Customer Reviews

Modern Vegetarian Kitchen, The

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I am a non-vegetarian living in a co-op that requires all shared meals to be vegetarian. I found this book on sale at Sur La Table, and bought it to provide me with more ideas for the dinners I cook for my house. After the first few meals that I made that included 2-3 different recipes from this book, it quickly became my FAVORITE cookbook (all genres). I now select this book more often than any other for my house and other dinner parties with non-vegetarian friends. The flavors are rich, the combinations are unique and work very well, and the instructions are easy to follow and provide you with all the info you need, even if you're not a seasoned macrobiotic chef. I give this book a HUGE "thumbs up"! (Some favorites: Creamy Garlic Miso Salad Dressing, Three Sisters Stew (beans, corn dumplings, and winter squash with toasted pumpkin seeds), Eggplant and Seitan Falafel).

I am not a vegetarian but like to eat that way some times because it seems like it should be healthier. But I've been disappointed in a lot of the vegetarian food I've tried. Luckily, Peter Berley has a great philosophy about food: Healthy eating is also the most pleasurable eating. Hey, that works for me and this book delivers. I've prepared quite a few of the dishes here for friends and the food has always been well received.

A lot of the ingredients used in vegetarian cooking were a mystery to me. They have strange names and I didn't know how to prepare them. What's the difference between tofu and seitan? And what is seitan anyway? This book uncovers many of these mysteries. It's all there and well written.

This is one of those cook books that will be stained with food very quickly. Highly recommended.

Peter Berley, through this book has taught me to have a great respect and love for food and the art of cooking. It has dramatically changed my life. I have been a vegetarian for nearly all of my life, but not very well educated culinary-wise. None of my other cookbooks have ever motivated me to do the best I can. You feel like you have a teacher and friend with you in the kitchen since every recipe comes with helpful hints and interesting stories of how he created them. My friends and family now think I am a goddess. This is the first of Peter Berley's cookbooks that I bought. The second one is as amazing.

Food is everything; it's the source of a great life, of happiness and health. My children (4 and 2) eat everything with a great appetite. So it's also a gift to them.

If you are fortunate enough to have tasted Peter Berley's masterful creations at New York's Angelica Kitchen, then this book will enable you to step into the chef's shoes and create hundreds of them on your own.

If you've never been to Angelica Kitchen (now or during the 7 years when Peter was executive chef), then this book will be a revelation -- a truly inspired, lucid, and masterful handbook for preparing what is arguably the best-tasting, healthiest cuisine in the world.

While many vegetarian cookbooks (and most vegetarian restaurants) seem stuck in a 1970's time-warp, Peter has created a cuisine which is truly modern, because it is so far ahead of most anything currently practiced -- yet at the same time is accessible, sensible, and practical.

The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen is a must-have for any level of cooking skill, and for any kitchen (vegan, vegetarian or not).

My only regret is that Amazon's rating system has a maximum of 5 stars.

My father was a chef, and although we did not have much money, I was brought up appreciating good, fresh, healthy food as well as cookbooks -- my father had a library of cookbooks, gastronomic dictionaries, even cookbooks in French (he was trained by a french chef in the 1950's).

With that being said, I am obsessed with eating, and occasionally cooking, good food. This cookbook is the one I use over and over again. I have cooked almost every recipe in the book, more than once, which is a true testament to a wonderful cookbook.

The beauty of it is that is is simple -- most ingredients are things you would have on-hand. Most recipes are for the novice cook, but can be challenging enough for a true obsessed gourmet. The other aspect is that he balances flavors and spices perfectly -- nothing is too overly spiced, heavy, etc. When I cook for guests, I use this cookbook because it is manageable but makes me look like a genius. People always say to me, "This tastes better than restaurant food!"

Get the hardback version -- it will last longer and make you feel like a true cook (as we all can be.)

Peter Berleys new book is a godsend. Not only for vegetarians and vegans, but for any chef who wants to meet the demands for healthy cuisine in the mainstream. After reading this cookbook, any intimidation you have about natural ingredients and whole foods will go right out the window. Mr. Berley really sums it up in a no nonsense, cool style. If you want to impress your cynical carnivore friends, just prepare a meal from this book, and I guarantee you'll convert at least one person. This book shows that vegan and vegetarian cuisine is about as cutting-edge as you can get, and there are no boundaries. I rate Peter Berley right up there with the best chefs in this country.

I previously rated this book 4 out of 5 stars, but I've decided that was wrong. This book deserves every star I can give! Every one of the recipes I've tried since I got this book have been delicious.

This book is 94% vegan, including the dessert recipes. Peter goes out of his way to make this book vegan friendly and it shows.

This book is the perfect companion to The Angelica Home Kitchen and The Voluptuous Vegan. The former is by the owner of Angelica Kitchen and the latter is by one of the former head chefs.

I highly recommend this book! It's worth every penny.

`The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen' is the first cookbook by Peter Berley, the author of a follow-up book, `Fresh Food Fast' to which I gave a somewhat poor review. As I am always a bit self-conscious about giving poor reviews to well-received authors, I always like to check out other works to verify that the book I reviewed poorly is a genuine fall from a level of quality which garnered their recognition.

I am resoundingly reassured in reading this multiple award winner (James Beard Foundation and IACP cookbook awards) that chef Berley has written what will easily be a leading candidate in my cookbook hall of fame for vegetarian cooking.

One of the most important distinctions to be made about this book is that it is not simply a good book of recipes for vegetables, although it does this job quite well. As the title indicates, this is a thorough coverage of many aspects of modern vegetarian cooking, without going to the extremes represented by complete lacto-ovo-vegans and `Raw' food advocates such as Juliano Brotman. At the same time, low-carb extremists may also be disappointed with Berley's cuisine as he is quite in love with artisinal bread baking, and, good yeast bread baking is simply not possible without white flour.

As befits a general book on cooking, the author gives us a very nice introduction to kitchen tools which, to my taste, touches all the right notes. This chapter will never replace Alton Brown's definitive book on kitchen equipment, but it does give much-needed plugs to the use of wooden cutting boards, food mills, mortar and pestle, and sieves. I am not as fond as Berley of the classic box grater and am happy to replace it with a cylindrical Mouli grater and the carpenter's rasp.

The book really comes into its own when it discusses pantry items, as it covers some of the vegetarian's best-kept secrets. Mirin and miso are old hat by now, but I highly endorse checking out kombu, a `sea vegetable' from Asia and Umeboshi, a fermented plum paste used as a substitute for anchovies or fish paste. A real boon as a substitute for very important Mediterranean and East Asian staples. Other important little secrets appear later in the chapter on tofu, tempeh, and seitan. Tofu and tempeh are also very familiar to foodies nowadays, but seitan is quite new to me. Briefly, it is gluten from wheat flour, freed from all soluble starch. Since this is not a supermarket staple and since I don't expect Alton Brown to be doing a `Good Eats' show on it any time soon, the author very astutely provides us with a method for making the stuff. It is at least as difficult as making artisinal bread and I suspect I am more interested in making bread than in making Seitan, especially as its production removes nothing that is anathema to a vegan diet. It is basically another animal protein substitute that may be used like tofu. I was pretty intrigued, although, in the seitan recipes which replace classic meat dishes such as pork and sauerkraut and shepherd's pie.

While Berley's book is not oriented throughout to seasonal cooking, much of his writing about vegetables does celebrate the seasonality of certain fruits and vegetables. The first chapter of recipes covers stocks and broths, beginning with a utility `All Season Vegetable Stock'. One of the very nice things about vegetable stocks is that they are done a lot faster than meat stocks, and Berley is quite correct in simmering his vegetables for no more than an hour. The next recipe introduces another exotic Asian ingredient, Kombu, for producing a dashi broth, a staple ingredient of Japanese soups. This chapter also includes a roasted vegetable stock plus a summer, autumn, and winter miso soup. As corn chowder is one of my favorite dishes, I was especially happy to see his recipe for a summertime corn and vegetable chowder.

Reproducing classic carnivorous favorites with vegan ingredients is a major theme in the book. One of the most interesting examples is a Seitan Bourguignon replacement for beef that, to my eyes, has all the attraction of the original, including the 2 cups of Burgundy wine, mushrooms, orange zest, and tomato paste. All you need is a source for the 1½ pounds of seitan.

The author gives all the attention you would expect from a vegetarian chef to cooking with grains and beans. But, I was very pleasantly surprised to see the attention the author paid to bread making. And, he does not limit himself to quickbreads and the standard yeast white country bread. He surveys virtually the whole range of bread making, including unleavened flatbreads from India and artisinal breads based on wild yeasts collected from the must on grapes.

As the author freely admits, bread baking is much to big a subject to be covered adequately in a single chapter, but he is very wise to include a reference to his bread making inspiration, Nancy Silverton, whose book `Breads From the La Brea Bakery' were a revelation which changed his whole way of looking at breadmaking. As interest in artisinal bread making is on the rise, I think the author's take on bread making in America was just a bit too dour. On the other hand, I applaud his attention to the subject as a source of inspiration for vegetarian bread bakers.

While I try to suppress my subjective reaction to a book until I have surveyed it from beginning to end, I confess the `gut reaction' is often the best clue to whether other people will like the book. And, my gut reaction is as favorable to this book as it was unfavorable to his second book. Like the books which inspired him, Berley's book is a great jumping off point for vegetarians and a great source of recipes and ingredients for enriching a vegetarian cuisine.

Very highly recommended.

As someone who is not trained but is also not afraid to spend the day in the kitchen attempting to make something good or learn some new chemistry techniques along the way this book was a perfect fit. I basically read it straight through as a textbook. There is a very informative intro to each chapter that provides some background info as well as information on techniques and ingredients. There are very few general public kitchen books that have given me this amount of useful information in such little time. I imagine it would be great for vegetarian cooking class. For example you learn how to make your own seitan as well as create a starter for making your sourdough bread. The recipes are all keepers and probably worth the price alone. I'm eating the summer miso now, had some carmelized fennel earlier and just finished a batch of the refried beans which will last me all week. Everything i've made so far i'll keep making over and over again.

My only issue with the book is the index should be more fleshed out. There is nothing worse than trying to find something in a cookbook with chipotle paste all over your hands. #;@]

This book is a find in a world of mediocre and redundant vegan cookbooks. Berley embellishes old vegetarian standbys- seitan, tempeh and tofu - and turns them into complete, appetizing, diverse and professional dishes that you might find at a restaurant: for example, Spicy Stir-Fried Broccoli Rabe with Lemon-Basil Tofu, Apple-Mustard Baked Tempeh Sandwich Filling, and Savory Seitan-Stuffed Summer Squash Provencal. I've finally graduated from vegan chili and vegan french toast! The author comes up with many creative dishes, salads, spreads (try Pumpkin-Walnut Pate), casseroles, pasta and homemade breads. To someone whose concept of vegetable sides ends with boiled carrots, the author's recipes for Caramelized Fennel, Braised Red Cabbage with Apples, and Stuffed Collards Baked in Zesty Tomato Sauce opened up a whole new world. Berley doesn't neglect the desserts, either; his Lemon Tart with Toasted Almond Crust was delicious, easy, and cholesterol-free. Also, I appreciate the fact that the author does not use soy in his cake ingredients; he uses alternative binders to replace eggs. Before each chapter the author includes helpful tips on how to use and prepare each type of food, whether it be quinoa, beans or yeast. Most of the recipes in this book are vegan, but, more importantly, they are original and take vegetarian cooking to another level. The author doesn't attempt to recreate beloved meat and dairy dishes; he simply creates delicious, meatless cuisine that anyone will like.