Customer Reviews

Food Network Kitchens Favorite Recipes

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I found this book at the library and picked it up, thinking it'd be full of frou-frou recipes that would be entertaining to watch a chef create on TV but not practical for a real kitchen. Boy, was I wrong. This book is full of true recipe gems. I went straight from the library to Amazon to get my own copy. Definitely recommended for anyone who likes to cook.

First off, this is a very nice cookbook. One might well expect such a solid collection of recipes from the Food Network. Second, some recipes get more complex than I am interested in, but most look eminently doable. And, third, a handful that I have tried since I received this book are quite tasty when they get on the table!

Many of the dishes are accompanied by color photos, which give a good sense of the dish's appearance (I'm not as big on photos as some others are). The book is organized in a pretty standard manner--breakfast and brunch, appetizers and salads, soup and stews, sandwiches and pizza, main dish salads, pasta and noodles, beans and grain, meats (beef, pork, and lamb), poultry, fish and shellfish, veggies and side dishes, baked goods, and "sweets."

A few examples to illustrate. A cook breakfast dish: Baked eggs with farmhouse cheddar and potatoes. Ingredients are pretty simple--eggs, red skin potatoes, parsley, garlic, kosher salt, pepper, some butter, and farmhouse cheddar. Tasty stuff!

Lamb burgers with Feta cheese. I haven't made this one yet, but, boy, does it look good (The photo going with the recipe is mouth watering). Begin with 2 pounds of ground lamb for the burger. Then, many ingredients are assembled, such as yogurt, savory, garlic, lemon zest, and so on--with pita bread pockets instead of a standard bun. Then, the tzatziki sauce, with yogurt, cucumber, kosher salt, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, and mint. This is going to take some work, but the end result promises to be delicious.

Fairly easy to make--and tasty: Penne with pesto. Make your own pesto (with basil, garlic, pine nuts, olive oil, salt and pepper). Then, cook up the penne and add the pesto sauce. A quick dish to make.

And so on, from Grilled soy and ginger chicken to pork rib roast with cranberry-apricot stuffing to cheese risotto to lamb chops with rosemary-orange gremolata to. . . .

Anyhow, a very nice cookbook from the Food Network.

the night i bought this cookbook i rushed home && made the steak recipe w/ garlic aioli on page 190 && matched it w/ the home fries on page 7. it was devoured by the family && they all went back for another serving! the breakdown of the cookbook is simple && the recipes r extremely easy to follow, as well as to mix && match. they'll make u look like a master chef no matter how experienced u might be. i'm more than pleased w/ my purchase && would recommend this cookbook to just about anyone, whether it's for urself or purchased as a gift.

This is a great book full of interesting dishes! Pretty much anything that you could ask for is represented in here. The recipes are delicious and easy to understand. There are little tutorials for recipes and ingredients that may be unusual, IE how to strip and cut lemongrass....
Not all of the recipes have pictures( I wish that they did)but I'd say that half do.
If you are looking for a good "beginner" book, you should try Food Networks "How to boil water"! It is AWESOME!

When it comes to cookbooks, I set pretentiousness limits. Cookbooks cross my tipping point when they overindulge in trends (e.g. panko and Panini presses) or put personality before the food. Unfortunately, the Food Network is heavily populated with bubbly non-chefs (Rachel Ray and Sandra Lee come to mind first, each brandishing glow-in-the-dark teeth) and egoists like Bobby Flay, who can't leave a simple, delicious recipe alone. I avoid their cookbooks and recommend you do, too.

What I like about this particular Food Network cookbook is that the recipes come from the behind-the-scenes professionals: the assistants, the sous-chefs and line cooks. Directions are easy to understand and more than half of the recipes include full-color photographs. However, the book needed more step-by-step photographs like those provided for oysters on the half shell (page 41), pork tenderloin with chipotle-maple mop (page 211) and grissini (page 340).

There are more than 230 recipes - a wide range including everything from pancakes to cioppino - in this entry-level cookbook. Each chapter is less than 50 pages long and most are about 20 pages in length; the focus on everyday cooking is evident in the chapter titles:

Breakfast & brunch
Appetizers, snakes & small plates
Soups & stews
Sandwiches, pizza & quesadillas
Main-dish salads
Pasta & noodles
Beans & grains
Beef, pork & lamb
Poultry
Fish & shellfish
Veggies & sides
Breads & other baked things
Sweets

In summary, Food Network Kitchens Favorites Recipes provides good, simple recipes that reflect the "culmination of everything we've learned and experienced in 15 years." This cookbook is a real treat courtesy of the behind-the-scenes professionals. Rating: 4 stars.

I bought this book for my brother, who is currently enrolled in culinary school in Denver, CO. He's a great chef, and was hired by my father to cook the meal for my father's business Christmas Party. They are both very well educated and hard to shop for. My brother had already planned what he was going to cook for the party. I gave him this book two days before the party just in case he wanted to look through it before he fixed his fancy dinner. He read through this entire book after receiving it. He's not the type to pretend he likes a gift if he doesn't. He also ended up changing what he was planning on cooking for the meal and used the recipes from this book instead. He seems to love it, and he said he looks forward trying out many of the recipes soon.

I am a foodie and I own a ton of cookbooks, but I have to say this is one of my favorites.

My daughter gave this to me for Mother's Day last year. I thought it was a thoughtful gift since she knows what a Food Network fan I am, but I was unsure about the quality of the recipes. As most people know, not all the Food Network "stars" test their recipes that well. However this cookbook was created by Food Network's test kitchen. Without exception, every single recipe I have tried from it worked the way it was supposed to - the first time - without me having to make any adjustments to it.

I highly recommend this cookbook!

This cookbook has tons of great recipes, as do all of the Food Network branded cookbooks that I have either bought or perused. My only criticism is that I would of liked more pictures to go along with the recipe. Granted, they were able to cram more recipes in the book by omitting pictures of some dishes, but I am a very visual person. That is usually how I pick a dish out of a cookbook-- flipping through the pages until some dish catches my eye (and my stomach). Overall, great recipes, but my personal preference would have liked more pictures...

This book is really good. The recipes are pretty simple but really good. There are also a lot of pictures (about the dishes and sometimes about how to cut meet). I use the book at least once a week.

Nice cookbook with a nice format. Gave a second one as a gift and she loved it too.