44 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Flip to a Page, Start Cooking, May 5, 2005
This review is from: Eat This Book: Cooking with Global Fresh Flavors (Hardcover)
This is a very appealing cookbook. The layout is nice; the way it's bound is nice -- it falls open and stays open, which makes it easy to see while cooking; the organization is fine, the typeface is easy to read; the photographs are bright and tempting.
But more than all that, the recipes are interesting, and so far, from the ones I've tried, they make great food, too.
Tyler Florence is a TV chef personality, which may or may not be a selling point to some home cooks. Nevertheless, this is the kind of cookbook that one can flip through and find recipe after recipe that seems not only yummy, but fairly simple and straightforward.
It's the kind of cookbook that is useful when planning a dinner party menu, and you need fresh ideas for inspiration. The book is fairly basic in its techniques and ingredients, but the results are sophisticated. Even if you're an accomplished home cook, it's a book that can guide you to great meals. If you're not so accomplished, the recipes are very easy to follow with wonderful results.
Eat This Book makes a nice addition to any home chef's kitchen bookcase!
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30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you love Food 911 or Tyler's Ultimate, Buy this Book, May 4, 2006
This review is from: Eat This Book: Cooking with Global Fresh Flavors (Hardcover)
To put this review into perspective for you it is written by someone that has been cooking for 25 years, and concentrating on Italian cooking for the last 10 years. My favorite cookbook is "The Professional Chef" from the Culinary Institute of America. I would definitely consider myself a foodie.
This book is part travel journal and part cookbook. This book doesn't concentrate on one county or one type of cuisine. The emphasis is Tuscan Farmhouse, pan-Asian cooking of Australia, Spanish flavors of Barcelona, and the Mediterranean coast of France all rolled up into one. Tyler refers to this book as the "taste of the American Global palate". I call it delicious.
Most of the recipes are quick to prepare but are very flavorful. The first section of the book is devoted to what I would call kitchen essentials. These are as follows:
1. Herb Mayonnaises and Aioli
2. Fresh Chopped Herb Sauces
3. Fresh Milled Spices
4. Vinaigrettes
5. Stocks
The remainder of the book is recipes that use the essentials above. He divides this as follows (my interpretation is brackets):
1. Devouring (mostly appetizers)
2. Noshing (buffet type fare)
3. Consuming (soups, pastas, light meat dishes)
4. Tasting (heavy vegetable emphasis, summer fare)
5. Savoring (fall food)
6. Licking the Plate Clean (dessert)
While the subdivision of the recipes is a little unorthodox, the recipes themselves are quite good. Many of the recipes seem like something that I might have seen on "Food 911" or "Tyler's Ultimate". Since I don't always watch that show I cannot tell you if all the recipes are from those show, but I suspect many of them are.
I have prepared approximately 50% of the recipes in this book and each one turned out beautifully. His directions for pizza dough were very complete and easy to follow. The recipe for fresh pasta was dead on, and again easy to follow. And, my favorite, the Spaghetti Carbonara was authentic (no cream, yeah!) and the directions were perfect (but use the Pancetta, the offered bacon substitute is not authentic and the smoky flavor will be very noticeable in such a subtle dish). From an Italian cooking perspective Tyler nailed it. I am not as proficient in the other cuisines to speak to their authenticity. But using the Italian recipes as a guide I would guess the others are equally authentic.
If you love to cook, and you don't stick to one type of cuisine, this is a good book to have in your library. Most of the recipes (95%) have a beautiful full color, full-page photo on the page opposite the recipe. The book has a sturdy spine and is printed on glossy paper.
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114 of 131 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Grabbag of Fun Recipes for Weekend Entertainer, April 14, 2005
This review is from: Eat This Book: Cooking with Global Fresh Flavors (Hardcover)
`eat this book' is the second cookbook from Food Network notable chef / educator, Tyler Florence and except for the somewhat more breezy style and fewer pretensions on being a `complete' guide to anything, it pretty much follows in the footsteps of the earlier book by giving us bright, strongly flavored recipes to enhance our pleasure with cooking for ourselves and our families and guests.
My biggest problem with evaluating this book is that after reviewing about 400 cookbooks in the last 18 months, my perceptions can become pretty jaded, but I like to give this book special attention, as Tyler's first book was the fourth book I ever reviewed and I feel just a tad guilty at giving Tyler only four stars, as he is one of my more favorite `serious cooking' Food Network hosts, just a rung or two below Alton Brown and Mario Batali, and at least two or three rungs above Emeril. I hope this book explains why Tyler has been relegated to the stay at home `How to Boil Water' show, when his travelogue shows such as `Food 911' and `Tyler's Ultimate' were the best of the Food Network's roadshow cooking genre. But getting back to this book.
My strongest impression with this second book is that Tyler is even more strongly influenced by the style of Jamie Oliver with breezy, clever phrases for food measurements and catchy, untypical chapter names and very Cosmo cover typesetting for tables of contents with lists of recipes. My recommendation to Tyler is that however strongly I like Jamie Oliver's recipes, I actually dislike his expansive / creative book layouts. Oddly, while Oliver gives very kosher tablespoon measurements of olive oil and doesn't care if you estimate the measurement, Florence says things like `add a two-count of olive oil' without explaining in this book what that means. While I trust an experienced cook will handle this well, I'm afraid a novice can end up with anything from two teaspoons (10 milliliters) to four tablespoons (60 milliliters) depending on their interpretation and the size of the spout on their olive oil dispenser. Also, while I had an epiphany on Oliver's books on the fact that Sir Jamie is less talking about dishes than he is about a way of life which embraces home cooking, I don't get any strongly inspiring vibes from this book from Tyler. But that's just me.
My next strongest impression from Tyler's choice of recipes is how many books does a poor boy need with recipes of international staples such as pasta Puttanesca, panzanella salad, braised lamb shanks, salade Nicoise, gazpacho, guacamole, Pico de Gallo, falafel, tabbouleh, spaghetti Carbonara, veal saltimbocca and mashed potatoes. I probably already have half a dozen copies of each of these recipes in various books. But, for those of you who have the same reservation, I will say that in most cases, Tyler gives the recipe a special touch, just as he did in his first book, where his `Philly Cheese Steak' never saw the inside of a stand in south Philly. Similarly, his mashed potatoes, for example, are really something new to most of us. The single most redeeming aspect of this book for me is when I see Tyler give excellent instructions on doing some of the simplest preparations. His recipe procedure for ghee (Indian butter separated from its water and milk solids) is as good or better than anything I have seen in an Indian cookbook. Similarly, the technique for veal saltimbocca has some new twists which will help the novice produce a satisfactory result (Note that I am really happy Tyler gives us the true Roman recipe and not the `Italian / American' recipe with spinach and heavy gravy).
So, Tyler's new book, like his last, is oriented to non-foodies who may not have a lot of cookbooks, but who would like one or two which promise strongly flavored dishes without necessarily being constrained by a `fast cooking' requirement.
For the foodies among us, I think there is even something for our jaded palates in the first chapter on pantry preparations such as mayonnaises, pestos, spice mixes, vinaigrettes, and stocks. In this assortment are 32 recipes, including a very nice collection of aioli recipes. I especially like Tyler's Italian influenced recipe for chicken stock, as it is short on vegetables and cooking time, with a byproduct of poached chicken for salads and sandwiches. This is about the easiest chicken stock recipe I have seen which I believe will work. Therefore, it is more likely people will actually do it.
The remaining chapters have names which are simply too cute to be believed. They are:
Devouring, or appetizers from the Spanish tapas and Greek Mezes.
Noshing, or fun food such as pizzas, salsas, dips, and grilled goodies.
Consuming, or fast whole meal dishes such as pasta, pan roasted chicken, and steaks with frites.
(I am especially fond of the fact that we get the Ligurian pesto lasagna rather than the heavier Bolognese version with tomato sauce. A+ for that one, Tyler)
Tasting, or spring and summer street food such as roasted corn, grilled squid, and pulled pork barbecue. (Extra credit for the simple little chile recipe when what you really want is a splashy hot dog topping).
Savoring or dishes when you have a lot of time to put into the cooking such as braised and large roasts.
Licking the Plate Clean for 15 widely diverse desserts. Some baking skills required here.
I forgive the cute naming since the audience is people who want to cook and have fun a few times a month, not picky cookbook collectors. Good, reasonable list price and easily readable book design.
Recommended.
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