Customer Reviews

Chefs of Aloha: Favorite Recipes from the Top Chefs of Hawai'i

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

 

 

I did not find all the recipes in this book difficult to follow, and I have made a number of them. I don't consider complexity to be a valid criticism. After all, we're talking about A-list Hawaiian chefs here, not Rachel Ray. But these recipes do assume a fairly high level of knowledge on the part of the reader. For example, the "Lemongrass Coconut Cream" recipe has as one of the ingredients "1 cup thick bechamel sauce". I hope you know how to make that, because the cookbook doesn't say. Similarly, some recipes call for demi-glace without further explanation.

The editing of this book was sloppy and could have been better, and it would have avoided some rather ridiculous snafus like the "Rotisserie Island Chicken" that has "Huli-Huli Sauce" as an ingredient. Not so helpfully, the recipe is immediately followed by something called "Huli-Huli Style Sauce", one of the ingredients of which is 1/2 cup of Huli-Huli sauce! I'm still wondering what the hell Huli-Huli sauce is.

My number one criticism of this book is that many chefs include unusual, local-to-Hawaii, and hard-to-find ingredients in the recipes. Even those of us who live in an area with many Asian markets may have a hard time finding some of the ingredients like sambal olek, or ogo seaweed. It would have been good if the chefs would give the reader who does not have a lot of experience with this particular style of cuisine just what it is about these ingredients that make them special, and what one might substitute when the preferred ingredients are unavailable.

I do give this book 4 stars, because many of the preparations are indeed delicious.

I got this as a gift from someone who visited Hawaii. I was looking forward to cooking from it, but I don't eat seafood, and most of the recipes are seafood based. The book is very pretty, but the index leaves much to be desired. It simply restates the table of contents recipe titles, so it's not helpful if you are trying to find dishes based on certain ingredients.

Some of the ingredients are obscure or really oddly specific, like 'Sweet 100s Tomatoes' instead of 'cherry tomatoes' or 'Hawaiian Chocolate' instead of 'chocolate'.

This is one of my favorite Hawaiian cookbooks--authentic Asian and Hawaiian cuisine, with easy preparation.

When you purchase a cookbook like this, most people are hoping that the recipes would be written so that someone with a fair amount of cooking experience can follow the instructions and make the recipes. Not in this cookbook. The chefs often leave out important details so that only experienced cooks can follow and make the recipes. The worst one in the book is Eric Favre. His directions are so unclear it's as if he is being intentionally snobby and put his recipes in the book just for the royalties, not so you can make them. I'm sure there are many good recipes in this cookbook, you're not a chef, I'd strongly recommend buying another book.

I've been an avid home chef for years, and the recipes seem complicated to me.