5 comments about The Irish Pub Cookbook.

1. `The Irish Pub Cookbook' is the fourth Irish themed cookbook I have reviewed from Irish-American Margaret M. Johnson of New York. All four, including `The New Irish Table', `Irish Puddings, Tarts, Crumbles, and Fools', and `The Irish Heritage Cookbook' are of similar trade paperback format from Chronicle Books. They are also similar in that all seem to be collections of recipes from various culinary professionals in Ireland. They all also seem to repeat a lot of sidebar material, although I have yet to see any repeated recipes.
   
   To state a perfectly obvious fact, you probably only want to buy this book if you happen to want to cook recipes prepared at Irish pubs. That is, if you already own a fairly sizable collection of cookbooks, many of the recipes in this book will simply be variations on recipes you already have in either a standard book on Irish cooking or in books on Brasserie or Trattoria cooking. This premise, however, is no little recommendation. My personal experience of pub food in England, to which most of these recipes bear a strong resemblance, is that English speaking pubs offer a quality of food at least as good as their much more widely advertised French Brasserie and Italian Trattoria cousins. Like the famous Italian and French `bar food' recipes, these also have the virtue of being very fast to prepare. Either they cook very quickly or they can be cooked up ahead and reheated very quickly. The best model for Americans of pub / brasserie / trattoria food would be the kind of thing you will find at Chili's, Bennigan's, or Appleby's, except that my experience with the three European versions is that they tend to deal in less greasy and less cliched dishes.
   
   The seven recipe chapters are:
   
   Starters with 10 recipes with several based on seafood such as mussels, oysters, and salmon.
   Soups with 9 recipes emphasizing cream based soups, plus four recipes for homemade stocks.
   Salads with 9 recipes with lots of recipes using chicken, seafood, and cheese.
   Hot Pots, Meat Pies, and Savory Tarts (hot pots are rich, thick stews) with 12 recipes featuring pies, savory tarts, `Irish Stew', and brown soda bread.
   Meat and Potatoes with 12 recipes for, you guessed it, meat and potatoes, including pork (bacon and ham), lamb, fowl, and steaks.
   Seafood with 8 recipes featuring salmon, cod, haddock, and monkfish.
   Desserts with 11 recipes for cheesecakes, apple and pear cakes, puddings, mousses and pies.
   
   If your primary interest is Irish desserts, go for the author's, `Irish Puddings, Tarts, Crumbles, and Fools', although this book includes cheesecakes, which are not in the dessert book.
   
   Johnson certainly writes well about her recipes, although this may not be the best book for a green amateur, as there are few tips on techniques, although a fair knowledge of common kitchen techniques should be more than enough. I do tend to be just a little annoyed at Ms. Johnson's always citing Irish staples in her ingredients list such as `Kerrygold Irish Butter'. I feel that for a `comfort food book, it would have been better not to be expected to chase down a very specific, uncommon ingredient. The book also makes an important point that to the Irish, the pig is commonly divided into `ham' and `bacon'. This can easily be the source of the `Canadian bacon' label for smoked pork loin, as the Irish call everything not part of the rear leg ham to be `bacon'. While explaining this little bit of wisdom, the author seems to be not as clear as she could be in identifying exactly what kind of pork she means when she calls for `bacon'.
   
   A collection of Ms. Johnson's books will give you an excellent overview of contemporary Irish cooking and contemporary Irish hospitality, with a few insights into Irish culinary history. So, if all you want is the recipes, these books are quite good. If you want to go deeper into traditional cooking, start with `Irish Traditional Cooking' by leading Irish cooking school owner, Darina Allen and her husband's `The Ballymaloe Bread Book' by Tim Allen (not the comedian).



2. Photos by the author blend with food photos by Leigh Beish in a lovely book which arrived too late for St. Patrick's Day feature, but which deserves ongoing mention as an excellent focus on Irish pub cooking. If you've been to Ireland in the last twenty years, you'll know there's been many changes in the nature of pub grub: just look at the tomato tarts, ham and chicken pie, spinach salad with pears and other dishes you wouldn't have identified with Irish pub foods of the past. Recipes - and photos - come from some of the most celebrated pubs in Ireland and represent a fine cross-section of modern fare home cooks will find quite easy to follow.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



3. This is the perfect book for us to use when opening our pub. Excellent resource.



4. I really enjoy this book. I am by no means a cook and as a single male living on my own I don't really cook "real food" a lot. However, I find the recipes in this book not only easy to follow but really good. The soups are awesome, even if they sound bad at first, the stews are great and the book also gives a little bit of information on pubs in Ireland. There are a ton of recipes from fish to poultry and from salads to soups. I was even able to make the soda bread for my parents. Plus there are a bunch of recipes for various soda breads. This book is a great buy and totally worth your time.



5. Very good book if you want to make your cooking taste like an Irish pube.

5 comments about Lobscouse and Spotted Dog: Which It's a Gastronomic Companion to the Aubrey/Maturin Novels (Patrick O'Brian).

1. For anyone who didn't read this series or read it only casually, this probably wouldn't be terribly interesting. However, for someone (like my husband) who read and very much enjoyed the entire series, (even the last, unpublished #21)this helped to clarify the day to day routine of the life of a middle class sea captain. All I can say is thank goodness I wasn't their cook.



2. I haven't cooked anything from this cookbook yet. It's not exactly family dinner fare. But I've flipped through it enough to know that the writers have done a great deal of research into the food, on land and sea, in the times and places of the Aubry/Maturin novels. In several cases, they offer two recipes for one dish, one that tells how it would have been cooked in a ship's galley and one that tells how to cook it in a modern kitchen. My husband has read all of O'Brien's books and has looked through the cookbook to find many dishes he remembers from the books. They're all there. It was everything I hoped it would be. Now if I could just find a good reason to cook this stuff! :)



3. I made both of the title dishes (and many of the others)and all were great. The writing was both entertaining and informative. The recipe for Millers in Onion Sauce almost makes me willing to try rat for dinner.



4. Lobscouse and Spotted Dog is a lot of fun for those of us who are both fans of Nelson's navy, and part time chefs as well. I sometimes think that a historically accurate dish somehow transports us back to those swashbuckling days when men were men, and walking the plank was not measuring your new hardwood floor at home depot.
   The recipes are apparently accurate, and the comments are drole. And if you've got a little time on your hands, there's a theme party waiting for you to create. Get your pals to dress up like Horatio Hornblower and break out the Admiral's Flip. Then the neighbours'll have something to talk about, damn your eyes! Beat to quarters, if you please!



5. Lots of fun for cooks. A pleasure for readers of Patrick O'Brian's novel (so you can find out what "drowned baby" consists of).
   
   Highly recommended!

2 comments about Beyond Nose to Tail: More Omnivorous Recipes for the Adventurous Cook.

1. Fergus is at it again, writing another delightfully written and informative book about good honest food.
   
   I love the guy.



2. Although much more dessert and baking oriented than I would have liked, this book still deserves all your attention as it is the perfect complement to the first book. Most recipes are written in a delightfully humorous prose dusted here and there with a few opiniated, informative or funny comments. If you like no non-sense anti-diet be-happy food, this book if you.
   
   Among the great lessons from that book is what Henderson calls trotter gear wich is simply pre-cooked and debonned pig trotters in their cooking liquid. This can serve as the base of deliciously unctuous braises, stews or pies. I will now keep a few bags of 'trotter gear' in my freezer in the same way many keep veal stock.

4 comments about Breakfast, Lunch, Tea: The Many Little Meals of Rose Bakery.

1. I noticed the book Breakfast, Lunch, Tea by Rose Carrarini being mentioned in the Lifestyle magazine that came with Sunday The New York Times newspaper. The idea of little meals caught my eye. Over the years I have handpicked cookbooks into my small collection, but I'm constantly on the market for something that I might like or might not have imagined. The latter appeared in the form of this book. I ordered the book, opened it on a random page and - it took my breath away, literally, with its structure, beauty (needless to say - Phaidon press)and a promise of finer things, food included. I opened it on a back flap, which quoted Rose Carrarini saying "Life can be improved by great food." Oh yes - they are my kind of people! The Carrarinis prefer and prepare their food simple and natural, preferably, but not necessarily organic. They put vegetables above meat or fish with ambition to blur the line between home and restaurant cooking; they have put together menus, and based on them, a cookbook that is too filled even to be read in many sittings. Rather, it is to be enjoyed by tiny morsels that make your lunch, snack or day. A thousand thanks for this masterpiece!



2. What a charming and wonderful book this is! From the lemon, rice and polenta cake to the Pistachio cake using a bit of wheat flour and ground almonds and pistachios, to the Eccles Cakes (cookies that use pie dough as cases) filled with raisins, spices, lemon zest and brown sugar to the lamb shank with cumin, eggplant and chickpeas, it's all wonderful. I've tried several other recipes, and, although I've only had this book for a few months, it's covered with smudges and bent pages.
   
   I love this book!



3. This is a delightful book that operates on a number of levels. First the exquisite photographs capture the beauty of the mundane doings of the Rose Bakery. From the simplicity of a zested lemon to the ruddy faces of the apple suppliers to the delivery truck to the ooh so chic clientèle, the pictures transport the reader to this Paris cafe.
   
   Then there is the author's story, a tale of a woman who loves food and people. With no formal training and a belief in natural, fresh and unpretentious dishes, Rose Carranini built the wildly successful business. Her sense of purpose and commitment to quality and sustainability is impressive and her affection for her patrons is palpable.
   
   Finally, the recipes themselves are superb. Basically, there are two types of people: those who follow recipes to a tee and those who view recipes as a guide or starting point for their own creativity. The author advocates the flexible approach. She encourages the cooks to use their favorite ingredients and substitutions, cautioning that it is the method as opposed to the ingredients that is crucial to the ultimate success of the recipe. She correctly points out that cookie cutter results are impossible when using natural ingredients...the juiciness of a piece of fruit, the humidity,the weather, the rainfall or lack thereof, the temperature of the room all impact the final result. The amateur cook should not be deterred. While some of the recipes are a bit labor intensive, they all are fairly easy. Additionally there are plenty for vegans and vegetarians.
   
   The author embodies the joy of cooking. Food should be fun not fake. Her secrets are all revealed...always buy fresh, seasonal and local; use organic and sustainable when possible and remember the most important ingredient is love.



4. I love this book.
   Admittedly I am a sucker for beautiful presentation, but this book is beautiful far beyond its visual appeal. Each recipe is the pinnacle of its kind. The pancake recipe, for example, outshines any I've ever tried. The salads are spectacular and have been the talk of many a collaborative dinner party. I haven't yet come across a dish I even slightly dislike. The recipes are accurate, as well. The quantities and cooking temperatures/times yield the perfect product. I can only assume that this accuracy comes from years of meticulous testing and tasting. The effort is well appreciated and results in recipes that are not only perfect every time, but are destined to become the classics you reach for time and again. The recipes, photgraphs, the quality of the binding and printing, the book in its entirety is simply wonderful.

5 comments about The London Ritz Book of Afternoon Tea.

1. Lots of easy, great recipes. If for no other reason, you should buy this book just for the basic english muffin recipe and scone recipes.



2. I enjoyed reading this book. It is a good starter book for those who would like to understand the ritual of English Tea and basic recipes of this time of day.



3. what a great book! my idea of luxury is to attend afternoon tea in a great hotel-and now I can recreate some of the recipes (but not the harpist) at home. If you like tea, good food, and learning about creating a mood or an atmosphere for your guests, this little book is just great!



4. I just returned from London where I enjoyed the "Ritzual" of Tea in the gorgeous Palm Court. This is my second time and even with the insane prices with the weakening dollar I would still do it all over again. This book is a great reminder of that very special event for my 50th birthday. Try to collect the whole series-wonderful, wonderful!



5. Unfortunately this book fell way short. It had a lot of recipes in a type of font that was so fancy you couldn't read it. I think they valued the curly cues of the font more than the legibility. The majority of time they squeezed two recipes on one page in a 4 x 5.5 book.
   
   I understand Afternoon Tea is supposed to be delicate and dainty, but does a book on Afternoon Tea have to be delicate and dainty too, or can it be a little more practical. I felt I needed to have some form of chiffon on my body just to read the book, which I couldn't read because the typeface is too small.

5 comments about Heston Blumenthal: In Search of Perfection: Reinventing Kitchen Classics.

1. heston blumenthal, it is the best on kitchen.he love the flavors and aromas on kitchen.
   the love for this is great and the best for the former chef



2. not quite a cook book.. more an exploration of certain kitchen classics and how to molecularly gastronimize them. or at least use a ton of steps and special equipment to make them. treacle tart with an ice cream made with dry ice? Just try to make the black forest choco cake he has in here.



3. This was a great book. It reads like a book instead of a cookbook. The stories are excellent. It should serve as a guide to any Chef. The way that Heston goes about researching ingredients can be used by anyone. I am not saying that we need to travel the world trying different components of a recipe but trying the best of our local ingredients would suffice. Heston is at the cutting edge of the Culinary world and it was great to see his thinking process put down on paper.



4. IN SEARCH OF PERFECTION: REINVENTING KITCHEN CLASSICS comes packed with color photos by Simon Wheeler and presents reflections by one of the world's most renowned chefs: as such, it will find its place not in the casual cook's collection, but in any library catering to neo-professionals fascinated by American regional culinary history in general and Blumenthal in particular. His scientific research into the origins and influences of dishes explores ways of cooking them to perfection and features a focus on what makes recipes stand out from the crowd. From sausage history to chicken packaging, IN SEARCH OF PERFECTION ladles out a wealth of fun, enlightening culinary detail.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



5. Yep, it's Alton Brown on steroids.
   
   I am a big fan of Alton Brown, and now I have found an even greater hero: Heston!
   
   Just one thing though - he scares the living daylights out of me - if he weren't in a kitchen the only safe place for him is a padded lockdown.
   
   I've made about two of the recipes so far, and I am looking forward to doing more. I have already ordered Further Adventures in Search of Perfection and pre-ordered his (very expensive) The Big Fat Duck Cookbook.
   
   On his Fish and Chips:
   Alas, no turbot on the US West Coast. Maybe no-one understands me because I use the English pronunciation (like fillet) - pronouncing both t's, unlike the American/French with a silent 2nd t.
   
   I used halibut - love halibut.
   His batter method is unnecessarily long-winded. I used a 5lb CO2 bottle with a special adapter for a standard plastic soda bottle instead of a soda siphon, With this exception completed his recipe and found where the book's true value is:
   
   It didn't work for me, but it allowed me to see where to improve my beer batter recipe that I have used for years.
   I now use 2/3 beer, 1/3 vodka, (plus a large splash of lemon juice and paprika).
   
   And now I make very small batter batches, don't wait for the every last lump to disappear, batter immediately, and straight in the fryer - all as fast as possible. It is a tangible improvement - thanks Heston!
   
   His chips (french fries) again has what to my unrefined palette is an unnecessary step - the initial boil.
   Instead I now extend my initial low temp (300F) fry to 10 mins, and cool completely in the 'fridge.
   But I found an improvement - I use a little portable fan to blow over the fries to hurry along the dehydration process - all thanks to Heston!
   
   I also tried the entire steak recipe which was 100% great, and the mushroom ketchup is to die for!
   
   Now I have a few words to say about our little naysayer J. Alt, who mysteriously has but one review.
   Little disgruntled are we J?
   
   The reason that Heston sears the meat before the long 120F slow cook (and I know because I did it) is that the Maillard reaction flavors from the sear spend that time permeating through the meat.
   Do I care that his reasoning is off at a tangent? NO.
   You know why? Because it is the best damn tasting steak I have ever made. Good enough?
   
   And if he tests 5 varieties of potatoes to get the best roast potato, yet doesn't draw a sufficiently tight logical line to satisfy Mr J. Alt, I don't care either. The man has sufficient bone fides for me to trust his judgement and conclusions.
   And you know why I doubly don't care? I can't get Maris Pipers in the U.S. anyway!
   
   I used his method of trying every potato I could get my hands on and made my own judgement. *
   
   Which is what any reader of these reviews should also do.
   
   I recommend this book.
   
   Kevin
   * I decided on White Rose. Thanks yet again, Heston!

No comments about The Complete Robuchon.

5 comments about Roast Chicken And Other Stories.

1. Again and again we learn and learn again that simplicity in life, especially in cooking, is the key to success. The author has studied cooking to the point of expertise that allows him to do things and, more importantly, to say things simply and convincingly. When politicians gain this level of authority they become legendary: think Churchill. Meanwhile, back in the kitchen, Hopkinson takes good, clean fresh ingredients and makes hearty dishes which he believes are vital to the good life. He avoids all chef snobbery, all foodie elitism. Instead, we have the wholesome attitude of the farm, the cookery philosophy of America's Alice Waters. There is no avoidance of the fat and buttery; this is no dieter's bible. The artificial is avoided in favor of authenticity. Hopkinson seem to believe that what is wholesome and fresh is good for you, and rejects all the short cuts and alternate ingredients which have made cooks everywhere confuse substitutes for the real thing. The author is able to convey great warmth, that special brand of English decency and refreshing unpretentiousness. The author loves food, animals, vegetables, customs, tradition, the drama known as life. What is especially surprising and refreshing is his celebration of ethnic cuisines as diverse as the obligatory French and the exotic Mexican. He has expertise in both. This is the food channel between hard covers.



2. I was very disappointed in this cookbook. I liked the idea of a cookbook with a few recipes for each ingrediant, but these recipes are almost all made with tons of butter, cream etc. I already know how to make anything delicious with those ingrediants!



3. I read an article about this book and thought it was a novel; only when I ordered and received did I realize it was cookbook ( I am kinda slow ); however, wonderful and all encompassing cookbook which covers a tremendous range of foods with easily understood instructions; who would have thought what a cup of red wine vinegar would do to a stewing chicknen!



4. Simon Hopkinson is a venerable English chef and newspaper columnist who enjoys pushing for simple, home-y food. This cookbook, originally published in London in 1994, is a small but useful collection of Hopkinson's favorite recipes, along with personal stories and asides to accompany each one.
   
   My husband is a retired chef and his most basic meals are my favorites. Not that I don't love the rolled and stuffed game hens or the complex patés, but nothing compares to his beef lentil soup and his roast chicken with garlic buttermilk mashed potatoes.
   
   In Roast Chicken and Other Stories we find a celebration of simple home cooking. There's plenty of butter, cream, and other "no-no's" to be found, but very little processed pre-cooked and microwaved food. This book celebrates fresh food, be it potatoes, chicken, or calves brains. It is simply organized around Hopkinson's favorite ingredients, and while many of them are not appetizing to an American taste (i.e., kidneys, tripe, sweetbreads) there is enough that is universal enough to suit us all.
   
   Hopkinson writes in a very conversational style with many cooking tips in the prose and not in the recipes, so it is important that you read the entire book and then bookmark the recipes you like. For example, he tells us that boiling is better than steaming for vegetables to maintain color and texture (just don't overdo it) and that canned Italian tomatoes will work better in most stews and sauces than fresh Western tomatoes.
   
   My favorite recipes? The Eggs Florentine, the Chocolate Tart, and the ubiquitous Roast Chicken. But again, don't just buy Roast Chicken and Other Stories for the recipes - but for the prose. Witty, warm, and interesting tales will make you feel like you are in the kitchen with a good friend who also happens to be great cook, and who doesn't like that?



5. Any one who loves to cook and eat will enjoy this charming, useful, and even -- culinarily speaking -- inspiring book.

5 comments about Gordon Ramsay: The Biography.

1. i got the book really quick and it was in very nice shape i would buy from this person again. thank you. jan



2. Truly an excellent book. This book opens your eyes to the hard work it takes to become a great Chef.
   I recommend other Gordan Ramsay books.



3. I would consider myself a fan of Gordon Ramsey, I think his theories on management and what it takes to be a success could be a lesson to all. Also he has led what seems like a fascinating life, rising up from a rough part of Glasgow, dealing with the issues of a broken family and a promising football career ruined by injury. Sadly this book is written in little better than tabloid tidbits for those with a very short attention span. His childhood and motivations that led him to being a world class chef are glossed over and given about 30 pages. His troubled relationship with his father and its impact is mentioned several times in the book but never really elaborated on sufficiently. His early years as a chef are dealt with in about 15 pages and his years in Paris are given even less coverage despite Gordon's belief that they were absolutely central to him becoming the chef he is today. The author seems more interested in making constant references to Gordon's notorious foul mouth and his relationship with the tabloid press. What a shame there are so many more interesting facets to his life that could have been explored here.



4. This was a great book. It really gives you insight to his behavior. (which is not bad) It was a page turner, and I finished it in a weekend.
   He really had alot of disappointments in life but turned it all around. It gives you inspiration.
   If you like Gordon,this is a must read.



5. I agree with previous reviewers. This is short attention span writing. It jumps from one topic to another topic without going into depth. It felt like reading People Magazine and not a book.

4 comments about The River Cottage Cookbook.

1. Good, honest easy cooking with a twist. Frank and funny with regard to making the most of the bounty of the countryside from nettle soup to bunny burgers. Perfect reference for making jams ans preserves to growing your own produce.



2. Hugh manages to capture the natural enthusiasm he exudes for the subjects of food and self sustained living in his television show, in this book.

   Nice pictures, a must have in any cookery book these days, are in abundance.

   The book gives a good introduction to the worlds of animal husbandry and horticulture, which is exactly what he sets out to do, he doesn't get bogged down with detail and yet doesn't skip over things either.

   The writing style is easy and informal, much like the tv show itself.

   A must have for anyone who liked the show.




3. I hate this book. It makes me so terribly jealous of Hugh's country lifestyle. Filled with good, basic recipes and tons of information on growing foods and basic animal husbandry for anyone from city-dweller to rural smallholder, it is an upscale, up-to-date book in the vein of the old Carla Emery title "Encyclopedia of Country Living".
   
   For city dwellers, in addition to Hugh's simple recipes, he offers plenty of good advice on how to choose the best of what is available at your grocer or supermarket. Plus, it's a healthy reminder of where food comes from.
   
   It's a thick book. Real value for money! In these days of fast food and fast paced lifestyles, it pays to slow down and read and think and eat.
   
   Now, I'm off to try his recipe for pumpkin risotto...



4. This book is great, I am captured by the beginning part of each chapter, it rates up there with the Jamie at home book by Jamie Oliver