Customer Reviews

Bistro Cooking at Home

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Mr. Hamersley's "Bistro Cooking at Home" belongs next to Julia and Marcella in your cookbook collection. The 'presentation' is terrific; easy to read with many helpful pictures. There is a wealth of background information, all the way from techniques to sources for hard to find ingredients. The writing style is as comfortable as his restaurant. There is a full range of selections that will satisfy every taste. Recipes are presented with alternatives for technique and ingredients. I'm not the first one to say that the Roast Chicken p. 182 is worth the price of the book, but it's true. But Fiona's Easy Halibut, Seared Sea Scallops with Garlic Tomato and Olive Compote, Roast Pork with Apples, Onions, and Sage, ..............there's just no end to it. Best of all, the consistent end result is flavor, flavor, flavor. Buy the book, work your way through and start again.

you open "Bistro Cooking at Home". Your next Sunday afternoon should be spent making the Beef Short Ribs Braised in Dark Beer with Bacon and Red Onions. It's incredible. The dishes are comparatively easy to make, unpretentious, earthy, and deeply soul satisfying. While not for the completely novice cook, Hamersley helps out with wine suggestions, accompaniments, and helpful preparation notes with almost every dish.

Highly recommended.

I'm picky when it comes to cookbook shelf space. My habit is to only keep around cookbooks that I love. After 20 years of cooking, I have kept only about two dozen books (aside from the vintage Foods of the World series by Time Life).

Having said that, *Bisto Cooking at Home* has become one of my go-to books. Just as a previous reviewer said, the Chicken recipe on p182 alone is worth the price of this book.

What all my favorite cookbooks seem to have in common is that they not only deliver great recipes, but they also educate as to why they taste great. This book is no exception.

Gordon Hamersley has done what no other restaurant cookbook author has done before ( or wanted too). He has successfully written a cookbook that yields results from home that rival that of his restaurant. Having visited his restaurant on several different occasions, I was skeptical about how close the recipes would turn out. With my first bite of the roast chicken I'd prepared, all the sights, sounds, aromas and tastes returned, as though I was sitting in the dining room of Hamersley's Bistro.

Cooking is my true passion. There is nothing I enjoy more than creating beautiful and delicious dishes at home, and sharing them with friends and family. I own a hundred cookbooks, and this is my hand's down favorite, especially for entertaining. The recipes are easy to follow, economical, big on flavor and presentation, and great for entertaining. Let me explain in more detail.

Easy to follow - The dishes are all beautiful and look very difficult, but they are far from it! Gordon Hamersley has really designed some wonderful recipes that are very easy for even the most novice home cook. The book is also full of great tips throughout. Many cookbooks will just instruct you to do something, for example, "Caramelize the onions", but they won't tell you how. Hamersley not only tells you how, but he goes a step further by providing tips on how to make them even darker and sweeter.

Economical - I have made many recipes from this cookbook, and I've never had trouble finding the ingredients in my local supermarket. Roast chicken, coq au vin, braised short ribs, beef bourginion - these dishes will not bust your budget, but they will come out looking like they did. A few of the dishes have some more expensive ingredients, but if you are hosting a dinner party or holiday dinner, you might want to splurge on those special ingredients, to give your friends and family something new and different to try.

High on flavor and beautiful presentation - All of the dishes I have made have been both visually appealing and delicious. His use of fresh herbs and slow braising techniques give the dishes a wonderful depth of flavor and an incredible "wow" factor. When I lifted the lid off the braised short ribs, all of my family gathered around in awe of how beautifully caramelized they were. The dish was finished by pouring the sauce over the ribs (a red onion sauce, reduced from the braising liquid). The ribs were as tender as butter and just fell off the bone. Other favorite recipes of mine include ALL of the risotto recipes (butternut squash being my favorite, and the wild mushroom risotto with red wine is a close second), the onion soup au gratin, peach galette, wild mushroom and roast garlic sandwich, roasted asparagus with pancetta and shallots, and the seared scallops with garlic, tomato and olive compote. They all come out looking as beautiful as the photo in cookbook. The flavor combinations are outstanding - there is a little bit of sweet, salty and savory in every recipe - all well balanced, and each has interesting and appealing texture. For example, the roasted asparagus are savory, but they are complemented with the saltiness of the pancetta and the sweetness of the shallots. The ribs, also savory, are complemented by a sweet, rich and slightly salty (but not overly so) red onion sauce. The scallop dish pairs the saltiness of the scallops and olives with sweet and tangy garlic, tomatoes and balsamic vinegar.

Great for entertaining - Many of these main dishes roast or braise for hours, low and slow in the oven, which means you do all of the work ahead of time and you have more time to visit with your company!

This is a wonderful cookbook, a real standout! Buy it; you won't be disappointed.

no other cookbook will do! I stumbled across this gem at my local library one warm summer day. The rest, as they say, is history: my other cookbooks have been gathering dust ever since.

Every recipe I've tried has been really fabulous - truly, there isn't a dud in this book. The Curried Zucchini Risotto (a dream of saffron, sherry, fresh mint and cilantro - along with the titular ingredients) was an instant hit, the roast chicken recipe IS as good as they say, and the Lemon Lavendar sugar cookies were the star of holiday care packages.

Another nice feature is the range of options here: though we enjoy meat, we only eat it once or twice a week, and Hamersley offers a wealth of delicious vegetarian dishes - from hearty salads (the roasted vegetable salad with romesco sauce is a regular on our table, well worth the lengthy prep time) and soups to delicious gratins and tarts.

There's a lot to love about this book!

Buy this book, Buy this book, buy this book! I can't say it enough.

I've always been considered an okay cook. I can follow a basic recipe, but will be happy to nuke a couple of hot dogs and call it dinner. My husband and I love bistro food and were spending way to much money eating out. I bought this book hoping for something that tastes "restuarant quality."

The recipies from this book go beyond restuarant quality into fine dining. I have a hard time going out to eat now because the food I'm cooking at home seems to be richer on flavor than the food I was ordering out.

More indepth or complicated techniques are referenced and explained.

Last night we enjoyed the mixed greens with fried walnut crusted goat cheese and sherry vinegarette. Tonight we are having blue cheese stuffed burgers with a peppercorn port sauce. My husband is happier than ever before, he loves brining leftovers to work.

Chef's cookbooks can be disappointing, full of recipes-of-many-steps that leave you with a sink full of pots and a result that falls short of the beautiful photographs. Not this one. These recipes are so well thought out that you almost can't go wrong, and they are delicious. Chef's cookbooks can also be more about the chef than the home cook. Thomas Keller's "Ad Hoc at Home," for instance, is so big it takes up half the counter, and all those pretty pictures of Keller and/or his dishes might make you feel guilty about splattering him/them with grease spots. Gordon Hamersley, however, is content to be a helpful guide, telling you the best way to caramelize onions or to peel an orange for a salad, and I am sure he would be flattered by grease spots. So far, here's what's delicious: the leek and potato gratin; the avocado and orange salad; the souffléd lemon custard; the pate; the unbelievable potato leek soup; the beef bourguignon; the roast pork (both); the warm apple tarts. The rest of his recipes? I'm working on it.
M. Feldman

Gordon Hamersley has done what no other restaurant cookbook author has done before ( or wanted too). He has successfully written a cookbook that yields results from home that rival that of his restaurant. Having visited his restaurant on several different occasions, I was skeptical about how close the recipes would turn out. With my first bite of the roast chicken I'd prepared, all the sights, sounds, aromas and tastes returned, as though I was sitting in the dining room of Hamersley's Bistro.

Love this cookbook!

If you like French bistro cooking you'll love this book. Excellent! He gives very clear directions for simple French fare. I especially like his selection of stocks and sauce basics. I've made quite a few of the recipes and each one was delicious.