Top Chef The Cookbook [Hardcover]

The Creators of Top Chef (Author), Tom Colicchio (Introduction, Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 20, 2008

Top Chef presents the official companion cookbook to the No. 1 rated food show on cable television! Featuring 100 fabulous recipes from the first three seasons of the show, including dishes from the Elimination Rounds and the Quick-Fire Challenges, Top Chef: The Cookbook invites fans into the hottest kitchen on prime time. In-depth discussions with contestants, judges, and crew reveal the inner workings of the show, and lavish photographs take readers behind-the-scenes into the Top Chef pantry and the competition sites. Handsomely packaged with a canvas cover inspired by the chef's jacket worn by each of the Top Chef contestants, this cookbook will have aspiring culinary contenders reliving classic show moments and relishing new recipes just in time to obsess over Padma's outfits in Season 4.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Part fanzine, part cookbook, this volume will appeal to the anyone who tunes into Top Chef each week to see contestants out-cook each other, using vending-machine ingredients to make appetizers or preparing lunch for the cast of a telenovela. Replete with dozens of glamour shots of contestant/contributors and sweetly old-fashioned profiles of the judges (host Padma Lakshmi is "a no-nonsense kind of gal"), this volume feels like a guide to a strange, food-obsessed cult. The author sighs over pretty, eccentric Betty Fraser, "it was always hard to know what to make of Betty," and notes that season two winner Ilan Hall was "good at falling into the kind of cliquish drama you might find in a high school cafeteria." The recipes themselves, taken directly from the show's "quickfire" and elimination challenges, are dauntingly involved, much more suited to cooking competitions than the average home kitchen: they never use one ingredient when three will do, nor do they shy away from expensive options like foie gras, truffles and abalone. Even simple-sounding dishes like Chiles Rellenos are accented with complicated sauces and garnishes. It's hard to imagine anyone consulting this book to whip up dinner, but it's easy to see how a Top Chef obsessive would get much satisfaction out of it, if not necessarily a full stomach.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Bravo’s hit culinary reality show now has a companion cookbook, though to be fair it is as much of a fan book as it is a recipe book. Sure, there’s a generous array of recipes, ranging from the simple (Sara M.’s Eggs in a Hole) to the somewhat more involved season-three winner Hung’s Sous-Vide Duck with Truffle-Scented Broth), and fans will get a kick out of seeing just what all goes into these winning creations and then trying to match their culinary skills to the task. At the same time, nonfans of the show will likely find a heavy amount of distracting detritus in these pages. Episode guides, personality profiles, and other cultish reminiscences all reserve this handsome, high-quality book pretty much exclusively to the large number of viewers already under the spell of the show. Perhaps most appealing for such fans will be the introductory essays describing the behind-the-scenes reality of the reality show, how the contest was dreamed up, and such priceless revelations as the show almost making it to air with the name Grillers in the Mist. --Ian Chipman

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (March 20, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811865789
• ISBN-13: 978-0811864305
• ASIN: 0811864308
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 8.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #290,791 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Top cookbook, March 31, 2008

By 

Julie Neal (Sanibel Island, Fla.) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Top Chef The Cookbook (Hardcover)

This is two books in one. On one hand it's a collection of gourmet recipes, with lush color photographs and handy preparation times. I would have appreciated nutritional and calorie information with the dishes, but the instructions are thorough and easy to follow.

On the other hand, this is a fan-fest for "Top Chef" addicts (like me). Whole sections are devoted to each of the show's three seasons. Each starts with an Elimination Bracket chart, which shows you all the contestants, which challenges they won, and in which episode they were eliminated. An Episode Guide describes the Quickfire competition and the Elimination Challenge. Next are many pages devoted to the contestants, with photos, bios, quotes from judges, an interview and statistics.

Bonus tidbits include bios of each Top Chef judge and photos of the kitchens used in the shows.

I especially liked chef Anthony Bourdain's Insult-O-Meter page, with samplings of the cranky judge's comments. About Sara Mair's seared salmon: "Salmon is usually a very forgiving fish. Not this one. Mine was beyond overcooked. We're talking cat-food territory."

Underneath the canvas dust jacket is a silver cover with the same "Top Chef The Cookbook" logo.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tempting, May 11, 2008

By 

W. Zollo ""the queen"" (MA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Top Chef The Cookbook (Hardcover)

While the recipes are a major plus, original and at times most certainly not to be found anywhere else...this in itself is in keeping with the spirit of Top Chef, what truly adds the flavor and spice to the untraditional cookbook is the sidebars and stories centered around the series itself.
Even better it doesn't lean toward being mean. It is lightly gossipy while still maintaining its dignity.

Featuring some of the favorite winning recipes:
Elia's Breakfast, lunch, and dinner waffles
C.J's Crepes
Mia's Crabcake Benedict
Hung's Tuna Tartare
Lea Anne's Deep Fried Oysters
Dale's Seared Elk Loin
Tre's Bacon wrapped Shrimp
Harold's Duo of Beef

Too name a few.

It also features some major info/updates on the past contestants which is in my opinion the best part of the book...and short Bio Bites on just about every participant and past judges along with major info on Tom, Gail and Padma.

A must have for Top Chef addict and for those looking for some out of the box recipes you certainly can't go wrong.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Amazing recipes, June 15, 2008

By 

A. McDermott - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Top Chef The Cookbook (Hardcover)

I'm a huge Top Chef fan and was super excited to get this book. So far, I've made Harold's Duo of Beef and Dave's Truffle Mac and Cheese with Cognac cream (both from season one). Both turned about amazingly. There are very minor omissions in some of the recipes (i.e., the recipe tells you to bake the mac and cheese for ~20 mins, but omits any mention of temperature) which are easy enough for the more experienced home cook to figure out. I probably wouldn't suggest this to a newer cook, as some of the recipes are a bit intimidating, but totally worth the effort.

In summary:
Pros - delicious recipes, plenty of pictures of finished product
Cons - some recipes lack detail and may be a little difficult for a beginning chef and there is a LOT of space wasted talking about the different seasons and recapping every. single. challenge. (elimination and quickfire)

At the end of the day, the quality of the recipes makes up for any other deficiencies. I'd rate this 4.5 stars overall.