Customer Reviews

Cesar: Recipes from a Tapas Bar

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am charging this lovely book with 1 star for it's extreme focus on cocktails (about 1/2 the book)that you can find in any cocktail book! Manhattan, Mint Julep, Old Fashioned, Rob Roy, Rusty Nail, Whiskey sour, and the list goes on, are neither unique nor relevant to the main subject, Tapas. To me it is obvious that the first 83 pages of this book are just a filler to justify the price.

Having said that the rest of the book is excellent. Recipes are separated into categories of Tapas by main ingredient, photos for many of the selections, as well as some history on the dishes.

Despite the annoying cocktail section this is still the best Tapas book I have come accross.

The cesar cookbook is awesome, directed both to novices interested in learning more about tapas and to those who have more advanced skills. i love trying the great cocktails recipes, they are fresh and easy to make. the photos perfectly capture the feeling of the bar and the writing is interesting and fun to read. No wonder it was voted one of the ten best cookbooks of the year by Food and Wine Magazine!!

No, Alice Waters of Chez Panisse didn't write this book, but it springs from the fountain that she set flowing more than 20 years ago and continues in the fine tradition of all the cookbooks that have emerged from her little neighborhood in North Berkeley. The authors were all formerly affiliated with Chez Panisse, and it shows.
César, a tapas bar/restaurant, was an instant success. The cookbook will be, too. The only downside for some readers will be that fully one half of the book is devoted to cocktail recipes; that same feature will be a huge upside for other readers. The second half of the book is recipes for the tapas, little Spanish dishes that are meant to be ordered with drinks and shared with friends. They're not hard - I've already met with high success with 3 of the recipes, esp the artichoke recipe!!! - but many require ingredients that aren't going to be easy for someone living in East Podunk, Nebraska, to find at her local A&P. However, you can get the stuff online at www.tablespan.com - or, if you're lucky enough to live 3 minutes from Berkeley as I do, visit The Spanish Table on San Pablo Ave.
This is a cookbook for the experienced cook with a sophisticated palate who wants to treat her guests to a few things they've probably never tasted before.
For the right audience, highest recommendation.

I love the book. The pages of my copy are food stained and water damaged from all the use it's getting. There are two wonderful and outstanding things about this cookbook. The recipes instruct clearly and the resulting tapas have been delicious. Very delicious. The book reads well also.

Really one of the most approachable resources for Spanish ingredients, spirits, and recipes. Beautifully and simply illustrated, this little book is a staple in our cookbook library.

As a fan of anything paraded out of Cesar's kitchen in Berkeley, we purchased the Cesar cookbook to recreate favorites at home for dinner parties. They are always a huge hit -- especially noteworthy are the recipes for poached salmon (with cilantro and cumin vinaigrette), patatas bravas, papas fritas (with cumin, garlic, and alioli), and the cumin fried chicken (with watercress and blood orange alioli). The recipes for spicy tuna salad bocadillos and manchego and greens bocadillos are very, very tasty as well. Of course, it's up to you to find your favorite dishes in this cookbook. We have a bad tendency to just walk over to Cesar for our food, rather than make it from the cookbook. But if I ever move away from the Bay Area, this cookbook will be one of the top five in my collection.

Wonderful restaurant, wonderful book! Cesar: Recipes from a Tapas Bar by Olivier Said, Maggie Pond, James Mellgren captures all of the delights of a visit to the restaurant and tells the story of the food and the people on the side. My company recent had a holiday party at Cesar, with the delicious Maggie Pond presiding over the kitchen. The food, the service, and the ambiance were are all delightful. Unfortunately, the only one of the three you can duplicate from this book is the food, but that's not a bad start.

This book requires a huge number of ingredients that are simply impossible to locate. I live in Los Angeles, and scoured specialty shops, Whole Foods, the regular chains, and the Latin markets- coming up prohibitively empty each time.

Unless you live in the area and know where to find exceptionally random ingredients, this book is nothing more than a bound bunch of pretty photos.

Essentially, the book is useless.

This book is more about cocktails and less about tapas. I was hoping for an interesting tapas, not so. Beware

This book is amazing! Authentic recipes with a california flavor.