Customer Reviews

My New Mediterranean Cookbook: Eat Better, Live Longer by Following the Mediterranean Diet

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Very high-brow recipes that come from mainly European countries such as France and Spain. If you're looking for a healthy eating guide, such as learning how to substitute olive oil for butter and how to cook less meat-oriented meals, this is not the book. I studied the Mediterranean Diet Food Pyramid, which this book seems to turn upside-down. Many recipes call for milk and cream and most recipes are 2 pages long. Individual Beef Wellingtons - doesn't sound very healthy to me! This is a good choice for Gourmet Cooks looking for more wordly recipes!

Followers of the Mediterranean diet will want to have Jeanette Seaver's My New Mediterranean Cookbook: Eat Better, Live Longer By Following The Mediterranean Diet in their collection: it comes from a French-raised gourmet chef who provides hundreds of recipes based on the diet plan, emphasizing fresh fruits and vegetables. Recipes are easy to prepare, especially with an approach geared to beginners which takes a step-by-step approach and includes tips for complete menu plans.

Classic or contemporary Mediterranean food, with its preponderance of fresh vegetables and fruit and its reliance on olive oil instead of butter, forms a naturally healthy cuisine, Seaver points out, obviating the need for diet books. With main courses like Lemon and Artichoke Risotto, Broiled Duck Breasts with Grilled Peaches, and Trout with Sorrel, who needs steak and potatoes?

The book is divided into First and Second Courses, followed by Dessert and each course is organized by main ingredient - meat, fish, vegetable. Most first courses (Carpaccio of Beets, Terrine of Monkfish with Green Sauce) can be at least partially prepared in advance and many are served cold or room temperature. Main courses (Bouillabaisse, Moussaka of Artichoke and Veal, Pork Tonnato) range from quick and easy to elegant and time consuming.

Recipes are clear and attractively presented. Presentation is important to Seaver and is included as an integral part of the recipe. Except for a recipe for Coq au Vin which uses boned chicken breasts, every dish in this book has a mouthwatering freshness and sophistication which will inspire cooks who want to celebrate mealtime and stay healthy too.

Portsmouth Herald

The cook book is a middle of the road cook book with no real insights to the Mediterranean Heart diet. In fact, a good basic Italian, Middle Eastern, or Greek cook book would be better - like the Essentials of Italian Cooking and The Eastern Mediterranean CookBook.

Gourmet chef and Mediterranean traveler Jeannette Seaver presents My New Mediterranean Cookbook, a compilation of recipes using traditional Mediterranean-diet ingredients such as vegetables, legumes, fresh fruit, nuts, cereals, olive oil, fish, red meat, and poultry. Straightforward instructions simplify the preparation of such delicacies as Dandelion Salad with New Potatoes and Bacon, Roast Portobello Mushrooms with Gremolata, Beggar's Purses of Stuffed Chicken, Almond Tart with Strawberries, and so much more. The dishes are organized by course, and a handful of sample menus plus a convenient index assist in planning mealtimes. A welcome addition to any enthusiast's cookbook shelf.

If you've been searching for a "gourmet" view of the Mediterranean diet, this book is for you! However, if you would rather have easy to prepare healthful Mediterranean dishes, add the book "Easy and Healthful Mediterranean Cooking" by Mary El-Baz to your kitchen bookshelf.