Customer Reviews

The Dean and DeLuca Cookbook

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3 star:		(2)
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If you are not in the habit of taking the greatest of care not only in the choice of what you eat, but how you eat it, prepare to be mildly offended. David Rosengarten, and one presumes Dean and DeLuca as well, have very definite ideas of what ingredients should go together, and in what quantities, and the way they tell you is, well, downright snooty. If, like me, you enjoy balsamic vinegar on your salads, or your pasta swimming in tomato sauce, you will also be told, very clearly, what a Philistine you truly are.

So be it. I can get over the slights sent my way in this book, because I have now prepared upwards of 20 to 25 recipes presented here, and there hasn't been a bad one yet. Soups, meat dishes, poultry dishes, pasta sauces, sandwiches, you name it, it's been a hit on my table and on my palate. I'm not sure I would classify any of the recipes here as "easy," but they are far from the most elaborate that I have encountered. This is one of the top two or three cookbooks currently on my shelf, and one of the first I turn to when I want to try something new. From a purely gustatory standpoint, I give this my highest recommendation--unless, of course, you are easily offended.

I am still in the cooking experimentation stage (read: I usually have no clue when it comes to cooking). I love food and my philosophy has always been 'genius lies in simplicity.' This book epitomizes that philosophy. I have tried several recipes and to my utter surprise, not only were they easy, but also tasted great ! I highly recommend this book.

When most of us think of cooking dinner, we think of a quick saute of chicken, a splash of wine, a simple salad.

Rosengarten's book is NOT for most of us.

Still, that fact does not detract from its considerable appeal and accomplishment. This is a book to break open for the two or three times a year when you MUST impress: a romantic dinner for two with top quality ingredients, candlelight, and a diamond sitting atop the tiramisu; a gorgeous array of sumptuous courses for the firm Partners; a slow-cooked, soul-warming pot of (updated) cassoulet, sans the 7-times-broken crust.

What Rosengarten has created with "The Dean and Deluca Cookbook" is a fascinating insider's look at the culinary world, where food and drink hold center-stage at all times. His chapter on salads, for instance, describes in detail dozens of varieties of greens, offering tips for mixing them that sometimes seem more appropos to a chemistry lab than a salad plate. While most of us would not seek out these kinds of ingredients for an everyday meal (a truly up-to-snuff salad may run $15 in ingredients!), being able to read about it is the voyeuristic next-best-thing.

The anecdotes and advice are almost as rich as the food. Soak up Rosengarten's considerable expertise, and you'll be well on the way to creating dazzling menus and timeless memories--just be sure to plan to spend the better part of a weekend creating the meal itself.

Not for the faint of heart,the hurried,or the harried, this book is nevertheless a treasure. It richly deserves be proudly displayed (a gorgeous parchment-papered cover and the visual layout of the book are as appealing as the recipes inside) next to the Classics on the cookbook shelf of every epicure.

This is a very useful "contemporary American" cookbook- It's well-written, informative, and full of great recipes. It's pretty ecclectic, and I find myself disappointed sometimes when I try to look something up in the index and it isn't there. It's kind of like asking your braniac friend a question and they don't have the answer- you kind ofassume that they do. This book is so good at what it does you assume it's good at everything. The biggest problem with this book is that it doesn't have all the answers. The greatest thing is that all the answers it has are correct. This isn't one of those utility cookbooks you use like "Joy of Cooking" or "Fanny Farmer." You might not find a gravy recipe, but if you want to serve a dynamite meal to guests without looking like you were trying to get all fancy, this is a great book. And let me reiterate that there's a lot more than recipes in this book- it's also very informative. The continuous use of the third-person plural (The "Royal WE") is a bit annoying, but it's clear that this is David Rosengarten having to prentend that two guys named "Dean" and "Delucca" actually wrote it. Not terribly friendly to dieters, this book is nevertheless not all about fat and carbs. Just lots of good food. Really, really good food.

Solid recipes without someone's rediculous "interpretation" of what a traditional dish should or could be. Great basic cooking techniques for the novice, some more daring for the experienced.

I own 100's of cookbooks and cooking magazines - mexican, italian, asian - you name it. This one never fails, and I always go back to it.

Chez Panisse's Alice Waters on the west coast is generally credited with having educated people's palates to the wonders of food that was fresh, fresh, fresh and simply prepared; Dean & DeLuca helped to do the same on the East Coast, but instead of preparing them to enjoy such food only in restaurant settings, the store enabled them to try new culinary tricks at home. Dean & DeLuca's vast stock of formerly unavailable (and frequently pretty esoteric) food goodies emboldened even the most timid of home chefs, and sharpened the sophistication of the New York appetite.

Written by television cooking show host and former GOURMET restaurant reviewer David Rosengarten, with considerable input from Dean and DeLuca themselves, "The Dean & DeLuca Cookbook" is a compendium of nearly 600 recipes. The recipes are divided into component-based sections, rather than seasonal chapters. The dishes are unfailingly imaginative (sometimes perhaps too much so, substituting flash over substance), and Rosengarten has a highly developed flair for educating the reader in manageable bits and pieces with his ingredient and technique tips.

My only complaint is that there is nary an illustration in the entire book. Because the act of eating employs all the senses, I expect any cookbook to reasonably approximate this experience, if only as a way of tempting me to try the recipes. "The Dean & DeLuca Cookbook" is filled with delicious-sounding stuff, but as an invitation to cook, it is a little too text-bookish and nose-to-the-grindstone.

My husband and I have been using this cookbook for a few weeks now and we just love it. We've always enjoyed cooking, but this book has all of our favorite recipes for dishes we frequently order in restaurants - with normal ingredients and relatively easy instructions. It's like a dream come true! We just dove in and started using it, but after finishing up a delicious meal from the cookbook last night, I sat down to read the introduction, and I agreed with every word. If you like cooking and trying new/different combinations of ingredients, buy this cookbook NOW. You don't have to buy fancy items from the store (I find everything I need from my local supermarket), and - at least the recipes I've tried so far - have been relatively simple and DEAD ON delicious on the first try. Suggestion: cook the dish to recipe the first time, then improvise on your own (ex. some recipes call for a medium to heavy amount of butter and oils, when you can usually get away with halving the fats and using extra wine or stock if your palate is not too refined). Our favorite so far is the mushroom risotto. Yummmmmmm.

I first borrowed this book from the library to test the recipes, and ended up renewing it twice before buying my own copy. Every recipe I've tried has come out fantastic - and they haven't been very difficult, either (although some have taken me longer than I thought because of prep time- like peeling shallots and garlic).

My husband loves meat loaf, but I was never able to make it exactly right. Thanks to the Dean & Deluca recipe, I don't have to keep searching for that perfect recipe (I found it here). The roast chicken with shallots and rosemary was absolutely wonderful and the chicken cacciatorre had my 11-year old raving for days -- he ate all the leftovers, too!

Many thanks to the Dean & Deluca Cookbook for letting us in on the secret to delicious food, and providing us with easy-to-follow instructions! I am really looking forward to trying the other recipes (and there are a LOT of them!).

I have dozens upon dozens of great cookbooks, but I find that I consistently begin with only a handful of them when looking for a good recipe: Joy of Cooking, Bittman's How to Cook Everything, and this great Rosengarten offering. Try making the beef carbonnade - he suggests adding prunes, which works incredibly well.

This is the best cookbook I own. Granted I'm in a phase of cooking where I can make a slew of pasta dishes, but now I want to branch out a little. This book provides clear and concise recipes for all my favorite "basic" dishes, from quesadillas and matzo balls to thai curries and falafels. The authors also give tips on seemingly simple things such as making fluffy rice, buying fish smoking meat, as well as in depth descriptions of grains, seafood, veggies etc. in their many varieties.

What I love most about this book is that it allows the reader to master the basic recipe before it provides another trussed up version. If I want french onion soup, I don't want someone else's fancified take. I want one that tastes damn good and takes me back to France in the winter. (And it does too!)

This book is for the seasoned and novices alike who love good unadulterated regional basics with the occasional fancy versions thrown in too.