Customer Reviews

The Cuisine of California

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought a first edition of the hardcover The Cuisine of California way back when and cooked so many wonderful, flavorful dishes from it that nearly every page was sprinkled with carrot soup or dijon mustard sauce! When I saw the new paperback edition in the cookbook section at my local bookstore, I was overjoyed to see that I could get a CLEAN copy, and that a new batch of serious home cooks would have a chance to sample from this sophisticated, but easy and well-organized work. Members of my family still ask for "that great pork loin stuffed with apricots dish from your favorite cookbook!"--and I never tire of making it, since the directions are easy to follow and not loaded with fat. To me, The Cuisine of California has become a culinary standard, right up there with the Joy of Cooking, The Silver Palate, and all the James Beard cookbooks.

I've had my copy of The Cuisine of California for almost 20 years--and its stains, tears and loose pages testify to its worth.

Got a dinner party coming up? Pull out this book and you're guaranteed to find a winning recipe--with menu and wine suggestions too. Want a cozy and delicious dinner for two? You'll find great ideas inside.

The ingredients lists and recipes are clear and supplemented by a glossary. I've halved and doubled recipes with little difficulty and have never had a failure. I trust this book so much that I've routinely served guests a dish I hadn't prepared before--with rave reviews!

This is a cookbook that belongs in every kitchen!

On our trip to Napa Valley we spent a few nights in a great city called Calastoga. There we had the best food on this earth. We stopped by the Culinary Institute to look at some cookbooks, so I enquired about a book that would have the same recipes that we were tasting on our trip...this was what they recommended. My favorite recipe is Grilled Lemon-mustard Chicken. I recommend this book highly, as I purchase a copy for my brother the chef, for Christmas!

I use this cookbook all the time. Everything is great

Living in the Napa Valley has certainly changed my eating and cooking tastes! Again and again, this cookbook is the answer to my culinary needs. Some favorite recipes are the Herbed Butternut Squash-Apple Soup, Baked Sonoma Goat Cheese with Emerald Sauce, Caesar Salad, Beet and Walnut Salad with Blue Cheese, California Fish Stew (Yum) to name a few.

An added benefit of the cookbook is the wine recommendation given with each recipe. I am ordering three copies today. One copy to replace mine which has fallen apart, and two copies for gifts. My old copy has no pictures and I don't know if the new release will have any, but I haven't felt shortchanged by the lack of pictures in my nearly 20 years of using this book.

There is one huge problem with this cookbook,it is so wonderful, so full of outrageously delcious receipes that the binding just does not hold up to hard use. I want a hard back copy and it simply is not available. If you love to serve elegant delcious fare, then this is one of THE MUST HAVE, MUST USE cookbooks. I am ordering my 4th copy as the others have all fallen apart due to over use. This book will become a dependable "kitchen friend". I've even taken to keeping an extra copy on hand to gift to friends. It is a rarity to find a cookbook where every receipe is foolproof, elegant, and delicious.

After signing on to Amazon.com to purchase yet another 2 copies of The Cuisine of California which has become a standard gift choice for me, I was beyond shocked to find a disparaging review by Marielle. This book is one of the best cookbooks ever written. Each recipe has become a classic in my kitchen. As an avid collector of cookbooks, there are some 400 in my collection, if I were asked to reccommend one book, without question The Cuisine of Californina would be my choice! A standard without a doubt!

I found the first edition (1983) of this book at a Goodwill store in Long Beach, California while on a recent road trip with my friend Sophie and since we were staying at a place that had cooking facilities, I decided to try something from the book. When you're on the road one might think you'd be limited as to what you can prepare. One might think you'd be dining in restaurants, or much worse, eating frozen meals done in motel microwaves. One would be wrong if one thought that of me. I brought along a cooler full of stuff I might need. A chef on the road is still a chef.

One thing I always look for in a new cookbook is something I might never have tried and I found it straightaway here. "Chilled Cantaloupe Soup." I looked over the recipe and new I had to own this book. I couldn't wait, but I had to, because the recipe calls for four hours chilling. It was delicious. This book is packed full of delicious looking recipes, but if you only ever make the cantaloupe soup, you'll have gotten your money back ten fold, it's that good.

The recipes are wonderful, the layout superb, the directions are quite good, the pictures...somewhat sparse. But overall it is an excellent cookbook and I highly recommend it. If you are looking for diagrams and presentation hints, this isn't the best guide, but as a staple of California cuisine recipes, it is hard to beat.

Well done.

There are a very few cookbooks (and I'm not talking about the "omnibus" types like Joy of Cooking)that I turn to again and again, and this is one of them. Having shredded my first copy, I'm delighted to purchase another for myself--it's a favorite gift for friends as well. This book captures the essence of California cooking I discovered when I moved there in the 80's, avoiding the "just-one-too-many-ingredient" recipes that took over pop California cuisine subsequently. The recipes are simple and unaffected and the flavors are great...in fact, I cooked the grilled chicken with salsa and mustard butter this very evening!!