Customer Reviews

Fiamma: The Essence of Contemporary Italian Cooking

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

 

 

I spent three and a half weeks in Italy on my honeymoon and then spent three and a half weeks on my return to San Francisco trying to find food that tasted like what we ate all over Italy, without success. I was looking for a good Italian cook book recently and spent several hours at the local bookstore reading and studying the many offerings. After five minutes reading Fiamma, I was struck by the how different this book felt. I almost felt I was back in Cinque Terra watching seafood risotto being prepared as I read parts of Mr. White's book. There is great value and beauty to the simple, well-considerd thoughts and recipes presented in Fiamma. Our many great meals in Italy were made with fresh,simple ingredients.Fiamma captures the essence of this style in its recipes. I felt like I had met a kindred spirit to my visit to Italy in reading about the lessons Mr. Smith learned cooking there. I haven't cooked all the recipes yet, but can say without hesitation, that following Smith's mantra of buying the freshest and best quality ingredients you can afford makes the recipes I've prepared shine. There are many easy and straightford recipes presented..great value for money to those who Love Italian food!I look forward to eating at the restaurant in New York as well.

`Fiamma' by American restauranteur of Italian cuisine, Michael White, assisted by Joanna Pruess, with desserts by Elizabeth Katz is another in the recent trend of books which market themselves as manuals on `contemporary Italian cooking' when they are actually nothing more than good restaurant cookbooks. Another recent entry into this category is Scott Conant's `New Italian Cooking', which impressed me when I reviewed it, in spite of the pretentious title and aspirations.

Conant and White seem to have much in common, especially as they distinguish themselves from `Mister Italian chef in New York', the redoubtable Mario Batali. While Mario's genetic credentials run to true `Italian-American' traditions, Conant and White both seem to pride themselves on having virtually no Italian blood. We have ample evidence that this is no barrier to cooking great Italian food and even creating great Italian styled dishes. The Brits, Rogers and Gray and wunderkind, Jamie Oliver have been serving up first rate Italian dishes for years now, and both London's River Café and Oliver's `15' seem to be thriving on this diet.

Conant and White are also predominantly rooted in the Northern Italian cuisine, but both distinguish themselves from Mario by focusing on distinctly Italian ingredients. This really sort of runs contrary to their claim to modernity, as Mario seems to have the right idea when he applies the Italian food ethic to local American ingredients. But, all three manage to create totally marvelous dishes.

A glance at White's Table of Contents reveals a style about as Italian as you can get and still be publishing an American book. All primary chapter and recipe titles are in Italian, with all having an English translation just below. A quick glance at recipe titles shows White being almost 100% true to the classic Italian larder and market. In one recipe, White says `I like to marry old dishes with contemporary ingredients.' Well, his ingredients in this dish (not including herbs and spices) are truffle oil, balsamic vinegar, baby artichokes, sea scallops, and frisee. Now which of these ingredients is `contemporary'? I will grant that combining `carciofi alla giudia' with scallops and frisee may be new, but these are certainly not new ingredients. The author makes something of the fact that the pumpkin is a `new world' vegetable that only arrived in Italy in the 16th century. I guess that in a country where a 900-year-old church may be considered `young', this is new, but then the great orange gourd got there at the same time as the tomato, and no one is calling the tomato a `new' Italian ingredient. `The Silver Spoon', the Italian `Joy of Cooking' has 16 recipes for pumpkin listed in its index. There are also several dishes done `in the style of ...' one Italian region or another. Where is the `Contemporary' in this book?

I confess I'm having just a bit of fun at Chef White's expense. I really like almost all the recipes in this book, and I have no doubt that most of the recipes in the book are White's own creation, as much as Conant's recipes and Rogers and Gray's recipes are their own takes on Italian ingredients and techniques. I am also pleased that publisher Wiley didn't put a premium price tag on the book, as they did with the somewhat pretentious `Working the Plate' from Christopher Styler.

Comparing books from both Conant and White to Batali's flagship restaurant book `The Babbo Cookbook', I find both Conant and White's recipes to tend to the simpler, with much more uncommon with Rogers and Gray than with `Molto Mario'.

I also think White brings just a bit of unusual insight to Italian cooking. His sidebars have offered some notions I have not seen before, but they are not earth shaking. If you want major insights into Italian culinary technique, see Marcella Hazan's `Marcella Says...'.

As I swing between assigning four or five stars, I look at the dessert chapter done by Ms. Katz, and decide that this contribution tips the balance to five stars. The recipes are true to Italian Dolci simplicity, but have an extra Franco-American panache that makes them more interesting than poached pears and Parmesan. I also give extra credit for the quality of the photographs, except for the fact that many times they seem to end up one page too far on.

This will do what all good restaurant cookbooks should do; provide good, new, not too expensive recipes with a story. In this case, the story is that an American mid-westerner goes to Italy and does good in the Italian kitchen.

this is a great book! i cook a lot of french and ialian foods. everyting from Laurousse to Giada and back again. i just cooked my first two recipes from this book (the cod/shellfish dish on page 120, and the short ribs braise on page 172) and as a result i had the two best meals i have made in quite some time.
the fish dish was done by the time the pasta was finished cooking. very, very quick, delicious food.
of course short ribs take a long time to cook, but it's not like you are doing anything for it while it is cooking. the prep for that one was quick. quicker than most american style stews.
this book is not american- italian. it is italian.
i don't know just what is so magical about his recipes- none read like anything lots of other books would not have...they just turn out better.
buy it.
use it.

Luscious photographs and bold presentation showcase the contemporary Italian flair of White's New York and Las Vegas restaurants.

Like most elegant restaurant cookbooks, this is as much for savoring in the armchair as taking to the kitchen. White offers cooking tips and suggestions for ingredient substitution inn his evocative recipe introductions but many of his luscious dishes require more patience or kitchen help than the average home cook is likely to coax out of family members.

Robiola Cheese with Soft Polenta and Fonduta, for example, essentially a rich cheese ball covered with polenta and topped with shaved truffles requires an hour of continuous stirring for the polenta as well as a tricky cheese sauce and a bit of quick assembly before your cool cheese ball melts. That said, it's delicious.

Creamy Artichoke and Sunchoke Soup calls for some chopping and several cooking steps but looks to be worth it, as do the Herbed Pork Rolls made with pounded pork tenderloin, sage, rosemary and Romano.

And a few dishes are simple: Rabbit Braised in Oil is a must try - and the 3 cups of braising oil can and should be used again - and Farmer-Style Spinach, well cooked with wine, vinegar and mushrooms has a melting texture.

A beautiful and inspiring book for cooks with a bit of flair and ambition.

-- Portsmouth Herald

1 star for great photos and 1 star for interesting combinations of foods. The book's worth of owning decreases rapidly once you start to cook from it. It would simialr to a hiking book with great photos of places you always wanted to hike but when you used it you found the distances quoted in error and the terrain to be more difficult than described.

The recipes are in error of the serving sizes, e.g.., the individual chocolate cakes recipe makes substantially more than 8 cup cakes. This also points to another problem, poor editing. The aforemention recipe indicates muffin tin and then uses the word cup cake later. A similar problem is with the expresso and gelato calling for shot glasses but the volume being served will overfill a small shot glass as specifeid in the recipe.

The recipe for the polenta with broccoli rabe produces a polenta with slippery texture. While in the introdcution White discusses his method of making polenta without fats, the texture of the polenta in this particular recipe suffered.

Use this book for the concepts of the combinations of foods and use your skill as a cook to make these recipes work. The recipes are for make and serve so you will need to use some creativity on how to use them for a dinner party unless you want to be in the kitchen while everyone else has a good meal. The recipes for the caponatas work well and take little adjustment to make.

I ordered this for a friend who really wanted it. She said that she is disappointed in it because it is not for the average household. A lot of the ingredients are not easily found unless you live in Italy. She is a fabulous cook and not afraid to spend time in the kitchen. But she does not cook octopus very often. Unless you really want to cook the unusual, stay away from this book.
But the book was used and in excellent condition.

A great cookbook that has more than the typical Italian recipes that I grew up with. If you want some variety and innovative ideas I recommend this book. Great illustrations also.