Customer Reviews

Today's Kitchen Cookbook

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

 

 

Today's Kitchen has long been a feature of the Today show. The format has been to invite a combination of chef's or celebrities to the kitchen on the set of the show to present a favorite recipie or two. In this book, the best of these recipies have been put together in book form for the benefit of the T.J. Martell Foundation to fund research into leukemia, cancer and AIDS.

Because of the wide range of people appearing on the show, the recipies vary across all kinds of specialty foods. This even includes traditional American fare such as Apple Pie. Of course when they cook polenta, you need to remember that this is just a fancy word for good old southern grits. The Valencian Paella (Spanish, not Mexican but from Spain) is excellent, as is their Chicken Satay (Thai).

The range of skill level required to take advantage of these recipies ranges from the complete novice to quite experienced cooks.

Often in cookbooks you get the recipies from one person. And often these sound very much alike. In this book, the wide range of authors allows each of them time to select just a few of their favorites. It's a good idea book when you're pondering what's for supper.

`Today's Kitchen Cookbook', featuring the headlining cast of the NBC `Today' show of two years ago (Katie Couric, Matt Lauer, Al Roker, and Ann Curry) and recipes from 37 celebrities, plus the four show anchors, is a relatively inexpensive omnibus volume assembled for sales to benefit the T. J. Martell Foundation, dedicated to cancer and AIDs medical research. The foundation is named for the founder's young son who died of leukemia. The most direct connection to the `Today' show is that colon cancer research, a favorite subject of Ms. Couric, is their latest target.

In evaluating this kind of book, with material from lots of different authors, I typically assume a rating of four stars from the outset and ask the book to show me something special to deserve the fifth star. This is especially true since not all of the 37 outside contributors are professional chefs. Six, like Sharon Osborne, of the 37 are celebrities in other fields. Several are nutritionist/ cookbook authors, such as Kathleen Dahlmans or culinary journalists such as Coleman Andrews. But, this still gives us at least half of the contributors from the ranks of first class chefs (Mario Batali, Todd English, Jacques Pepin) and leading culinary stars (Nigella Lawson, Tyler Florence, and Sara Foster).

Being the sentimental softy that I am, I am far more impressed by the star power and interest in the `Today' show principals than I did in a similar book done by the Food Network. This book is also superior to that effort in that the range of contributors is much broader, especially in the high-end chefs such as Boulud, English, Pepin, and Colicchio.

But this still doesn't make a worthy cookbook. When I look at the individual recipes, I am very happy to see that some skillful culinary writer / editor has been working behind the scenes to make the presentation of the recipes consistent. This is an especially good attribute of a similar book by Melissa Clark, `Chef, Interrupted'. And, this style is very clean, clear, and easy to follow, both in the form and content of the text.

I'm also happy to see the recipes organized in the way one would actually use this book. An especially nice feature is the last chapter, organized by celebration menu, including complete menus for New Year's Day (B. Smith), Valentine's Day (the Scotto Family), spring brunch (Donata Maggipinto), 4th of July (Ina Garten), Halloween (Sandra Lee), Thanksgiving (Jamie Oliver), and Italian Christmas (Sal Scognamillo). Aside from the irony of famed Brit Oliver doing Thanksgiving, this all suits me pretty well. It also substantially increases the value of the book for someone who does not own a cookbook of holiday menus (especially since this variety of cookbook tends to be just a bit pricier than usual).

I was especially surprised to find the very professionally organized page on 223 giving lots of measurement conversions, especially for our European mates who work in metric. All quantities in the recipes themselves are in conventional US measurements.

Surprisingly, the selection of recipes includes a very broad range of simple to complicated procedures. One may think that a typical `Today's Kitchen' segment could only support simpler dishes. But, even though there is nothing here that involves sauces or elaborate techniques (such as pasta making), the variety is impressive. And, the recipes all look exceptionally strong. Even though there are many recipes for familiar favorites, all these have some twist, usually a way to make them simpler than one may find elsewhere; however, Suzanne Somers' Caesar Salad skimps on nothing, and even makes excellent use of the blender to incorporate all ingredients for those of us who don't know one end of a whisk from the other. I momentarily thought some of the write-ups overlooked some key point, until I saw the cook's tips, each one of which invariably answered my question about the recipe. That means one really needs to pay attention. These bytes are not optional or only for the expert.

So, based on uniformly good recipes, an interesting collection of contributors, and a lower than usual price, I will give this it's fifth star and recommend it to those who own few cookbooks.

OK, so like any other white suburban mom in the USA, my mom loves the Today Show and watches it religously, so I got her this book for her birthday and she loves it! The recipes are great and easy to follow

A friend showed me a copy of this cookbook and I had to have it if only for the "PMS Espresso Brownies" (awesome). I've made several recipes so far and have modified one and really enjoy the end products. Nice book!

Today's Kitchen Cookbook appeals to all kinds of different fan -- for celebrities, chefs, even for the "Fab Four" of NBC's Today Show itself. Many of the recipes are quite goog -- but the packaging is celebrity, not food.

Read more at <a href="http://www.superchefblog.com/2005/09/todays-kitchen-cookbook.html">http://www.superchefblog.com/2005/09/todays-kitchen-cookbook.html</a>.