Customer Reviews

Geronimo: Fine Dining in Santa Fe

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This is an absolutely gorgeous cookbook. I love to look at it, to flip through the photographs, to read the recipes and the essays written by the people involved in this Santa Fe restaurant. I immediately have a strong desire to rush to New Mexico and make a reservation for dinner.

The only thing the cookbook *doesn't* do is make me want to COOK any of these recipes.

It isn't that they aren't appealing. They're stunning: scallop mousse with basil lemon espuma (as a first course), mesquite grilled peppery elk tenderloin with garlic confit potatoes and exotic mushroom sauce, chive-tied bay scallops with black truffle and fresh tomato coulis. I'd be happy to EAT any of them, but I know I'm not going to cook them.

Which isn't to say that I'm a wimp cook. I'm happy to make a paella for a Sunday dinner, or "throw together" six separate dishes for an Indian feast. However, despite the best of intentions, these recipes are clearly geared for restaurant kitchens.

Most of these recipes have a page of ingredients (usually expensive ones) and two full pages of instructions. In the intro to "Mesquite grilled foie gras terrine with sweet grapes and verjus," for example, the author says, "When we clean the lobes of foie gras at Geronimo, we always have the leftover snippets that are too small for our recipes. We take these, marinate them for a day in a bit of Cognac and fresh thyme, grill them very quickly over mesquite, and press them into a terrine mold...." I don't know about you, but there aren't any foie gras leftovers in my frig. (The recipe calls for a 1 pound lobe, which you cut up.)

I'd like to think that I'm ready to take on some of these recipes. I know I'm not, though. If you're going to do it, please invite me for dinner.

But as a coffee table cookbook, this one is perfect. Stunning photography, wonderful food combinations, lovely little essays about getting the restaurant started. (Now, honey -- let's go out for dinner.)

One realizes the level of culture in SanteFe upon first entering therein: one of SW Tradition blending that with sophisticated highbrow indulgences of the residents/visitors.

This is exactly the cuisine of this growing in stature SF restaurant. What is exciting and creativity in this cookbook is that they reveal its beginnings and philosophy (which are truly entwined) is sidebar discussions throughout the cookbook's pages, at appropro sections. These are truly captivating reading.

However, one won't be too captivated by such insights nor trying any of these sophisticated recipes if one is not a fledging or growing gourmet on their own. Although this work is worthy of coffeetable display (gorgeous phots abound), it is truly a bevy of unusual ingredients and intricate steps in their prep. Any timidity about these will likely end in gourmet production that could be tragedy. However, don't let any of this stop the venturesome who want to move up the culinary scale and try some great upscale SW cuisine!

Here is magnificent offerings you won't see other places. I like the likes of: Martini Shots (clever vodka sorbet on cucumber pureed caviar&creme frache); Crab and Meyer Lemon Soup with Spaetzle; Escargots with Tomato Caper Vinaigrette; Maryland Blue Crab Cakes with Caviar Sauce and Braised Leeks; Egg Griddles Goat Cheese and Smoked Salmon with Chicory Salad and Crispy Lardons; Chicken in A Chanterelle Mushroom and Garlic Stew; Npoleon of King Salmon with Braised Ruby Chard, Lemon Crepes, and Green Chile Butter Sauce; Fiery Chile Prawns with Crispy Jasmine Almond Rice Cakes and Caper Basil Sauce; Grilled Coldwater Lobster Tails and Creamy Chili Vinaigretter with Savory Potato Cakes; Mizuna Salad with Maple-Glazed Smithfield Ham and Creamy Buttermilk Hazelnut Vinaigrette; Poire-Williams Soup with Warm Bosc Pears, Star Anise Ice Cream, and Black Pepper Genoise; Tequilla Lime Tarts.

And this great recipe collection highlighted none of the rich venision, fowls nor foie gras dishes.

There is another neat touch to this one, a listing of the suggested side dishes recipied with each entree in the Index. There is excellent glossary for those who don't know a lardon from a roulade. Sources are listed as well.

Don't forget to spend time at the Intro where the authors talk of how to use this cookbook, carefully reading recipe through (and might I add several times then making lists) and how to cook with constant tasting (Eric with Spoons!)

Geronimo Experience must be exciting to experience firsthand, but here the rest of us can with its passion for great food laid out so spectacularly and over 100 of its recipes for us to try.

gorgeous book with lots of antedotal info on the owner, chefs and recipes from this extraordinary restaurant. though many recipes are very labor intensive, just the creative side dishes are worth the price.
love this book!

PETER VITALE'S PHOTOGRAPHS ARE A REVELATION. AN AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFULLY PHOTOGRAPHED BOOK.