Customer Reviews

Little Meals: A Great New Way to Eat and Cook

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I first checked this book out of the library and then I bought it. The recipes are fabulous, and I have tried more than half. The ingredients can be difficult to find. At times, I have resorted to the internet to find some obscure ingredients, but I have not been disappointed with a single dish yet. They are really one-of-a-kind five star creations. Im making the Jade Rice recipe again tonight for company.

This is a very decent cookbook (disclaimer: I own the first edition, so maybe it has changed since then), but the real reason to buy it is for its entertainment value. It's a bit like reading Gilderoy Lockhart. For example:

"As executive chef at Lord & Taylor, I was often asked to invent dishes for famous guests that lunched in our boardroom. I made this for Sophia Loren. I put a heaping tablespoon of red caviar on top of the salad, and served it with graceful lacquered chopsticks. You can substitute Japanese pickled ginger and a fork."

...because you are a clod and can't afford caviar? Many of the other little meals come with similarly breezy commentary. Nothing against the recipes, and I'm sure Rozanne Gold is a very nice person, but wow. Cook from this book for your next party, and then after dinner read from the book to your guests. Guaranteed good time.

I am working my way through the recipes in this book and have found them, without exception, to be either uniquely Rozanne Gold, or with a special twist that make them unlike anything I've ever had before, and always utterly wow delicious. The bonus here is that these recipes are for the most part fairly simple to prepare, and don't require a ton of work. The finished dishes are professional-looking and create the longing, once tasted, to make them over and over again. In fact, if I had this food in a restaurant, it would definitely bring me back again and again for the same dishes as well as to try new things. Her candied ginger butter cake is a little work of art, looking very much like it just came from a fancy bakery's glass case. Looks and tastes out of this world. And it is probably the easiest fastest cake recipe in my entire collection. Her Crab Louis Drambuie is to die for (picture a main course serving of jumbo lump crab and a touch of finely chopped red and green bell pepper tossed in drambuie and lime juice, piled high on watercress, surrounded by avocado slices, all drizzled with an amazing creamy Drambuie dressing, and sprinkled with snipped fresh chive and sieved (separately) hard-boiled egg white and hard-boiled egg yolk, and a little dollop of that creamy incredible dressing on the side in a tiny ramekin. She even suggests exactly what kind of bread sticks to serve the salad with (Grissini). The dressing she created for this salad using Drambuie liqueur (how does she come up with this stuff??) is IMHO worth the price of the book. It is luscious and roll-your-eyes good on lots of things and can be put together in less than 5 minutes. The first time I made it, I ran out of dressing before I could get the salad on the table because I kept returning to the refrigerator to have another little taste of the dressing--it is that good. Addictive is the word. Next, I'm going to try her turkey in quick mole sauce with flour tortillas, and I have no doubt that it will rival anything any other celebrity chef has come up with, and it will be ready in a fraction of the time of other mole recipes. Buy this book. The recipes are dinner party worthy gems.
P.S. to the reviewer who used the word snooty in his or her review: Get a life. Ms. Gold has really got it going on, has won James Beard and other awards, has been personal chef to Mayor Ed Koch of NYC, run the Neiman Marcus kitchens nationwide, as well as created her specialties for the Rainbow Room in NYC and Windows on the World, and her credentials go on and on an on. She is at the top of her game, and I am delighted to have this information about her. I am glad she prefaced the recipe you mentioned with the fact that it was created for and served to Sophia Loren (and why shouldn't she?) as well as give the reader an alternative to the caviar garnish (which I hate anyway). Suggesting pickled ginger as a sub for caviar is not snooty and you should not feel that she thinks you can't afford caviar. She's merely providing an alternative and I for one am grateful for her advice. I intend to acquire all of Rozanne Gold's books.