20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Put a little "English" in your cooking, December 16, 1999
This review is from: The Olives Table: Over 160 Recipes from the Critically Acclaimed Restaurant and Home Kitchen of Todd English (Hardcover)
After watching Todd English on the PBS series, I had to have the book. I never missed an episode - He's a culinary genius to the point you can only just sit back and shake your head. I recently gave a dinner for my sister's birthday and made the Falling Chocolate cake for desert. Prepared in ramekins, this delightfully chocolately desert is served individually, sprinkled with powedered sugar, garnished with fresh raspberries (or sauce as the recipie calls for)and a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, which I adorned with an extra flourish of a chocolate lace sculpture. The room fell silent as each warm & delicate, yet rich cake was served. It remained silent throughout except for an occassional groan of delight, until every plate was as clean as each gues could get it. My gourmet brother-in-law, Dennis, said in a serious tone,"Mimi, that's the best desert I've ever had in any restaurant." that's high praise from someone who lived and dined in New Orleans for 7 years. My friend Kathy asked for the recipie then went off to a corner to read the book for about an hour. What can I say? We're hooked on English. If you have the courage to try these amazing recipies, you'll never be sorry. Needless to say, I'm giving both Kathy and Dennis this book for Christmas. - Mimi Lujan
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Above Average Restaurant Cookbook. Esp for Olive dishes, April 14, 2005
This review is from: The Olives Table: Over 160 Recipes from the Critically Acclaimed Restaurant and Home Kitchen of Todd English (Hardcover)
`The Olives Table' by the dashingly handsome celebrity chef Todd English and professional culinary writer, Sally Sampson is in every way a typical celebrity chef / restaurant cookbook. It has good, interesting recipes, some insights into what makes a good professional chef, and a slant which distinguishes it from most other celebrity chef / restaurant cookbooks.
The special twist is obvious from the title of the book, as English really likes the cooking of the Mediterranean, especially the role olives plays in Mediterranean dishes. In fact, English agrees with virtually all other writers on this subject when he states that you simply cannot cook Mediterranean without olive oil. And, this means olives and olive oil in virtually all its different applications, from marinaded olive appetizers to aioli in place of mayonnaise and practically all other egg sauces.
The insight into professional cooking comes in the interview of English by Sally Sampson which opens the book. When asked to explain how chefs can keep up their interest and dedication through the long hours required by a high end restaurant, English says that (and I'm paraphrasing here) once a chef gets into the groove and the adrenalin kicks in, you get the kind of endomorphin rush which comes from long, hard exercize. And, if you don't put in the kind of effort needed to reach that experience at least some of the time, you will not succeed as a chef recognized for doing quality work.
One of the more important considerations in deciding whether to buy this book is the fact that while English has included a lot of recipes with his own special twists, there are also a lot of recipes here which simply are not too different from what you will find in other cookbooks which specialize in Mediterranean cuisine. The question is more difficult in that while this is a good book, it is not a major effort with an important extra dimension which makes it an important book for any foodie to own. Example of such books are `Bouchon' by Thomas Keller and Tony Bourdain's `Le Halle Cookbook'. Both are important because they offer a pretty complete picture of bistro / brasserie cooking from two very different perspectives. Keller adds his unique insights into brasserie cooking and Bourdain is about the most entertaining cooking writer this side of Alton Brown.
Since this is not a distinctively great restaurant cookbook and it does include a lot of typical recipes, although each with English's own little twist, do you still want to buy it. There are a few very good reasons to say yes. First, if you make a point of only buying restaurant cookbooks, you will have less overlap than if you also happen to own the classics of Mediterranean cooking by Paula Wolfert, Joyce Goldstein, Clifford Wright, Claudia Roden, and Nancy Harmon Jenkins. Also, if you happen to be simply nuts about olives, aioli, figs, and rice dishes, then you will find much to enthrall you in this book.
The recipes include the usual entertaining headnotes regarding ingredients, recipe inspiration, and notes about preparation. I am really both surprised and pleased by the fact that English cites canned artichokes as an ingredient in almost all his artichoke dishes. On the other hand, I was just a little disappointed by the fact that the tart crust recipe printed in the book was NOT the same as the much more complicated recipe he does at the restaurant. Well, if I wanted this dumbed down, I would go to any one of a half dozen books I have for a simple pastry recipe. I buy books by accomplished chefs to see exactly how they do things.
I have a suspicion that there are a few instructions in a few recipes where some small detail about the cooking method is being assumed and therefore is left out. My best example is where we are instructed to `pan grill' squid rings by placing them on a hot pan with no oil and leave them cook for 2 to 3 minutes. While the recipe does specify a cast iron pan which one may or may not know will be seasoned to a non-stick finish, this is not universally known, and it is easy for someone to substitute a pain aluminum or steel coated pan. Another question raised by this instruction is the heating for more than a minute. Conventional wisdom on squid is that it is cooked for a minute or an hour, never in between. Three minutes is three times this lower time. So, although I'm sure the Olives chefs make this to perfection, there seems to be too much room for something to go wrong. Something, I suspect, will either stick or be entirely too tough.
Since this book has very good recipes where even the standards such as paella, mashed potatoes, and roasted chicken all are done with enough difference from the standard that you will not feel cheated, I recommend this to any good amateur cook who likes famous restaurant cookbooks.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Excellent Restaurant Cookbook, July 23, 2001
This review is from: The Olives Table: Over 160 Recipes from the Critically Acclaimed Restaurant and Home Kitchen of Todd English (Hardcover)
Many restauranteurs publish cookbooks featuring recipes from their restaurants. I have a fair number of these books.
This is the *only* such book that I return to, repeatedly. I've made the goat cheese and sausage stuffed olives, the Falling Chocolate Cake (many times and is as excellent as another reviewer said), the Fennel Salad, the Tuna Tartare, and probably a good number of other recipes. The outcomes are consistently good.
I've also eaten at Olives a fair number of times, so I'm confident that I'm capturing the essence of Todd's cooking.
This is a high-quality hardcover book with high-quality paper, meaning that it should survive in the kitchen for a good long time. The recipes are well-laid-out on the pages and easy to refer to while you're cooking (a stark contrast from my "old" Joy of Cooking - which I love but does have a shortcoming in this area).
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