Customer Reviews

Mario Batali Holiday Food

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

preordered this book when I saw it listed, knowing anything Mario had published would have to be great. I was however a little surprised when it arrived and I saw just how small it actually was. After reading it through from cover to cover, I overcame my disappointment however, realizing that Mario had chosen only the best recipes for the holidays. As the Italian food host at BellaOnline, I am always on the lookout for Italian cookbooks that offer more than simply everyday recipes. Anyone buying this cookbook that is familiar with Mario Batali's work, will not be sorry. If you are interested in Italian recipes specific for the holidays, buy this book!

This is a compendium of distinctive recipes designed for four holidays, from Christmas eve through to New years day in elegant Italian style. The recipes make use of seasonal ingredients & shows a modest cross section of the regional variety of Italian cooking traditions. But, it is on the whole a book on the region of Campania. It includes color pictures of the food itself that are both more numerous & of finer quality than in his other books. Like many Asians, Italians truly revel in small portions of several types of dishes.

This is cooking from scratch, no breezy shortcuts here. But, the instructions are direct & the results are very worthwhile. The sixty recipes are adaptable so that they can be mixed & matched for any occasion one wishes. From the Christmas day turkey breast stuffed with Prunes & Chesnuts to the vibrant Tangerine juice Aperitivo, you will find all these recipes mouth watering. Lastly, the wine suggestions helped in the celebratory enjoyment that is the "heart & soul of Italian cuisine."

As a Sicilian growing up with a large Italian family in Brooklyn, this book had many traditional recipes. As the older generations are gone..so are their recipes..this book brought them back to me. Christmas Eve - the traditional Fish Feast was fabulous in this book. The photography and layout is very good. I also enjoyed the brief history he includes with the holiday and food. I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of this book.

The very best thing about this book is that it is more of Mario Batali cooking Italian food. Once that is said, there are some things which are disappointing about this book.

First, the book only covers Christmas and New Year. I would hardly expect Molto Mario to cover Thanksgiving, but what about Easter? There are also the hundreds of festivals in both Italy and the United States where food is a major element of the festivities. The whole point of `carnevale' is food, as the meaning of the word is `a farewell to meat'.

Second, the book only covers Campania. What about the other 21 provinces of Italy? The best part of this selection is that it is the region from which the Italian food most familiar to America comes. I think Mario would have been much better to name the book `Holiday Food of Campania'. Joe Bastianich contributes some notes on the wines of Campania, reinforcing the impression that the book covers a limited range.

Third, the book is two-thirds the price for less than half the book you can find in Mario's first and third books.

If you are really interested in Italian Festival Food, check out the book of that name by Anne Bianchi published by Macmillan. It even includes a blurb from Mr. Molto himself on the dust jacket and I got it at a deep discount. Highly recommended.

All is not lost. This is still, after all, a cookbook by Mario. It's best feature is to give us recipes in order that we may do a Christmas Eve feast of the seven or ten or thirteen fishes (take your pick). It strikes me that this is another example where Italian food traditions depart broadly from the more formalized doctrines of France or Japan. While Richard Olney, our most analytical writer on French cuisine, dispairs of writing on improvisation in cooking, the Italians seem to revel in it. Like the Japanese, the Italians seem to really enjoy small portions of a lot of different dishes, at least at holiday meals. Mario warns us that because of this, portion sizes may be tricky.

The photographs of the food are much more colorful and more plentiful in this book than they are in Mario's first. They add some value to this rather slim offering. The list of sources at the back of the book is very good for a resident of New York City. I am especially happy to see DiPalo's cheese shop included.

If, like me, you are a Mario fan, you must have this book. This is especially true if you live vicariously through books and enjoy writers' tales of their holidays. If you are really looking for something with more meat on it's bones, check out the volume by Ms. Bianchi.

I enjoy Mario Batali's quality work, both his interesting/funny TV shows and his interesting/beautiful books (the photographs are beautiful). Often when you buy quality Italian cookbooks with traditional recipes you get the feeling that it's been produced for professional chefs only. The recipes are too advanced and time consuming, and often require access to an Italian food market in order to get all ingredients. The recipes in this book range from uncomplicated to advanced but is "possible" for regular hobby chefs. Most of the ingredients are available at regular grocery stores. However, this doesn't mean that the food and all the dishes are too basic or uncomplicated; it's just that they are "within" reach for us regular guys. I'm sure that both hobby- and more advanced chefs also can appreciate and learn a lot from this book.

I was really surprised by this small cookbook. Now when I saw small, it means that it isn't your typical full sized cookbook with in excess of 200 pages, it is a nice hundred pages or so cookbook. Some wonderful features of this cookbook are the pictures, the wonderful recipes, and the text that is written with the recipes.

Perhaps you are like me and enjoy cookbooks with vivid pictures. I like to know what my efforts are going to look like. This book has some of the best food photographs that I have seen. Some of this is the chosing of attractive dishes, some of it is just fabulous photography.

While I really enjoy the photographs in this book, some of that is the skill of the photographer, while the larger part of that is the choice of recipes. Mario Batali, seems to like earthy, rustic food. I like that you do not have to measure everything so exact. I like that there are natural flexibilities added into the recipes, like if you don't have xxx, use this instead. Italian cooking is all about the freshness of the ingredients, and you see this theme throughout his book.

I also like that he explains why he chose those recipes, what the significance of those recipes are. This is helpful is chosing what drinks you will serve with the food, what side dishes or desserts you will pare with the food and so much more.

I highly recommend this book to you, it really isn't just about holiday food, but more. I rate this book with 4 stars simply because the book is smaller, and for the money, if your just starting out with him, I would go with one of his standard cookbooks if you are looking for a greater resource of Italian recipes.

I love this book. The recipes are traditional and delicious, the photographs are lovely, and I like the comments Mario includes with the recipes. I get hungry just looking through it.

I just re-ordered this book as I lost the first one I bought. Contrary to what some other reviews have said, I like the fact that it is a small book with special or holiday recipes. I have several other Italian cookbooks, including the Silver Spoon and Essentials of Italian Cooking, and while I really like those books, the volume of recipes is often overwhelming when I am looking for a special holiday dish. So far I have made the broccoli saffriti, spaghetti all cozze (spicy spaghetti with mussels), Strangulapreti all sorrentina (Gnocchi with tomato sauce and Mozzella) and the pizzelles and they have all been great! Since I haven't made the other dishes I can not say how they will turn out, but so far I have not been disappointed. As for the book itself, it is truly beautiful and I enjoy looking at the pictures and reading about Mario's personal holiday experiences.

Based on my experience with this book, I am eager to buy Mario's other cookbooks.

While we ultimately didn't have the opportunity to make any of these recipes for the holidays, my wife and I read through most of them and they look wonderful. We own every cookbook Mario's written and we've eaten in two of his NYC restaurants, so we're very familiar with his style and the quality of his work. In fact, the "Feast of the Seven Fishes" in the book is very much like his Christmas Eve menu at Lupa, his place on Thompson St. in the Village.

Very high recommendation from real Italian "foodies" (we spent 3 weeks in Italy last year....)