly recommended! This is the Bible of the culinary world! Don't even go into a kitchen without reading and memorizing Esccoffier First!



4. The English language version of the Escoffier Cookbook appears to be a literal translation from the French and is sometimes difficult to understand due to long and sometimes awkward sentence structure. The recipes for French cooking foundations (consommes)are clearly, if not begrudgingly offered for the benefit of the uninitiated. In a different time, this would be a handy tome for learning the detailed art of French cooking. Unfortunately, work and other life priorities keeps me from enjoying this book as it was intended to be appoached; that is, as a singular focus borne of culinary passion. I would recommend this book to those who have the requisite time and resources (e.g. shin of older beef) readily available to them. Otherwise, I have a newfound appreciation for the art of French cooking and will make it a priority to at least try a few haute French restaurants near me. While I don't believe the brasserie can ever be replaced, the classic "high French" repertoire clearly deserves respect. Escoffier, the cuisine's devoted representative, merits equal treatment. Proceed with caution, but proceed if you dare. This book likely holds many secrets to culinary joy.



5. This book is great for the foodie that enjoys reading about cooking and recipes. I have my book marked and tagged thruout with notes on techniques etc. A great reference book and just fun to read. Some of the recipes are a kick to read and hopefully someday I'll beable to try them all, or at least more of them..... I highly recommend this book for the true foodie.

5 comments about The Raw Gourmet.

1. The Raw Gourmet
   
   Excellent book. Completely lived up to its reputation. Perhaps the definitive book on the subject of raw food.
   
   Noel Wicks



2. This seems like a great book, but, very time consuming. Also, I live in the outback and its difficult to find some of the ingredients. One thing that was confusing was on page 200 it explains foods that shouldn't be eaten together, such as oranges and dates...yet, on page 186 there is a recipe for Orange-Date Dessert Bars. Go figure.



3. I am new to raw food. I'm only 1 month in but man I am having one heck of a month.
   
   Everything I have tried from this cookbook has been nutritious, fun and full o' flavor. I am floored by how tasty, light and easy these recipes are...the sunflower seed pate and the mexicali corn salad are heavenly. I have yet to have an unsatisfying meal.
   
   One of the things I enjoy about this book is that it doesn't require tons of (obscure) ingredients to make a great tasting dish.
   
   The book is also full on helpful information regarding what to do and what not to do - food preparation, storage, grains, sprouting, food combining, etc. The thing is most of the information is found within the recipes not in one specific section of the book but that's not a problem.
   
   Wouldn't trade the book for another and will certainly be using it frequently.



4. Great raw food recipe book. The photos are awesome. A beginner raw foodist will enjoy this book.



5. It's not a bad book and in general the ingredients are readily available, but the recipies are pretty simple and sometimes plain. Not really Gourmet at all. If you already have lots of raw books, this is good to add to your collection, but try some others first if you are just getting started.

5 comments about The Gluten-free Gourmet, Second Edition: Living Well Without Wheat (Owl Books).

1. We love Bette Hagman's cookbooks. My mom bought her first one years ago, and it made a huge difference in the quality of her recipes. When I want a new cookbook for gluten free foods, I look for Bette's offerings first.



2. Bette Hagman is a pioneer and has performed a great service to those who are diagnosed with celiac disease, and nobody can take that away from her. Unfortunately, she's not much of a baker if this book is any indication. If you are unable to eat wheat, then this isn't a bad place to start. You can make better GF baked goods than you can buy simply by following her recipes to the letter, and if you have no desire to do more than that, then by all means buy this book.
   
   BUT, there are problems with many of the recipes in this book. They are inconsistent. So much so that I wonder if she's even tried them all. Then there are telling errors that make one wonder whether she truly understands what she'd doing.
   
   For example:
   
   Everyone's favorite (and mine too), the Yeast-Rising Thick Pizza Crust has 4 cups of various flours and 1 tsp of salt. Result: fairly flat (I double the salt). However, the thin crusts on the previous 2 pages have 1 cup of flours and call for the same 1 tsp of salt, the equivalent of quadrupling the salt on the yeast crust. Result: a salty crust made edible only by diluting the salt with the toppings.
   
   All of the breads that I've tried are flat. She tends to use 1/4 tsp of salt per cup of flour (including the yeast crust), which isn't enough, at least not for me. I like about 1/2 tsp per cup, or the bread has little taste.
   
   Then there are outright boneheaded things like my personal cookbook pet peeve: 3 tsp. The Challah recipe calls for 3 tsp of xanthan gum. And the muffins. Wow. She warns you not to overbeat your muffins! This is gluten-free flour! You can't overbeat it! The lack of basic food knowledge and kitchen arithmetic is depressing.
   
   The buttermilk biscuits are a mess. They're by no means a cut-out biscuit, they're drop biscuits. But even then they have nothing to hold them together and just crumble. You can't very well butter something that disintegrates when you look at it wrong.
   
   I try to always follow a recipe exactly the first time, just to see what I have to work with. I can't really do that with this book. The times I have, the results have gone from mediocre to disastrous.
   
   If you get (or have) this book, then if nothing else, remember 1/2 tsp salt per cup of flour, and everything will be so much better. If you have another GF cookbook and can wait, then rumor has it that Chef Richard Coppedge, Professor in Baking and Pastry Arts at the CIA, is going to publish a gluten-free cookbook sometime soon. The only thing I have to go on is the word of a current CIA student, but I hope it's true. I am personally looking forward to it, and will be getting it as soon as I see it.



3. We are seniors with a new diagnosis of gluten intolerance. Gotta learn to bake all over again. This book not only gives lots of good recipes, but talks about those strange ingredients and how to exchange them for something else, or for each other. Very helpful



4. This book has many recipes that are easy to follow. They are very good and help satisfy the longing for breads, etc. that people on non-gluten diets miss. Great book.



5. My daughtert was diagnosed with Celiacs Disease a few months ago and this book has been very helpful. She uses it quite frequently. She has her favorite recipes. Other recipes she hasn't cared for, but overall, very happy with the book.