51 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Better than average Emeril fare. Buy It., November 6, 2005
This review is from: Emeril's Delmonico: A Restaurant with a Past (Hardcover)
`Emeril's Delmonico' by (nominally) the poster boy of celebrity chefs, Emeril Lagasse, is a very nice celebrity chef cookbook. It is certainly more appealing to me than the last three of Emeril's books I have reviewed, and even better than the only one of Lagasse's books, `From Emeril's Kitchens' to which I gave five stars.
Since I have so many different cookbooks, it often takes but one recipe in a new book to turn on my interest. That recipe in this book is the one for turtle soup. I have been pouring over soup cookbooks for months looking for a good turtle soup recipe, but there are none to be found. Even better, Emeril has given us a source for turtle meat and no warnings about these beasts being on any endangered species list, so I suspect the turtle meat source is from farm raised turtles.
My discovering that recipe put me in a good frame of mind to look kindly on this book and once I was settled in, I was pretty happy with what I saw.
For starters, there is a brief history of the Delmonico's restaurant name and its various incarnations in both New York City, where the Delmonico family opened the original restaurant in the 1820's. Yes, that is over 180 years ago! The New Orleans Delmonicos founders have no family connection to the New York restaurant, although the New Orleans founders did ask for and receive permission to use the famous New York restaurant's name. The family that has owned and run the New Orleans Delmonico's sold their name and location to Emeril Lagasse's company in 1997. Emeril reopened the restaurant under his name in 1998, with many recipes carried over from the earlier owners' regime, created by chefs employed by the earlier owners.
In a nutshell, the cuisine at Emeril's Delmonico as represented in this book is a high end synthesis of local Cajun and Creole dishes with fine dining dishes made famous by great restaurants of the past in New York, New Orleans, and other famous dishes such as, for example, the Caesar salad from Tijuana, Mexico. While this is food for `high end' dining, it is not really the same as what you would expect to find from `haute cuisine' shops such as those of Thomas Keller, Charlie Trotter, Alan Ducasse, or Daniel Boulud. The good news here is that while many dishes require a lot of ingredients, some of which may be a bit unfamiliar to the average amateur chef, they should almost always be easy to find, with the possible exception of that elusive turtle meat and crawfish, which I have never seen in the flesh here in the darkest Lehigh Valley, even at our high end megamart.
One very easy way I had to gauge the quality of the recipes was to look at Emeril's recipe for Caesar Salad. It is actually almost identical to my very favorite method from Mark Bittman's `How to Cook Everything', including the use of a coddled egg and anchovies in the dressing. Emeril even goes Bittman one better by writing it up in such a way that the Caesar dressing can be made in advance, necessary for restaurant use. My only concern is that Emeril puts a bit of raw, chopped garlic in the dressing rather than rubbing the cut garlic on the salad bowl. I have made Caesar salad with raw garlic and if one is not very careful, it can be just a bit too strong a bite for some people.
Many of these recipes have lots of different ingredients, which involves a lot of prep work. The recipe for hearty vegetable soup, for example, calls for sixteen (16) ingredients, nine (9) of which require peeling and chopping. Surprisingly, one of the ingredients is a commercially prepared chicken base, even though the book gives recipes for at least two different chicken stocks. The plus side of this picture is that the instructions for making this soup are extremely simple. And, this is pretty true of most recipes in this book. And, while you need some good basic kitchen skills and equipment, you don't need a CIA degree to make these dishes. One of my family's favorite dishes is fried oysters, and Emeril gives us a very nice and simple recipe which should be easy, as long as you know your way around a deep frying rig, whether it be a high end fryolator, a Fry Daddy, or a Dutch oven plus thermometer. This is important, because Emeril doesn't give us the tutorial on making the oil deep enough and gives no more details than to state the temperature of the frying oil, letting it up to us to realize you will need a candy / deep frying thermometer.
Before I had the epiphany over finding the turtle soup recipe, it seemed to me that Emeril was being just a bit excessive in putting in all the recipes for staples such as mayonnaise, but I changed my mind. Even if you don't use them, at least it tells you that at Emeril's Delmonico, they make their own mayonnaise, and here is how they do it. On the other hand, I was more than casually interested in seeing Emeril's own recipe for Worcester sauce. This is probably not something you want to make on a regular basis, unless you happen to be opening `Joe's Delmonico' in New Hope, but if you wanted to entertain and really aim to impress, this is one way to do it.
Emeril, unlike some other celebrity cookbook authors such as Rachael Ray, is someone whose books you have to examine one by one, because he covers so many genres, but this one I recommend to everyone who cooks, especially to anyone with more than a passing interest in old school New York / New Orleans restaurant dining.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
From the "BAM" Master Himself!, January 9, 2007
This review is from: Emeril's Delmonico: A Restaurant with a Past (Hardcover)
We are impressed, my wife and I have bought several cookbooks over the years and this one surpasses most if not all of them. Professional and yet personal in content, there are numerous recipes for soups, salads, brunches, seafood, poultry, side dishes, meats, sweets, cocktails and libations with easy to read recipes all backed up by full page COLOR photos. Even the most inexperienced cook ~ yours truly ~ can follow and fix these recipes without much difficulty and end up with mouth watering food that will curl your toes, make you smile REAL BIG and make you say, "Mmmmmmmmmm, that's so GOOOOOOD!" Talk about turning it up another notch!
My wife said that usually there is only one or two recipes in any given cookbook that she is normally interested in, that's mainly why she buys them but doesn't like spending the money for just 1 or 2 recipes, but in this book she has found several that she likes and said that the money spent was worth it, especially the dessert section!
There is a short history of the restaurant itself from it's origin back in 1820 to the one presently located in New Orleans, there is a short tribute to the old Delmonico cooks, and a thank you section for all that contributed in the making of this book by Emeril himself that really adds a personal quality to the content of this book. This book was not something that was thrown together at the last minute that had Emeril's name attached to it so that it would sell, it is really something special that came together during it's making that I am sure you will see if you buy one. It's in hardback so that it can take a beating in the kitchen while recipes are being made. My wife says that it's also good for running your husband out of the kitchen while things are cooking!
I am a mediocre cook at best, however, when I am armed with this book while I'm cooking, I really do feel super and I have a lot more confidence than I normally do! My wife is the master cook of the family and she loves it and recommends it, I think that it is safe to say that you probably won't be disappointed if you buy it. If you're still not sold on this book then I encourage you to go to one of the retail book sellers in your area to look at the book and check it out for yourself in their store. That way you don't have to spend any money. Thanks for letting me share!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cookbook with A Future, December 29, 2005
This review is from: Emeril's Delmonico: A Restaurant with a Past (Hardcover)
Emeril has many amazing talents, developed by zest for good food and preserving yet extending the culinary past. Here, infamous Delmonico NYC and NO are propelled into a rich future by the BamMan.
Lagasse pays homage to the past Creole and NY menus, yet gives them twists and kicks up a few notches with his offerings. It's neat that he lets the former chefs test kitchen these and incorporates much of their tastes and advice.
There is much here to try from this varied and sophisticated collection of recipes. Feast your eyes and tastebuds on such as: Lump Crabmeat and Brie Strudels with Herbsaint Cream Glaze; Oyster Artichocke Soup; Arugula, Duck and Strawberry Salad with Balsalmic Brown Sugar Vinaigrette and Candied Pecans; Chorizo and Manchego Cheese Omelet; Trout Delmonico (awesome dish with shrimp/oysters in lemon butter sauce, simple yet elegant showstopper); Individual Beel Wellingtons with perigourdine Sauce; Stilton Potato Gratin; Velvet Chocolate Torte with Clear Orange-Caramel Sauce; Lemon Meringue Pie (improved custard with thick, blowtorched meringue).
This certainly isn't for the intimadated by multiple steps or fresh and some exotic ingredients, but for rest and the venturesome in the gastric, this book is toprate. The home gourmet will have ample ammo for that next blow-away dinner party. This is superb, outstanding recipe collection from one of today's best.
Great photos as well as pointers and history of restaurant is outstanding.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
