We love cookbooks,
especially cookbooks from restaurants. Here are links to reviews
of just a few that we have come across and enjoyed in recent months. If
you have a favorite and its still in print, then let us know and
we will add it to the review list.
I had no idea that there were such a broad range of dishes in Austrian cooking. While some of them have some very strange names, the ingredients are familiar and the dishes generally delicious. David embraces the Austrian culture in this book and includes classic cooking techniques and regional dishes that make it all the more authentic.
The problem with there being so many Italian cookbooks on the market is that it's hard to tell the good from the bad. Many of them are simply rehashes of traditional Italian recipes with little new content. Italian cooking is one of the most dynamic styles in Europe with much innovation and reinvention happening all the time. Recipes like grilled shrimp with mint, orange and fennel couscous hint at how contemporary this cookbook is.
When most of us think of chowder, we think of New England Clam Chowder, the thick creamy white “soup” they serve in restaurants, or Manhattan Clam Chowder, a red, tomato based chowder. This book explores the diversity of home style chowders, with a great variety of ingredients, flavors and colors that can be incorporated. The book clearly demonstrates that there are more than just “two” types of chowders available.
Read the rest of the review here...
The Providence and Rhode Island Cookbook by Linda Beaulieu
Over the last several years, I’ve come to enjoy exploring Rhode Island for great restaurants and as you can see here at The Restaurant Review, we are adding to our list of reviewed restaurants every month. I still was on the search for the “red” clam chowder and the clam cakes (that probably had bits of sand in them!) that I so fondly remember. I know it’s not the gourmet or fine dining cuisine that we talk about each and every day, but a wonderful memory that maybe time can’t recreate.
Master Recipes has an unusual concept that worried me at first and then succeeded in completely winning me over, as I read and cooked from the book. The idea is strange, but simple. Somewhat like basic French sauces, Ming shows you how to make 20, all new, master sauces. These are then used as the basis for several recipes, using each sauce.
You can't ignore Jamie Oliver. The tousled haired British chef is forever in the press and has a prodigious capacity to churn out cookbooks by the heap. He is brash and somewhat controversial, eschewing the normal clean cut image of the more conservative chef, in favor of a slightly bad boy image that either grates on you or delights, depending on your viewpoint.
What's so good about this book? Well, basically the recipes are really innovative, the dishes taste fantastic and they can be cooked by just about anyone with access to a good grocery store. Suzanne has created a series of concoctions that dazzle the palate and guarantee a high wow factor at any table.
Confessions of a French Baker This little book is a delight. You won't find any lewd confessions of high jinks at the bakery here though. What is does do is take you into the baking room to witness the birth of a loaf and like a virtual midwife, helps you understand the whole messy process along the way. It's a bit like making sausage – you almost don't want to know how some of these loaves are made.
It's About Time has an unusual premise. Rather than including recipes by category, they are ordered by time. Not that stuff that we don't have enough of, but rather the times of our lives. “Time to get the family together”, ”Time to celebrate”, ”Time to cook like a pro”. It's an interesting approach and the eight sections cover most of the moods of an amateur chef. There’s more to it than that, however. Each section has a introduction that is interesting and each recipe has a story behind it.
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