Customer Reviews

Secret Suppers: Rogue Chefs and Underground Restaurants in Warehouses, Townhouses, Open Fields, and Everywhere in Between

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

 

 

What a fun read....Jenn Garbee takes us to places I never knew existed until this book. Maybe I've lead a sheltered life but I had no idea, until now. Each chapter takes you to a new and different underground restaurant, each with its own cast of characters. The descriptions of the locations and the food make you want to go find one and get in on the mystery and intrigue unfolding with each new setting. Certainly, there are a few recipes with each new secret supper, but don't buy this to be a new cookbook. Buy the book for a glimpse of culinary life you may never have seen and maybe never will. But be careful...this book just might inspire you to create your own "Secret Supper".

Jenn Garbee will take you on the food adventure of a lifetime. She will open your eyes to so many hidden food treasures. I can't wait to travel around and check out many of these hidden gems that Jenn Garbee describes! This is a must read for anyone looking for something out of the ordinary and incredibly fun!

This book completely changed how I saw restaurants and the people who put their time, hearts and souls into food- in a way that no other book has done before. There are so few opportunities to peek behind the curtain of the glamorous restaurant industry and meet the power players who are behind it, and Jenn Garbee takes us on a ride that makes you feel like an insider. Travel and learn (and taste) along with the author on this gem of a book!

P.s.- This book is a can't miss, and it's a wonderful gift; i bought it for my mom, who in turn plans to buy it for her friends for the holidays.

I received this book for Christmas - what a fun read. The author's light, breezy, conversational style made me feel like I was attending these dinners. I have been to two of the underground restaurants profiled in this book, and the author does a nice job of conveying the atmosphere of each. The recipes from the chefs all sound interesting, but some are over my head from a preparation standpoint... hence the reason for 4 out of 5 stars. Highly recommended for foodies.

When I started this book, the whole idea was a little daunting. I love eating out as well as having friends over for an occasional dinner party but the idea of an "underground restaurant" just seemed exclusive and mysterious. I should have had no worries. Jenn Garbee takes us to 10 underground restaurants across the US showing so much wit and personality, it's hard to not be intrigued by this whole movement. With stories of the chefs, hosts, as well as other guests, I felt like I was right there with her.

She also includes several recipes (with pointers!) from each place she visits and they all sound delicious. Several recipes for infused alcohol as well as some others - bacon wrapped bacon, grilled stuffed figs - are at the top of my list to try. The book is a great mix of gourmet cookbook and fun storytelling.

Each underground restaurant is very different and it's up to you to experience them and find out what they are exactly. That's what Ms. Garbee does for the reader - makes her experience accessible to us.

The basic idea is great: food and travel writer Jenn Garbee goes on a tour of clandestine restaurants all over America, and you get to tag along. Well-written and fun to read, this book exceeded my expectations in every way. It is simply terrific, and marks Garbee as a rising star among food writers.

For foodie readers who are familiar with Garbee's work in the L.A. Times (where I first read her), this book is even more a delight--long enough to showcase Garbee's unique voice and sharp observations, loaded with great stories, and there are recipes to boot!

Be careful who you lend it to--it's so good they will never give it back! I bought two copies already (and already have a number of people in mind who will be getting this as a gift in December!).

At first when I was given this book as a gift, I didn't think I would actually read it. But I gave the first chapter a try, and read it fairly quickly! Each chapter is a new restaurant (recipes from that restaurant included too! yay!)

The book starts out very strong. The first several chapters are so interesting! The last few chapters tend to start to blend together. But as an aspiring 'foodie', I was really into learning about the background of these underground restaurants, with food terminology sprinkled in! Definitely an enjoyable gift!

SECRET SUPPERS: ROGUE CHEFS & UNDERGROUND RESTAURANT IN WAREHOUSES, TOWNHOUSES, OPEN FIELDS & EVERYWHERE IN BETWEEN visits ten 'outlaw' eateries across the country, blending storytelling with portraits of rogue chefs who entertain in the unlikeliest of situations, throwing dinner parties, cooking topless, and running underground restaurants out of lofts and countryside alike. Recipes are included in a fun, delightful and different expose perfect for collections catering to cooks and neo-pros.

Rogue chefs and underground restaurants! What a great concept for a book and alas, what an unfortunate execution we have here. I had such great expectations for what this book would present and was sorely disappointed.

By the end of the second chapter the journalist's authoritative voice had devolved into an unreliable narrator, what with all the misspellings and mistranslations (Montepulciano d'Abbruzzi has 2 n's, 'carciofi alla romana' is a dish of artichokes, not suckling pig, and Coquilles St. Jacques, creamed scallops? Really?) So not only did I know I'd be fact checking this book to the bitter and abrupt end but the narrator's witty asides and casual observations fell short and became annoyances. (NOTE: Relative distance to Newport Beach from the dinner venue in Carpinteria, not "nearby"; hard to find "Tuscan Kale" can be more accessible if we call 'cavolo nero' Red or Black Cabbage like Marcella Hazan or Giorgio Locatelli or my local grocer does)

As a culinary school graduate, instructor, and a food journalist, these are no small errors on the part of the author but pale in comparison to the writer's failure to explore and inquire of these rogue chefs and their omnivorous guests what propels them to do what they do and frame it in the larger picture of a national culinary awareness.

Despite the geographic variety of the dinner venues, a numbing and bland similarity prevails in the descriptions of these people and events which leaves me questioning the author's inquisitiveness, commitment and investment in the subject. Unrevealing quotes, vague descriptions of the attendees (the khaki slacks and smart skirt set) along with a refusal to tell the chef a dish needs salt, or a flavor combination is too odd or just off, admitting to a favored cocktail when asked, or not pursuing a line of questions to the potato farmer when interrupted by the camera crew - the author doesn't commit.

I'm left feeling that the book does a great disservice to the chefs and their followers. And as for presenting their recipes, there again is a lack of a point of view. Does anyone reading this book really need a recipe for bruschetta? Why two recipes for salmon tartare? So many figs and mangoes - is the cornucopia really so limited?

But what was learned in the cross-country dining adventure? Why no conclusion or afterword? Are these food events part of a larger movement, a culinary zeitgeist? If the Out Standing In The Fields dinner was such a bust, as described, why does the group have such staying power and draw among its participants? Why would a chef in service to Washington's elite moonlight at a possibly illegal dinner venue?

There's a bigger better story to be told about all those people pushing the boundaries of the culinary experience. And it's not being told in this book. Maybe a roster of the chefs' websites would make for a more useful exploration of what's going on here.