Customer Reviews

There's a Chef in Your Freezer: Fast, Fabulous, Delicious, Mediterranean-Inspired Recipes Your Family, Friends, and You Will Love

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

 

 

I'm probably not the typical reader of this book. I like cooking, but only do cooking that takes very little time. Still, I learned a very useful philosophy of cooking from this book, "Chef in your Freezer." The philosophy is how to prepare some useful building blocks in order to have them on hand in the freezer. Then, it is much easier to make a good meal in a short time without cutting corners. This isn't a fast food cookbook, nor does quality suffer.
I particularly liked learning some interesting tricks in how to make polenta and risotto. I like to cook vegetarian, and found many delicious vegetarian recipes in these sections.
I'd highly recommend this book, to both beginning and advanced home cooks.

I love this book. I have been cooking for 50 years, and I learned a whole new way of cooking with this book. Not only is it great reading, but "Chef" is a wonderful collection of delicious Mediterrean "building blocks" and recipes that anyone who loves to cook and eat gourmet meals every night but doesn't have time to prepare will literally eat up! Richard Azzolini gives step-by-step instructions for preparing items such as carmelized onions, roasted peppers, tomatoes and garlic, soups and sauces that are written in a clear, user friendly manner with prenty of hints and humor. He encourages the homecook to buy foods at the height of ripeness, in quanity, then gather friends and family to prepare the "building blocks" together and to share in the bounty. All the "building blocks" can be put in the freezer, packaged in small amounts, ready to use as needed. Every recipe Chef Az provides to use the "building blocks" is mouthwatering, easy to prepare and healthy, including the desserts! Imagine being able to prepare a fabulous meal every night in minutes with recipes such as Classic Onion Soup, Tomato Orange Basil Risotto, Salmon with Rosemary/thyme Marinade finished with Balsamic Vinegar and Carmelized Onions,and for dessert, a lucious Hazelnut Frangipane Tart because the "building blocks" are ready and waiting in your freezer. This is one cookbook you will use again and again and will soon be "stained" with happy memories.

There's a Chef in Your Freezer is great for the overly busy
working mom. With the help of Chef Az I have learned how to prepare meals that aren't boring, within 20 minutes.

I never think about preparing a meal until the kids are starving and demand an instant dinner. So with a little prep, I can cook something besides the boring hot dogs and hamburgers.

My kids now eat more veggies and I am amazed at my gourmet results. Thank you Chef Az.

If you're like me, you drool over visions of hot, steaming, flavorful 'real food' as you're pulling into the drive-through for the 4th time in a week and dejectedly bleat out "Yes, I'll have fries with that."
For me, 'food'when I was growing up meant Lucky CHarms out of the box in front of a "Three's Company" or "Laverne and Shirley" rerun. I bought this book looking for vegetable based (in other words, healthy/light)recipies that also made use of the 'freezer cooking' method. I have NO kitchen skills, so cooking an elaborate homemade meal is a challenge for me in all respects. If it's too complicated - I quit!
This book meets all my needs and I'm pretty happy with it. I think the secret here is that there really is no magic secret to cooking - just most of us don't have this sort of home-economics knowledge anymore of how to select vegetables, prepare them for multiple uses later, and freeze them. This book delivers all that and more - nice, basic recipes that aren't drenched in mayo, cheese, and ground beef like you find in all the other freezer cookbooks. 'Mediterranean-inspired' - is a selling point here - the flavors are upscale but not pretensious, great for people who want to cook healthy meals every day for their families. A good tool to help get out of the fast food lines. Stocking your freezer with the prepared 'basics' does help, as promised, make you feel like a chef!

I love "There's A chef In Your Freezer." It has really changed the way I cook. I'm a working mother and I really appreciate how the book helps me prepare delicious meals quickly. I don't know how I ever lived without roasted garlic in my freezer before -- it adds so much flavor to food. I use it sometimes to jazz up store-bought food and frozen vegetables. The roasted garlic and marinades are my favorite recipes in the book. I use the marinades all the time. They are very easy to make and add so much flavor.

I find myself making roasted vegetables and potatoes often; roasted chicken parts are delicious with the rosemary thyme marinade. Even the children love them. The caramel chocolate sauce is to die for and easy to prepare.

I appreciate all the humor in the book as well, and I find the recipes are clear and easy-to-follow. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes to cook. For those who have time to cook, they'll find it's full of recipes that sound delicious.

I've found this book useful. It utilizes a different approach than many cookbooks in its use of building blooks. The building blocks (which can be cooked ahead & frozen) for which the author gives instructions are tasty and versatile, and we have really enjoyed the recipes he provides for using the building blocks. We had a lot of veggies from our garden at the end of this summer, and this book helped me make the most of them. I found the book to be well-organized and easy to use. Note: when I contacted the author by email to let him know how much I've enjoyed his book, he responded and noted a correction on page 146: the recipe for basic frangipane requires one cup of nuts, not two cups as stated.

Not well organized and uninspired. Any seasoned home cook will know these tips and tricks. Based on the reviews of praise I felt mislead. I would not recommend this book to any serious home cook.

Based on the other reviews, I'd expected something really special. There's nothing wrong with the recipes and techniques in this book, but I learned nothing new. I already keep frozen mushrooms, herbs, onions, and peppers on hand. And the recipes for using those ingredients were fine, but again - nothing new. This would be a fine cookbook for a person who is just learning to freeze, or whose repetoire needs expanding. For the experienced cook - NOTHING NEW.