It's All American Food: The Best Recipes for More than 400 New American Classics [Paperback]

David Rosengarten (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 10, 2005

American food is no longer just steak, potatoes and apple pie. Over the past 50 years, dishes that were once exotic have become part of the American menu. Remember Spaghetti and Meatballs? Shrimp Egg Foo Yung? Here, for the first time, David Rosengarten has created a definitive cookbook of truly American favourites, ranging from coast to coast, back into the past, and into the cuisines that have merged with the American mainstream in recent decades. Rosengarten places authentic Cajun recipes alongside the sizzling Cuban specialities of Miami. He unveils the mystery behind Philly cheesesteak sandwiches and Maryland crab cakes. He retrieves American classics like Chicken Pot Pie and Tuna Melt from Junior League cookbooks and restores them to their glory. From breakfast where he gives us the secrets for perfect scrambled egg, bacon and hash browns, to an array of indulgent late-night desserts, David Rosengarten has written an unpretentious and accessible adoration of the American kitchen.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"This is a book about what we eat in America," says David Rosengarten in his cookbook It's All American Food. For Rosengarten, author of The Dean & Deluca Cookbook among others, this means ethnic specialties like Eggplant Parmigiana and Shrimp Egg Foo Young; regional dishes, such as Philly Cheesesteak, plus barbecue, including Carolina Pulled Pork Shoulder with Two Sauces; and classic American fare like his Best Buttermilk Pancakes and The Ultimatre BLT, which transcends cultural boundaries. Offering more than 400 recipes for coast-to-coast favorites, Rosengarten is at pains to show that our cuisine is endlessly (and admirably) elastic, embracing and transforming traditional, sometimes exotic fare into something distinctly American for which we need not apologize. If he labors this point, Rosengarten has nonetheless done readers a great service in collecting so many characteristic recipes, which have often lacked the thoughtful treatment supplied here. This can mean tweaking more dubious (or degraded) recipes, lightening, for example, General Tso's chicken, or simply finding model formulas, like those for his cobb salad and macaroni and cheese (his recipes sometimes call for convenience ingredients, like banana pudding mix, that signify authentic versions). His section on regional favorites is a mini-guide to the best local dishes from New England to Hawaii, while his ethnic explorations present the food of virtually every group to have settled here--dishes that have gained acceptance, usually, through restaurant interpretations. Rosengarten has, of course, also eyed sweets, and treats such as tiramisu and New York cheesecake are also accounted for. With useful technical illustrations, ingredient notes like Spanish Paprika, and informative asides such as The Perfect Spatezel Method. --Arthur Boehm --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Rosengarten may have begun his career in gourmet fashion on the Food Network, but here he revels in the recidivist pleasures of "American" food: everything from All-Purpose Bright Red Tomato Sauce to Chinese-Restaurant Spareribs and Philly Cheesesteak. This titanic homage to our nation's wildly varied culinary roots values comfort over refinement, but fortunately comforts are in plentiful supply. Rosengarten can find something to love even in an unreconstructed Shrimp Egg Foo Yung, and harkens back fondly to the 1950s, that much-maligned golden era when immigrant cooking found its way to the American palate. Flavor comes first here-garlic by the half cup; the ringing phrase: "2 pounds lard." There are deep-fry favorites (Calamari, Falafel, Scrapple), long-cooked ones (Boston Baked Beans, Flanken) and classics like Shrimp Cocktail, The Ultimate BLT and, of course, Apple Pie. Every major hyphenated-American cuisine-Italian, Chinese, Thai, Indian, Mexican-has a place, as well as several less-established ones (e.g., Argentinean, Russian). Because of his respect for all traditions, no matter how strangely altered or distanced from their roots, Rosengarten manages to avoid snobbery-both traditional and reverse-altogether. His slightly goofy prose ("Call me Ishmael, but I'm convinced that the great informing influence of New England cuisine is the sea") is a perfect match for this gut-rumbling, mouth-watering, heartfelt tribute.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (May 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316159204
• ISBN-13: 978-0316159203
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 1.2 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #839,410 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary Cookbook, January 3, 2004

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Westley (Stuck in my head) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: It's All American Food: The Best Recipes for More Than 400 New American Classics (Hardcover)

David Rosengarten is the best friend of American food. Viewers of the Food Network will remember him from his show - Taste, where he glorified simple gastronomic pleasures. Regaling viewers with the perfect tuna fish sandwich was the type of no-fuss presentations in which he excelled. "It's All American Food" continues and builds on this excellent tradition. Specifically, Rosengarten makes a compelling argument for the uniqueness and importance of American food; the cookbook is a love note to America and her food. Don't feel inferior to the French and their fancy sauces, he seems to implore of the reader. But what about the recipes? Well, the cookbook is chockablock with over 400, divided into three main sections.

In Part 1, Rosengarten considers different ethnic-American cuisines. For example, he discusses how immigrants adapted the recipes from the old country to use the ingredients and techniques available in America. He focuses on how the American tradition gradually shaped the original recipes. So the Italian pasta sauce recipe isn't a trendy Southern Italian concoction with pine nuts and capers, but "Classic Brooklyn-Italian Meat Sauce." In other words, it's the kind of Italian food that your mother fixed or that you eat at the cheap bistro in the strip mall down the street. In addition to Italian-American food, sections cover Greek, Mexican, Chinese, Cuban, Moroccan, Indian, and numerous other ethnic traditions.

In Part 2, Rosengarten ponders regional American food. Moving westward from New England, he covers numerous American food traditions, including Pennsylvania Dutch, Cajun, Southwest, and Hawaiian. Some of the sections include only a couple of recipes but enough to provide the reader with an idea of the region and its food. In section 3, Rosengarten discusses a variety of classic American dishes that can't be categorized into ethnic or regional foods, such as meatloaf, cole slaw, and macaroni and cheese. All the comfort foods you ate and loved as a child and continue to crave are in this section.

With the proliferation of cookbooks in the last decade, a cookbook has to be truly original to stand out in the crowd. This cookbook is one of those rare finds to be treasured. "It's All American" should be savored like a good novel, not just stuck on a dusty shelf and pulled down to make an occasional recipe. Most highly recommended.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best of the food you remember from childhood, May 9, 2006

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Esther Schindler (Scottsdale, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: It's All American Food : The Best Recipes for More than 400 New American Classics (Paperback)

German food isn't like German-American food. Italian food isn't -- or at least wasn't, while many of us were growing up -- very much like Italian-American food. And the Chinese food that we experienced when we were children, the Pu-Pu Platters that we thought were so wonderful, is nothing like the food that Chinese people eat in China.

But that sure doesn't mean it's bad.

The disadvantage to Americans' increased food sophistication is that we look down upon the non-authentic versions of ethnic food. Yet, when our immigrant ancestors got here, they discovered that they couldn't get many of the ingredients they needed; they made do, and often those dishes became traditions in their own right. In this book, Rosengarten celebrates the "new American" foods, many of which have evolved from their genesis in some other land. But that's only part of the book.

There's three sections: Ethnic America, Regional America, and Classic America. The first covers what are arguably the best (or at least best-known) of 18 different areas, such as Italian, Russian, Indian. That's about half the book. Regional America tells you how to make the food popular in different areas, such as New England Clam Chowder or Collard Greens with Ham Hocks. The final section has recipes for our general "traditional American" recipes, such as mac-and-cheese or the ultimate BLT.

It's a good premise for a cookbook, sure. But what makes it superb is that these are Rosengarten's recipes. I have several of his cookbooks, and I'm a devoted fan. His explanations actually *explain.* He tells you what you need to know, but never becomes pedantic.

And man, can he cook. These aren't pale, tepid imitations of the bad spaghetti-and-meatballs you got from a steam-table buffet. They're the foods you recall with great fondness from your childhood. I just finished making a quick lunch for four, from his Chinese-American choices: broccoli in oyster sauce, plus kung pao chicken. His Kung Pao uses several kinds of pepper: black pepper, chili paste with garlic, and dried red peppers. (Not to mention hoisin, 8 cloves of garlic, and other tasty stuff.) The layers of heat make a real difference... and this may be one of the best kung pao chicken dishes I've ever eaten.

This is an inexpensive book, and I like it a lot. It has no photos or illustrations, which I realize is a downside to some people. I don't find that to be a problem since these are foods that I'm familiar with, at least in their restaurant incarnations.

I'm sure I'll be turning to this cookbook often. Recommended.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for the American kitchen, December 22, 2003

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traveler (Palos Hills, IL USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: It's All American Food: The Best Recipes for More Than 400 New American Classics (Hardcover)

I cook a great deal, and have cooked many of the dishes included in David Rosengarten's latest. However, David (and his collaborators) have developed wonderful interpretations and versions of these classic dishes. I read the book through in two sittings; now I'm beginning to try the dishes. Superb! You won't be disappointed by this classic of regional and ethnic American dishes.