French Country Light Cooking Review

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(More customer reviews)Basically, this book taught me how to cook. As a married male, my wife explained to me that I need to do "my part". So we hired a maid and I bought a cook book. Since my own mother never let me use the kitchen, I was an extreme beginner. This book is wonderful; it provides easy step by step instructions and expectations. I have used nearly 3/4 of the recipes and all of them are consistently wonderful. I have shared this book with many friends who rave about my cooking. Both my wife and I are very partial to Mediterranian, French, and Northern Italian cooking. This book combines them all while making them low in fat. Simple natural substitutions for heavy quantities of creme and butter while still making the entres scrumptuous. This book has given me the skill and confidence to use other cook books which usually are complex and missing a few details. Have fun!

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From the creators of the bestselling Italian Light Cooking and Mexican Light Cooking come 150 delicious, low-calorie recipes for French country cuisine, which reflect the simplicity and concern for healthy eating that has become so important to modern cooks. Slomon is the author of The Pizza Book.

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

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(More customer reviews)I'm a Chef, and have borrowed copies of Escoffier's Le Guide Culinaire from friends whenever I need it. On a lark, I ran a search on Escoffier here at Amazon.com. I was stunned to find this book for the low cost of $12 or so, knowing that every other copy I had seen cost $60 or $70. So I ordered it and paged through it. Well, it only prints 2300 or so of over 5000 recipes in Escoffier's treatise. Admittedly, probably more than the home cook actually *needs*, but nowhere does the book say that it has been abridged.
But, like many Amazon.com customers, I found myself in the position of thinking "but it'll cost me half the price of the book to send it back." So I wound up giving it to a friend who likes to cook, but doesn't need the "real thing."
Suffice it to say that if you want the real Esoffier, you're still going to have to drop the $60+ for the Van Nostrand Reinhold edition. Sorry, culinary students, you didn't luck up on a deal.
ToqueBlanc

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An American translation of the definitive Guide Culinaire, the Escoffier Cookbook includes weights, measurements, quantities, and terms according to American usage. Features 2,973 recipes.

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MEXICAN LIGHT PB Review

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(More customer reviews)Most of the dishes I've cooked in the last few months have been recipes from this excellent book. If you've used Shulman's other cookbooks, you'll recognize the style: chatty writing, bold flavors (e.g., lots of garlic and cilantro), a mixture of vegetarian and meat dishes, careful instructions in the recipes, a nutritional summary for each recipe, and a separate chapter on unusual ingredients. Many of the dishes in this book can be made in 30 minutes to an hour, though some are more complex. And while the food may be good for you, it tastes terrific.
Don't expect this book to be an authoritative survey of Mexican cooking. There's no mole poblano, or even a burrito recipe. Some recipes are fairly authentic, others merely "inspired" by Mexican ingredients. Since the recipes she concocts are often as good as the classics she leaves out, that's a minor drawback.

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Provencal Light Review

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(More customer reviews)Martha Rose Shulman truly is a delight. She has written a book that is as fun to sit down and read... as it is to pull out and plan a menu. With each page and each chapter it is obvious to the reader the care and passion the author has towards preserving the essence of Provencal cuisine. Balance this with a healthful approach of minimizing fat without sacrificing flavour and you have the perfect book to add to any healthy gourmand's collection. Unlike many "light" cookbooks, which equate healthy with "fat-free," resulting in tasteless food, Shulman takes the wise approach of moderation. In many recipes, if your diet allows it, you can even add an additional tablespoon of olive oil to further enhance the flavour. A true student of gastronomy and culinary tradition, the author has thoughtfully sluethed, interviewed, practiced and refined plates and recipes from an assortment of kitchens and chefs. The result: a thoughtful and diverse cookbook of flavours that are respectful to their authenticity but balanced with healthful influences. Such approach has garnered her praise from some of the "toughest" food critics, including the hilarious Jeffrey Steingarten in his wonderful "The Man who Ate Everything" (another must-read). Particularly inviting are the recipes for tartes and gratins, rabbit and fish, and an assortment of different takes on clafouti. The tomato and rice soup is delightful with a garden salad for a light dinner... the eggplant and tomato gratin excellent as a side dish at dinner. I have thoroughly enjoyed this book in the few weeks I have had it... and anticipate making it dog-eared in the years to come.

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Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously Review

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(More customer reviews)Don't buy the book based on your opinion of the movie. I took my niece to see the movie and we loved it - Meryl Streep was, naturally, beyond amazing, while Amy Adams was charming. Nora Ephron was wise to do what she did with this story, because the real Julie Powell is quite insufferable, hardly an ideal role model for waking up one's life.
As far as the foul language goes...a well-placed swear word can add realism and punch to a story, but overuse of profanity by an author is, in this writer's opinion, not only offensive and jarring, but worse, downright lazy. If you have to rely so heavily on swear words, then you're only proving that you are unable to express yourself in print with any degree of finesse.
A lot of reviewers who gave this book a bad rating used the word "whiny." It is not misplaced, I assure you. I love humorous life stories in which a protagonist tries to make sense of things by embarking on journey of self-discovery through a special project, but, rather than being full of fun foibles, poignant moments, and growing insight, this author shows a character who is narcissistic, snobbish and insufferable. I'm not a republican or a Bush fan, either, but I absolutely LOATHE people who exhibit such blatant disrespect for other people's views, opinions, and beliefs (reminds me of Helen Goode on "The Goode Family," who whines to her husband, that it IS good to respect others, just "not them!"). Apparently, if you disagree with Julie Powell, you're just stupid.
I didn't come out of this too badly myself: I enjoyed the movie, am relieved I didn't spend money on the book, and interested in learning more about Julia Child, who sounds like an amazing person as well as an exceptional cook. As far as this trite goes, however...well, now it makes sense to me that Julia Child reacted to it the way she did (I'll give Powell this much: she was very gracious about Child's reaction, though she should be, since Child turned out to be her bread and butter). Too bad such a great idea was handled by such an emotionally immature individual.


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