Brazil: A Cook's Tour [Hardcover]

Christopher Idone (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 24, 1995

Christopher Idone, a pioneer of illustrated cookbooks, takes the reader on a fascinataing culinary and cultural journey through the vast and varied landscape of Brazil. Includes more than 100 rich, colorful photographs, a mail-order source guide, and a list of special places to visit in Brazil. 125 4-color photographs.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Christopher Idone, a pioneer of illustrated cookbooks, takes the reader on a fascinataing culinary and cultural journey through the vast and varied landscape of Brazil. Includes more than 100 rich, colorful photographs, a mail-order source guide, and a list of special places to visit in Brazil. 125 4-color photographs.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Clarkson Potter; 1 edition (October 24, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517595559
• ISBN-13: 978-0517595558
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 0.9 x 10.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #752,793 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This book is maddening!, July 10, 2002

By 

Timothy Jesser (Austin, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Brazil: A Cook's Tour (Hardcover)

Like other reviewers, I was bowled over by the fantastic photos throughout this book. They are really beautiful and take me back to the year I spent in Brazil. My problem with the book is simple: There is no way anyone actually cooked by the majority of these recipies!! Ingredient amounts don't make sense, bowl and dish sizes don't make sense, cooking times don't make sense. Let me give one of the more egregious examples: In the recipie for Bolo de Aipim, the author proposes putting 2 pounds manioc root, 2 cups sugar, 4 eggs, 2 cups milk, and 2 cups coconut milk into a 9"x13" pan. These ingredients wouldn't fit into a pan twice that size! In addition, there is way, way too much liquid. This cake would take over an hour to firm up, not the 30 minutes he recommends. This is just one of dozens of examples.
I am tempted to recommend this book as a coffee table fixture, but I can not even do that. It is irresponsible of this author to write a book with grossly untested recipies. It is a waste of my money on ingredients and my time in the kitchen.
I do not recommend this book to anyone. There are many better choices for Brazilian cooking.

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Nice photos , a tourist cook's tour, but not a cookbook, July 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Brazil: A Cook's Tour (Hardcover)

I have lived in Brasil for 2 years and I cook everyday. I recieved this book as a gift before I came here. Certainly the photos are nice, and maybe nice reading for some, but it is not a cookbook. THe ingredients are easily obtainable for me, obviously, but the recipes are overly cumbersome, and seem inacurate to me. I've tried a number of them and it seems like whoever the author got the recipes from didn't give him all the secrets. The idea is right, but following these recipes I seem to get a modified version of the real thing. Some of the fruit is inacurately identified. Sao Paulo has thousands of resturants, some are very good, some have big reputations for over priced dishes and unfortunately the author seems to concentrate on these resturants. Food is plentiful in Brasil, the land is rich, and the inventive Brasilians produce a vast variety of wonders to choose from. It is sad that the author missed the opportunity to include the everyday variety and great dishes of the common folk of Brasil.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars American living in Brasil, February 26, 2005

By 

Gringinha (Curitiba, Brasil) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brazil: A Cook's Tour (Hardcover)

I bought this book after my first year living in Brazil and I have to say, that it's beautiful. The photos are incredible and just make you want to make everything in it.

But it's not too practical for an average cook such as myself.

It's a great book to share the Brazilian culture with people who don't know... but I'm looking for other Brazilian cook books that will be more useful in actually preparing the dishes. The author travels throughout Brazil, so the recipes are very diverse.

I personally use the internet to find my Brazilian recipes, and they've all been great. They're mostly in portuguese though. And I have the benefit of being in Brazil and knowing the dish names so I can look them up.

I haven't found the book very useful at all for it's intended purpose of a cook book. But for showing family and friends... it's beautiful.