Customer Reviews

Cooking for Friends

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Perhaps most famous in the U.S. as the host of "Hell's Kitchen," British chef and restaurant entrepreneur Gordon Ramsay shares his cooking expertise in his new book "Cooking for Friends." The book itself is filled with quality photos and split into nine sections: Hot and Cold Soups, Pasta and Grains, Fish and Shellfish, Meat and Poultry, Savory Pies and Tarts, Vegetables and Salads, Desserts and Ices, Chocolate and Coffee, as well as Basics. The recipes themselves are full of European flavor, which is not surprising since Ramsay is from the U.K. Each section starts off with a brief introduction by Ramsay, as well as a listing of all the recipes in this section. Through the introductions, we learn that Ramsay's soups recipes were influenced by his experience with the New England clam chowder, his love for pasta stems from the time he was trained as a chef in Sicily and Sardinia, while his creativity with chocolate dates back to his time working in Paris. Other food sections are influenced by Ramsay's lifestyle--such as the weekly pies his mother baked when he was a child or his wife's Tana's wish to have their children enjoy a rich vegetarian diet. The recipes themselves are unique, with many quite challenging while others fit for beginners. Some of my favorite recipes included lemon meringue pie, grilled vegetable lasagna, crayfish chowder, dark chocolate marquise, and wild mushroom barley risotto. The end of this book has an index structured by ingredients, which I found to be another helpful aspect of this book. So, for example if I want to cook something with bacon, I could look it up in the index and find the page numbers for the recipes that include this ingredient. Same for other ingredients like walnuts, cherries, cheese, celery, etc. Last but not least, this colorful book--embedded with not only images of the recipes but also Ramsay's family gatherings, looks like it would look good on a coffee table or make a great gift for any food lover.

I've watched Gordon Ramsay on several of his TV shows, particularly on BBC America. He can have Attitude -- oh boy can he! But he also demonstrates a passion for cooking, and his perfectionism very obviously comes from his desire to do things right. That inspired me to pick up his most recent cookbook, Cooking for Friends -- and I'm very glad I did.

Ramsay's cookbook doesn't fall into an easy classification. This isn't special-occasion cooking for impressing the boss (though several recipes would qualify) nor is it exactly family cooking (though again, several recipes fit into that category). It certainly isn't "30 minute meals" as some recipes require quite a bit of time; yet at least a few of the meals are simple enough for a weeknight dinner. I'd have to call this collection, "Recipes that Ramsay likes to make and his friends and family like to eat." Based on my experimentation, so far, I'd have to say that I LIKE that category.

Chapters are devoted to soups; pasta and grains; fish and shellfish; meat and poultry; savory pies and tarts; vegetables and salads; desserts and ices; chocolate and coffee; and basics (chicken stock, etc.). Around half have photos; that matters to some people. About 50 pages of the 260-page book are devoted to desserts and after-dinner treats -- a plus for some people, a detriment to others.

So far, I've made two dishes, both of which were outstanding. As Ramsay describes it, his pork tenderloin stronganoff is "a lovely, unfussy dish to make for supper," served over buttered pasta. It took an hour start-to-finish in the kitchen, with ingredients I mostly had in the house. My husband practically licked the plate. Ramsay's duck breasts with port and cherry sauce created an awesome sauce. (The flub was my fault. He called for 4 duck breasts, each 7-8 ounces; mine were nearly a pound each. Next time I'll pay more attention!) On my "I'll make this soon!" list are broccoli, Stilton, and pear soup; the weeknight-friendly pasta with bacon, peas, and sage; his Shepherd's Pie (assuming I can find a source for Branston Pickle). It's a British book so it reflects their common ingredients -- rather more lamb and venison than we can buy here, for example, at least at affordable prices. Yet I dare say that you can find most ingredients at your local grocery (Branston Pickle notwithstanding).

While none of his techniques are fussy, he definitely doesn't encourage you to take shortcuts. The duck dish has you reduce ingredients by half at least twice; you don't just dump stuff in a pot, give it a big stir, and serve it up. The effort does show in the finished dish, but new or impatient cooks may not care for this.

I do, however. Ever since I got this book, I've cheered on Ramsay's F-Word shows with more enthusiasm. This is a guy who cares about cooking things RIGHT. And my dinners show it.

I have always loved Gordon Ramsay on television. I have not always felt his cookbooks translate well to American cooking. This one does though. I not only loved the recipes and the organization of the book (by course type and protein type mostly) but the photos and the commentary are also great. The book pulled me in from the cover and kept me enraptured all the way to the index. Duck with Port wine and cherry sauce, Pear Frangipane are both on my immediate must try list. Casual enough for everyday cooking and elegant enough for any special occasion, this is going to be my go to Gordon Ramsay cookbook. One caveat: make sure you read the cook's notes in the beginning. If you don't have a convection oven, all temperatures should be set 25 degrees higher than the recipe calls for.

We have tried several receipes to date and have liked all of them. Will likely purchase another book or two from Gordon Ramsay.

What's not to like about Gordon Ransay (unless you're on the sharp end of his tongue). The man clearly understands food and these meals display and very different inventiveness and degree of taste he would not be able to show in a restaurant setting.

I have cooked several of these recipes for myself and they were delightful.

Gordon has a lot of nice receipies in this book. I have tried several and been happy with most of them. What I really like about Gordon is that he is not tunnel visioned about the types of recipes hence, you get some nice variety. I think for the money, you wont be sorry to add it to your collection like I did.

We love Gordon Ramsay in our household. So had to have this one and it is wonderful!

Cookbooks aren't just about the recipes. Part of the reason a person might buy a cookbook is to get a sense of the author/chef and to feel welcomed into his or her world. Gordon Ramsay's most visible world is the one on TV, where we see him losing his sh*% with yet another wanna-be chef in Hell's Kitchen. For him, a cookbook called "Cooking for Friends" is intriguing, because it's easy to wonder if he has any friends. The title is the main reason I picked up the book at the library. I'm very glad I didn't pay for this book because it utterly fails to live up to its name. I could not get past the depressing design and text to even try out the recipes. As introduction, Ramsay writes about how much more relaxed he is at home with his family and friends, compared with the stresses and speed of the professional kitchen. He says that cooking at home is a family affair -- everyone has a job to do, and there is great pleasure in the doing. The kids help with the food shopping at the farmers' market, and they often use their own money to buy produce. Back in the kitchen, the naughtiest child gets put on dish duty. Ramsay has a dishwasher that he says rarely gets used because it's important that his children know how to wash things manually. Fair enough. But why does he choose to give us this information in practically the same breath where he says time in the kitchen is fun and relaxed? It gives the impression that he is not as relaxed as he would like us to believe. The accompanying photos do nothing to support his introduction, either. Nowhere in this book do you see Ramsay having a fine time cooking at home with his wife and children. In fact, all the group photos are of a single lunch with friends. In many of the photos, it's hard to detect that anyone is having a particularly good time. Ramsay is shown at the head of the table looking unengaged. The effect is absolutely dreary. For some reason, the photographer took far too many shots of Ramsay sitting alone at the head of the table, with a monotone backdrop. He is looking at the camera with his head in his hands. How on earth does a shot like that make it into a book called "Cooking for Friends" even once, much less several times? We see Ramsay in isolation. Compare this with Tyler Florence's "Dinner at My Place," a book that takes the same approach -- cooking for family and friends. With Florence's book, you get a lovely sense of how he interacts with his wife, his children, his friends and his community. You see how much he loves the people around him, and how much they love him. The recipes are created with his loved ones in mind: a birthday dinner for his wife, game night with the guys, a meal he made to satisfy his wife's pregnancy cravings, Sunday night dinner, even homemade baby food. Where is that level of personal engagement in Ramsay's book? Although many of the recipes in "Cooking for Friends" do sound scrumptious, it's as if nobody tried all that hard to make the book itself sing the title in every page. That's a shame. This book undoubtedly was a lot of work for a great many creative and talented people. It's difficult to believe that at no point did anyone take a hard look at how it was coming together and see how deeply flawed it was.