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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not as good as his usual, still better than most cookbooks,
By
This review is from: The Minimalist Entertains (Hardcover)
Realistically, I wish I could give it three and a half stars. It's better than your average cookbook, but not as good as a *typical* Mark Bittman cookbook. The strength of MOST of Mark Bittman's cookbooks is that they teach you *how* to cook by giving you tons of variation ideas on every recipe and lots of encouragement. They are good books to *read* and not just cook from. This book doesn't give you any variations at all, and little text. Instead, it gives you forty menus, and each menu consists of a short blurb, a few "keys to success", wine recommendations, a rough timetable, and the recipes. The menus look pretty good, and are categorized by season. The recipes are pretty typical of his style - a few key ingredients, prepared simply, into a somewhat unusual finished dish. He writes in his intro that he keeps menus at a maximum of 2 complex dishes (and the others more simple or store bought, like good bread). I still find this too much when I entertain, especially for a crowd of 8. I have to admit I'm not sold on the "menu" concept in general. I tend to enjoy doing this sort of planning myself - based on my own tastes, knowledge of my guests' tastes (vegans/non-spicy/no-fish/whatever) and my ability to juggle several courses in the kitchen while holding a coherent conversation with the guest that won't go mingle. I inevitably burn *something* at each dinner party. ;-) I typically LOVE Mark Bittman books - I have the "Cooks Dinner" one, the "Cooks at Home" one, and "How to Cook Everything" which is in my opinion the most useful cook-book EVER. But this one isn't as good as the rest. I'm giving it 4 stars because the food still looks good, but I've cooked more from Ina Garten's "The Barefoot Contessa: Parties" more than I've cooked from this.
22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not as good as his usual, still better than most cookbooks,
By
This review is from: The Minimalist Entertains (Hardcover)
Realistically, I wish I could give it three and a half stars. It's better than your average cookbook, but not as good as a *typical* Mark Bittman cookbook. The strength of MOST of Mark Bittman's cookbooks is that they teach you *how* to cook by giving you tons of variation ideas on every recipe and lots of encouragement. They are good books to *read* and not just cook from. This book doesn't give you any variations at all, and little text. Instead, it gives you forty menus, and each menu consists of a short blurb, a few "keys to success", wine recommendations, a rough timetable, and the recipes. The menus look pretty good, and are categorized by season. The recipes are pretty typical of his style - a few key ingredients, prepared simply, into a somewhat unusual finished dish. He writes in his intro that he keeps menus at a maximum of 2 complex dishes (and the others more simple or store bought, like good bread). I still find this too much when I entertain, especially for a crowd of 8. I have to admit I'm not sold on the "menu" concept in general. I tend to enjoy doing this sort of planning myself - based on my own tastes, knowledge of my guests' tastes (vegans/non-spicy/no-fish/whatever) and my ability to juggle several courses in the kitchen while holding a coherent conversation with the guest that won't go mingle. I inevitably burn *something* at each dinner party. ;-) I typically LOVE Mark Bittman books - I have the "Cooks Dinner" one, the "Cooks at Home" one, and "How to Cook Everything" which is in my opinion the most useful cook-book EVER. But this one isn't as good as the rest. I'm giving it 4 stars because the food still looks good, but I've cooked more from Ina Garten's "The Barefoot Contessa: Parties" more than I've cooked from this.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great menus, delicious food,
By danica21 "Danica" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Minimalist Entertains (Hardcover)
I have 3 of his books and this one does the best job of pulling together his widely varied tastes into menu ideas that are unconventional, seasonal, easy to prepare, and delicious. This is different from HOW TO COOK EVERYTHING or even DINNER because it actually pulls things together, which his other books don't do. You have recipes for one dish but if you want to throw a menu together, especially as a beginner, it is a lot harder to find what is unique and goes well with the main course. This does it for you. The recipes are terrific and really quite easy, even for the complicated dishes. Try the Cranberry Clafoutis for a simple, rustic, yet totally gourmet dessert.
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