Customer Reviews

The Chicago Diner Cookbook

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As an old Chicago Diner fan, I could not wait for this book to come out. Since I purchased it, have been using it for so many dishes at home.. Everything is so healthy and easy to make. Try the tofu cheesecake, cream soups (made with soy milk), Ex-Benedict, Tofu roll, Chocolate mousse. Even my kids approve of the dishes. They still have not figured out that they are eating tofu. Jo Kaucher translated most of the comfort foods you remember from your childhood into healthy vegan recipes -- that taste great! Thank you...

One of the things I was impressed with at the Diner was the (vegan) German Chocolate Cake. The recipe in this book makes it easy to prepare the same dish at home. It's incredible! The recipes are easy to prepare and the ingredients are not exotic or hard-to-find as long as you have a health food store nearby. However, some of the meals require lots of time in the kitchen and require a little planning (as with any meal).

This book is a great gift for people who have visited the Chicago Diner as well as vegans and vegetarians (or those just looking for some new recipes!).

What initially drew me to this cookbook was the Chocolate Cake recipe that I found on the net. And yes, it is possibly the best vegan chocolate cake you'll ever have.

But that's not all this book is about. A good amount of tasty, easy to make recipes are also in here. I appreciated the glossary at the end of the book that takes the time to explain what some of the more obscure ingredients are, and where to find them.

Overall, there are more good recipes here than bad, and I would recommend it to anyone in search of tasty vegetarian recipes.

If you live in Chicago & want to eat well..I mean healthy & tasty ..their are not that many choices..the best is usually buying some organic veggies at Whole Foods & cooking at home.
Then there is the Chicago Diner...it feels like home...
atmosphere....service staff...been going their for 20 years.
The food is comforting, filling, & quite tasty...prices reasonable....allways leave their feeling fullfilled.
Weekend biscuits & gravy & Diner Hash...lunctime Sloppy Jo or Seitanic Caeser salad ..even Thanksgiving Pupmin Ravioli & Diner Wellington. Desserts are fantastic & all VEGAN!
This book gives me so many of the staples I have been enjoying for years...Diner rosemary gravy...Dairy Free Cocoa Mousse.....Scarmbled Tofu..... Just great...thank you Diner!

I do not bother reviewing cookbooks that I do not recommend, and I do recommend this one (barely). I got it as a birthday present from my sister who has eaten there, I have not. So unlike many other reviewers, I do not have an emotional tie to the place. So far we have tried five things. Two (seitan goulash and shepherd's pie--particualrly the day after) were smash hits. The lasagne, lentil loaf and potato leek soup were really not worth the effort. Actually, 40% smash hits (dishes that were not just OK, dishes that people raved about) is a good average. That is why I am recommending it. My reservations are around the style of the cookbook and the suitability of the recipes for home use.

Pet peeve #1, the recipes are in paragraph form. So when you are half way through you have to keep reading the paragraph to find the next unread sentence. Since the cookbook is thin and there is lots of room on the pages, there is no reason not to make it more convenient for the reader by putting each step on a separate line. OK, that is a pet peeve, it is not a big thing.

Pet peeve #2, some of the recipes and instructions are vague. For example "2 cups cooked lentils" -- are they supposed to be red, yellow or brown? does it matter? are they drained (apparently not since they are the only source of liquid in the shepherd's pie which was dry the first time we tried it draining the lentils)? Another example, "dice potatoes" (how big a dice? apparently a small one since you start a new stage when the potatoes start to soften and if they are a medium dice, they are still not nearly done at the end of the stated cooking time).

Restaurant ingredients -- I could have called them "stealth ingredients". By this I mean ingredients like cooked lentils and boiled potatoes. These are not a problem in a restaurant where the sous chef probably made a big pot of cooked lentils earlier. But when you shop on Sunday and come home from work on Thursday and start where the recipe tells you (preheat the oven), your dinner is likely to be delayed as you suddenly discover that the lentils have to be cooked (and for the brown lentils that seem to work best in the Shepherd's Pie, I like to soak them overnight, OOPS!). The lentil loaf also needs to cook in a BIG loaf pan (which I would call restaurant sized) or it gets very dry (even with cooking time reduced to allow for home pan size). Yes, I get it: this IS a restaurant cookbook. But start with "boil the potatoes the night before" not with "preheat the oven."

Preparation time. The dishes seem to take a long time to make. Again, if the sous chef does most of the basics, that is not a problem. But starting after work is different than working in a restaurant. Three hours for a faux meatloaf (that tastes, well, pretty much like meatloaf) is not a home cook friendly recipe (note there seems to be a typo in the lentil loaf as well -- four cups of lentil do not cook in two cups of water, although two cups of lentils might cook in four).

Like I said, I do recommend it: I am going to keep using it as long as the family raves about the food. But I hope the author and publisher will take note for future projects. You probably can't get restaurant results without long prep time, but the directions could be better.

We had the pleasure of eating at the Chicago Diner as we traveled across the country. I was so impressed with the food (especially the lentil loaf), that, when I saw the cookbook up at the register, I had to buy a copy. I haven't been disappointed.

Everything I've made from this cookbook has been delicious. The lentil loaf, the diner gravy, the tofu loaf, the different cookies, etc.. Last night I made the paella and it was better than the vegetarian paella we had in Spain!

If you can't get to the Chicago Diner (and even if you can), this cookbook will give you everything you need to make a host of vegan delights. Jo A. Kaucher is genius!!!

Chicago Diner Cookbook: A Review and Loveletter

Dear Jo,

I received your cookbook with no pictures on loan from a girlfriend from Chicago. The only vegan cookbook I had used up until that point was Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. I had no culinary training whatsoever....well....one day free cooking class at Mother's in Newport Beach ten years earlier, but that hardly counts.

As a completely inexperienced chef, every single recipe I made turned out so well, I felt like someone had broken into my kitchen and planted new food in my oven: impossibly good food. I was outraged at how amazingly easy it was. Why didn't I start sooner?

I made heart shaped pot pies. I made polenta which I'd never seen even in a picture, which somehow turned out magically good as well. Your diner gravy is so good, I could drink it, but self restraint dictates it must go on mashed potatoes or my little pot pies.

Your vegan quiche is so convincing, I tricked many of my non-vegan neighbors into trying it. One neighbor didn't even realize I was vegan until she bumped into me at Whole Foods. I mentioned to an aproned, fundraising, mousy-brown haired girl selling "Save the Earth" cookies that if she really wants to save the earth, she should be vegan. My neighbor overheard my lecture to the non-vegan cookie salesperson and said, "But you're not vegan! You made me that quiche the other day!" Sorry Tauna; I tricked you good.

Ratatouille Provençal, a real crowd pleaser, knocks out guests with delight with a little over 15 minutes prep time. Strogonaff made from tempeh fills me with ecstasy, I ate Ex-Benedict every day for almost two weeks, and I made both Leslie's Mushroom Spread and the Artichoke Dip for vegetable dip for my recent wedding.

Not only did your cookbook open my eyes to the possibilities of expanding my world from baking to cooking, but I have since bought twelve more vegan cookbooks, all of which I use everyday. Well, I don't use ALL of them everyday, but I use at least one or two a day.

My only beef is that the recipes are too huge! I'd been a single mom for eight years, and recipes yielded enough for me to open my own Chicago Diner in my tiny studio apartment in Los Angeles. Now I'm married and I feed three people, including myself, but it's still a little bit of an awkward amount of food.

Thanks for inspiring me to love cooking and facilitating the feeling of being an artist at least three times a day.

Love,
Orchid

I have gotten so many good reviews about the actual diner that I had to get this book. I dont live in Chicago so Im not fortunate enough to go here. But if I ever make it there I will give this restuarant a try. This book is a wonderful addition to my vegan cookbooks. The recipes in here are simple to make yet good and fulfilling. I reccomend this highly and i also give it 2 thumbs up!!!!

When I moved away from Chicago several years ago, I knew that I would really miss the food. One of the things I missed the most was brunch at the Diner. I couldn't get enough of the biscuits & hash. Thanks to this book, I still get to enjoy it as often as I wish. For any ex-Chicagoan out there yearning for some of that tasty tempeh hash (and biscuits, and gravy, and scrambled tofu, and Ex Benedict...), click "Add to Shopping Cart" right now.

I was lucky enough to go to the Chicago Diner for the first time earlier this year, and it was UNBELIEVABLE, so when I saw this cookbook, I was excited to get it, although a bit skeptical about my ability to replicate the incredible meal I had at the real place. Skepticism gone. Everything I have cooked so far from this all vegetarian, mostly vegan book is wonderful. Vegan shepherd's pie is particularly to die for and will warm the bellies of your meat-eating friends and put smiles on their faces. A MUST HAVE for any vegetarian, vegan or person hoping to make great, healthy meals.