Golden Door Cooks Light and Easy, The [Hardcover]

Michel Stroot (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 14, 2003

"Sound nutrition is the cornerstone of any healthy lifestyle," writes Michel Stroot, and he should know. As the executive chef at southern California's famed Golden Door Spa, he has perfected the art of conscious cooking and nourishment and now shares over 150 of his unique and delicious recipes in Golden Door Cooks Light and Easy. The Golden Door Spa is one of America's most exclusive holistic wellness retreats, and the celebration of food-from garden to table-is a cornerstone of the spa's "simplicity is luxury" ideology. Stroot's recipes are not only nutritionally balanced, but also imaginative, aromatic, and always delicious. In keeping with the Golden Door Spa philosophy, he aims to "provide the hurried person a cuisine of simple and enticing meals that will renew physical and mental energy," with recipes that use only fresh, healthy ingredients, allowing creativity and spirit to enhance every meal. With guidelines for creating well-balanced meal plans, advice on how to cut time in the kitchen, and ways to reduce fat while enhancing flavor, Golden Door Cooks Light and Easy surpasses so many other cookbooks that amount to nothing more than a list of exotic ingredients from a fancy kitchen. From breakfast to beverages, appetizers to sauces, salads to seafood and easy desserts, Chef Stroot shares his favorite menus as he reflects on the Golden Door belief that "it is necessary to maintain a balance between what goes into our bodies and what we can expect to get out in terms of energy, enthusiasm, and enjoyment." Classically trained, Chef Michel Stroot honed his skills as the executive chef at the Golden Door Spa for more than two decades. His food has been praised by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Gourmet, and Vogue. Stroot has been called "a kitchen genius" and his creations "tantalizing and singularly inspiring." Originally from Belgium, he lives in San Marcos, California. (20030813)

Editorial Reviews

Review

In his new book, "The Golden Door Cooks Light & Easy," Stroot summarizes his 30 years of cooking at the Southern California luxury hideaway that ranks with the world's best. The book is attractive with a practical layout that presents tips and useful information in tinted spaces. "Useful Basics" include tomatillo salsa, silken tofu mayonnaise and the inevitable smoothie. (Chicago Tribune )

...an appealing volume, perfect for bathing-suit weather. [The Golden Door Cooks Light & Easy] offers fresh, lively tastes... (Boston Globe )

From the Inside Flap

Contents Acknowledgments Foreword Introduction Chapter 1: Breakfasts Chapter 2: Appetizers Chapter 3: Soups Chapter 4: Salads Chapter 5: Poultry, Meat and Game Chapter 6: Seafood Chapter 7: Meatless Main Courses Chapter 8: Desserts Chapter 9: Beverages Chapter 10:Golden Door Basics Chapter 11: My Favorite Menus Index

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Gibbs Smith, Publisher; 1 edition (May 14, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158685254X
• ISBN-13: 978-1586852542
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 8.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #731,230 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy-to-follow instructions for cooks of all skill levels, August 10, 2003

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Golden Door Cooks Light and Easy, The (Hardcover)

The Golden Door Cooks Light & Easy: Delicious Recipes From America's Premier Spa by Michel Stroot (Executive Chef at the luxury southern Californian spa "Golden Door", is a one-of-a-kind cookbook featuring genuine "spa cuisine", with recipes that do not require butter or unnecessary fats, but rather rely on the seasonal freshness of ingredients. Easy-to-follow instructions for cooks of all skill levels offer professional level techniques for creating scrumptious and healthy dishes such as Vegetable Terrine Provencale; Turkey Basil Mozzarella Pizza; Rose Hip and Cranberry Tea; and many more appetizing dishes. An excellent and delectable compilation, the Golden Door Cooks Light & Easy is a welcome addition to any personal or professional cookbook collection.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spa Cuisine, June 14, 2005

By 

Rebecca Johnson "The Rebecca Review" (Washington State) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Golden Door Cooks Light and Easy, The (Hardcover)

Michel Stroot is a Belgian-born Chef with culinary experience from his life in England and the South of France. In The Golden Door Cooks Light & Easy he explores the fantasy spa life through beautiful descriptions and recipes you can make at home. He also gives advice on how to create a spa experience at home by eating outside or creating a sacred space for relaxing meals.

The pictures of Zen gardens, ancient temple bells and natural surroundings give an additional cozy atmosphere to this cookbook. It is one of those books you'd like to jump into and I'm sure this cookbook has inspired many visits to San Diego, CA or the closest spa that could be found.

Recipes you might find intriguing:

Miso Soup with Tofu, Scallions and Enoki Mushrooms
Vegetable, Chicken and Barley Soup
Cabbage Hand Rolls with Gingered Wild Rice

Apple Spice Muffins - Chef Michel Stroot uses applesauce and yogurt in place of butter and oil and also uses wheat flour and rolled oats.

Curried Leg of Lamb with Currants, Mango and Deborah's Basmati Rice
Broiled Lamb Chops with Whole-Grain Mustard and Belgian Root Vegetable Mash
Seared Duck Breast with Cherry Sauce and Butternut Squash-Orange Risotto

Each recipe is well organized with the ingredients listed in the order they are used. If you need to make a chicken stock, the page number is given for easy reference.

The chicken stock recipe in this book is almost exactly how I've been making chicken stock since forever except now I've been using a leftover rotisserie chicken and the results seem to be about the same, if not more delicious. It works and it beats any stock paste mixed with water. You can freeze the stock and the flavor in soups will surprise you if you are used to using a bullion cube or stock paste.

~The Rebecca Review

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Recipies, Poor Organization, March 4, 2008

By 

Russell Dicker (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Golden Door Cooks Light and Easy, The (Hardcover)

Some cookbook's, such as Shirley O. Corriher's excellent Cookwise, focus on teaching; the recipes are merely there to aid each of the lessons. The Golden Door Cooks takes a more traditional approach focusing on the recipes themselves. The introductions to each recipe are generally short and usually involve a story about how much guests enjoy that particular recipe - and it is quite easy to see how they do.

All of the recipes I've tried so far in this book have been delicious. It is a clear demonstration that for certain dishes you don't need loads of oil or cream to make them work (though Shirley will teach you that for some dishes they are!) The soups are a particular favorite of mine both in terms of flavor and ease of preparation.

While the recipes of a cookbook like this one should weigh heavily in the grading, they are not the only thing. Organization and information architecture matter too, and here the book falls down.

The Golden Door Cooks misses on some basic information like the time to prepare a recipe. The reader is left to sort through the various instructions in the recipe to try to add up the time for different steps and guess which ones can be done in parallel. Trying to do this for multiple recipes at once might require MS Project.

The book also focuses on healthy cooking but doesn't make some of the calorie data clear. For example the Salmon with Dill Yogurt Sauce recipe is listed at 130 calories per serving, but the ingredient list includes the Parsnip Potato Puree that is listed at 200 calories per serving. So is the serving size for the puree different when served with the salmon? Does the calorie count for the salmon not include this one ingredient? The book leaves us guessing. While one might be able to intuit the answer in this case, the answer is not so clear when it asks us to drizzle Multi-Pepper Puree on top of the Creamed Corn Soup.

Overall I can heartily recommend this book, but a little more care would have made it 5-stars.