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How to Cook Everything: Bittman Takes on America's Chefs :: 0764570145
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| Join Mark Bittman as he takes on the nation's top chefs in a culinary battle of home-style vs. restaurant style! "Mark knows food. Mark knows chefs. Chefs know Mark.You know this has gotta be a great cookbook!"
—Al Roker, Host, NBC's Today show The Chefs Who Took the Challenge JOSÉ ANDRÉS, Zaytinya/Washington, D.C. DANIEL BOULUD, Daniel/New York JAMES BOYCE, Studio/Laguna Beach GARY DANKO, Restaurant Gary Danko/San Francisco SUZANNE GOIN, Lucques and A.O.C./Los Angeles GABRIELLE HAMILTON, Prune/New York ANNA KLINGER, Al di Là/New York CHARLES PHAN, The Slanted Door/San Francisco MICHEL RICHARD, Citronelle/Washington, D.C. SUVIR SARAN, Devi/New York CHRIS SCHLESINGER, East Coast Grill & Raw Bar/Boston-Cambridge KERRY SIMON, Simon Kitchen & Bar/Las Vegas JEAN-GEORGES VONGERICHTEN, Jean-Georges/New York Editorial Descriptions are usually submitted by the manufacturers, publishers and authors. Contact us if you are one of them, and wish to change the above description. |
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Author: Guest
The time may yet come this summer when you tire of the same old steak, burgers and chicken on the barbecue and yearn for something a little different. Like Lemongrass-Grilled Rack of Lamb with Tamarind Sauce, perhaps, or Grilled Tuna with Soy, Wasabi, and Pickled Ginger or a Lobster Burger involving scallops, ginger mayonnaise and Tomato Confit.
These are restaurant-style chef dishes, of course, and Bittman's responses, intended to show how simple, home-cooked food can be just as enjoyable are, respectively: Grilled Squid with Black Pepper and Sesame-Lemon Sauce, Tuna Teriyaki, and a Lobster Roll, served with melted butter on a hot dog bun.
It's a gimmicky idea, but fun, even if the connections sometimes seem farfetched (rack of lamb vs. squid?). Bittman, author of "The Minimalist" column as well as many books, adheres to a simplify-without-sacrifice philosophy and consequently is wildly popular with busy but serious home cooks. This book accompanies Bittman's public television series and includes short profiles of the 13 chefs, their restaurants and their dishes juxtaposed with Bittman's responses.
Sidebars include some of the show's repartee as well as cooking tips (like Jean-Georges Vongerichten's subtle use of cayenne instead of black pepper to season fish) and Bittman's variations, simplifications, explanations and suggestions for home cooks who want to prepare the chefs' signature dishes (Gary Danko's Duck Confit and Potato Hash as template for croquettes of many kinds; choosing lemons or persimmons, making shrimp shell stock, clarifying butter).
The chefs run the gamut from classical French (Daniel Boulud, Michel Richard) to Vietnamese (Charles Phan), Spanish (Jose Andres), Indian (Suvir Saran) and various trendy Americans (Kerry Simon, Anna Klinger, James Boyce). Some are young, some well established; all are confident and opinionated.
Illustrated with shots taken from the TV show, this is a clever, energetic book which offers a smorgasbord of the nation's leading cooks and an expert home cook's take on a wide range of recipes and techniques.
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Author: Guest
The basic premise of this book is that the recipies concocted by the author featuring simple down to earth cooking can compete with the chefs from fancy four star restaurants.
Each "challenge" resents a chef's special dish followed by Bittman's more accessible interpretation. My conclusion is that "No, they don't compete." The basic rules are too different. Instead, what the guest chef cooks and what the author cooks are two different dishes. In looking over the recipies, sometimes I would prefer one, sometimes the other, often both sound like they would be good to eat --Example: A chef cooked Baked Stuffed Crab, Bittman cooked crab soup. Not the same disk, but I could handle either one but the baked one sounds better.
This book is the companion to a series of TV shows where these "challenges" will be shown. Here you have the recipe and you can cook either one or both at your leisure. The challenge part is just part of the TV show. The recipes are what count.
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Author: Guest
The idea of presenting complex and time consuming recipes from renowned chefs along side simplified versions is a great one. Bittman falls a little short in this regard since his recipes are not simplifications or variations in most cases, but a different recipe with similar main ingredients and a similar effect.
This aside, I like the cook book and have been pleased with the results from the recipes I have tried, especailly the Apple Confit, an impressive and time consuming dessert.
The food inside is good, so all other complaints are just nit-picking.
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Author: Guest
Once again, Springfield Illinois' unigue contribution to the world of haute cuisine has been ignored. Once again, Springfield Illinois' unigue method of satisfying the hunger of a hungry man is ignored. Once again, the horseshoe sandwich has been ignored along with its 4,000 calories. Who could resist that well done slab of ground beef on a large, open faced toasted bun that is buried in French Fries and then deluged in a cheese sauce that would put a Welsh rarebit to shame!?
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Author: Guest
What's The Point? It's a cookbook where half the recipes are from well-reknowned chefs exposing their true form, and the other half are Bittman's adulterated versions that are nothing like the original. In some he doesn't have the same method or technique; in others he doesn't even use the same base ingredient. It's like comparing apples to motor oil. Complex to Simple? Of course it's simple if you remove 90 percent of what was in the original! You cannot compare a grilled version of a protein dish to a sauteed version of another no matter how much you try to spin it.
And the photos are the worst I've ever seen for a major release of a cookbook. They are still photos taken from the video shoot while they were in the kitchens. Some of the photos have big block squares; the tell-tale sign of how the digital rendering couldn't be made. Take any .jpg file and blow it up 1,000 percent and you'll see exactly the results printed in this book.
Very disappointed.
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