Customer Reviews

The Imus Ranch: Cooking for Kids and Cowboys

5 star:		(63)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(48)

 

 

Reading reviews of this book it seems that the vast majority are colored by the reviewer's view of Don Imus. Those who are fans of Don love the book. Those who don't like Don hate it (and many throw in a few personal insults for good measure). This review will be Imus-neutral.

The book essentially is in two sections. The first section is made up of two essays: a shorter one about life in the kitchen and a longer one about the ranch in general. Neither is spectacular. The kitchen one is the better of the two; mildly amusing in parts as it details how the kitchen is the center of the household and family, whether at the ranch or the reader's home.

I had some trouble with the second essay. While it does provide an interesting look at the workings of a real cattle ranch and how that relates to the kids it is somewhat preachy. Also, the piece is self-aggrandizing in places. In my opinion there's just too much of the "look at all the great, selfless things we do." I also found some of the text (especially the sidebars) a bit condescending as the tone shifts to "talking down" to the reader. One final nit: every mention of a product or service has a brand-name in front of it. I don't know if this is the result of cross-promotion agreements or what, but it puts a very commercial shade over the entire book.

The biggest problem with the essay part of the book is that it suffers from over-editing (more so the second essay than the first). As is stated in the Acknowledgements both were originally written by David Von Drehle (a fine writer in his own regard) and then rewritten. I suspect the book would have been better if Mr. Von Drehle's work had been left untouched. In particular, the second essay seems to have been written in the third- person (and obviously by an outsider), and then clumsily converted to first-person (Mrs. Imus). Literally, it seems like the conversion was a simple search-and-replace, converting all the original "they's" to "I's" and the like. This results in an essay which was supposedly "written" by someone with an intimate knowledge of the ranch (Mrs. Imus) but reads like a Sunday morning newspaper feature story. This contradiction in viewpoint leads to a number of sloppy transitions and a quite a few passages which just don't "read right."

On to the cookbook part of the book. It opens with a look at the ranch pantry, which is a very simple introduction to vegan ingredients and southwestern cooking. Nothing surprising here, and those looking for that sort of introduction should look elsewhere - the pantry description is just too brief.

The balance of the book consists of several hundred recipes broken down into the usual categories (breads, soups, salads, main dishes, etc.). I found nothing particularly innovative here - I mean, sloppy joes are sloppy joes however or wherever they're made! The recipes I've tried have been good, and they're certainly healthy. Most of the recipes are quick and simple to prepare, and meat and milk products can be substituted with only minor adjustments. I will say the southwestern recipes are a little tame for my taste, understandable for the "newbie" kids from across the country who will eat this food, and which is easily remedied with a little extra "heat."

A few closing comments. The book is beautifully illustrated with photographs, and obviously a lot of work went into the pictures of both the ranch and the food. The overall graphic design is also top-notch. The only thing I'd like to have seen was a recipe index; some are hard to find buried in the overall index, and some are listed in odd places even there.

Bottom line? If you support the ranch (as I do) or are curious about it or vegan cattle ranch food (an oxymoron?) in general buy the book. If you do not, there are plenty of better vegan and/or southwestern cookbooks available. My score: 2 of 5 for the recipes, 2 of 5 for the writing, and 4 of 5 for both the layout and the photos. Overall, 3 of 5.

I bought this book before I read the reviews here on Amazon. Had I read the reviews first I would have saved myself over $110 (cost of the book: $30, cook of ingredients: $80)..

I heard about this book and saw images of the food on the View. I rushed out to buy the book. I read through the book and found several recipes I wanted to make. I bought the ingredients and then I went to work in the kitchen.

First, the times were all wrong as laid out in the book. The Imus Ranch is at high altitude. Were the recipes in the book meant only to work at high altitude?

Second, none of the dishes tasted as good as I thought they should.

I think I wasted both my money and my time.

Reactions to COOKING FOR KIDS AND COWBOYS tend to fall into two camps: those who love the Imuses support the book, those who detest them don't.

I'll try to make this a straightforward review.

Anyone who knows nutrition would have problems with the ingredients proposed here. While the author espouses a holistic approach to food, she actually uses substances--onion powder, for God's sake--one wouldn't want to find in a fast food restaurant. A vegetarian myself, I try to make the food at least palatable when I have others for dinner. Unfortunately these dishes are very, very bland and could have the opposite effect on children and encourage bad choices and obesity. One more note: why does the author think PROCESSED FOOD of any kind should be an ingredient??? Dear Lord, that's more toxic than meat itself.

I must also point out cooking times. While it is commendable not to overcook veggies, the same cannot be said for--believe it or not--brown rice and other starches. Yet that is what is suggested here.

Finally, I agree with the author that chemicals and other environmental toxins may cause cancer, but she apparently is ignorant of the fact that we, to date, don't have any reliable studies to back up her claims.

In sum, this is a bad book not because of who wrote it but because of its poor content.

Although the photographs in this book are very nice, the book itself was printed on an inexpensive grade of paper too porous to attractively showcase the photo images.

The recipes in this book do not work. There are much better cookbooks out there. If you actually want to make the recipes, buy a cookbook written by someone who has actually tried and made all the recipes in a book. Cookbooks should be written by cooks and not by celebrity wives hawking their transparent causes. This book will disappoint you.

I can not believe what happenend here. I do not know what happened with Chef Ron, but it does look like he was taken advantage of here.

Mr. Imus, I don't know if you read these reviews or not, but if you do please know that you have lost a fan. I know, with you having 20,000,000 listeners, me changing the dial means nothing, but I am just one more person who will no longer listen or buy your products.

I realize that Deirdre is a pretty women, and the mother of your child, but you have to do something here. Fred is never on your show any longer? Why? Is it because of what Deirdre did to his wife?

Come on Mr Imus, are you really going to let Deirdre destroy your relationship with your brother? Fred is more than just the guy who lost a grapefruit for a week or so, he is your brother.

Good God I hope you are not using these kids to make money for you and Deirdre. I hope it is not true that you the ranch is just a slick way of you getting a nice retirement ranch.

I feel like such an idiot for believing in you and what I thought you were doing.

I have read the numerous reviews and boy does the Imus Ranch sound like a crazy place. Sometimes people tend to get carried away with their emotions but it seems as though these reviews are comming from people with first hand experience. Their personal lives (Imus) are not so much my concern but the fact that she is taking credit for the recipes is sad. I am sure that the staff worked very hard for these demanding people. Maybe something good will become of this for Chef Ron and his staff. The word is that when the Imus hacienda was built, again Deirdre took all the credit. Well the woman that did design the house sued thembut I am not to sure what the outcome was. So you see this is not the first time that Deirdre has taken someone elses credit.

Yesterday, after listening to Don Imus spew forth and foam at the mouth about this book, I bit the bait, fell for the line, and I bought this book.

Today, I fell asleep reading this boring book!

Tomorrow, I am going to return this book and get my money back.

A lot of the recipe titles do not make sense. Who is this Butch? Why do his pancakes appear in this book? Was he fired along with the rest of the 200 people Deirdre smears in the book? Is this why there is no definition preceding the pancake recipe as to who he is?

There are so many recipes like this! This book lacks personality.

Also, there is a scarecity of protein dishes in this book. No wonder Don is always sick and pasty looking.

Where did Mrs. Imus find these recipes? What will happen to this ranch after Don Imus retires?

During the Larry King interview last night with Don and Dierdre Imus, the host stumbled across a morsel of truth regarding this book.
King asked Dierdre: "You developed all of these recipes yourself, didn't you?"
Dierdre mumbled and stumbled, saying: "Well, uh, well with the staff that works for me. Uh, I mean, the cooks work for me. Yes."
Later in the interview, Don said: "She doesn't cook."
Bottom line: Dierdre took the efforts of the staff that works for her. She doesn't cook. The least she could have done is to give the credit up front in the book to the professionals who did, in fact, develop these recipes. That would have been perfectly fine.
Instead, she denigrates her staff and takes credit for all of this herself. Very bad.
The secrecy and anger around all of the things related to this Ranch give one pause as to the real motivations of the Imus clan.
We would best be served to be wary and find one of the many hundreds of other more open and less mysterious charities to support.
Don keeps noting that the full proceeds from the book go to the Ranch. What he doesn't note is that the Ranch is a private enclave available for his exclusive use for about 300 days out of the year.

I thought for the most part that this book was okay, a few different food ideas, but I expected a lot more. Still doable. Okay, but not great!