Customer Reviews

Top Chef The Cookbook

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

There's two different reasons to buy this book and I'll review it two ways for both types of people!

IF YOU'RE A CHEF: I wasn't sure if I was going to like this book because I'm not a gourmet cook by any stretch. However, I love to cook and this book has a huge variety of recipes--just like the show! I was very pleased to see that nearly every page is in full color and lots of the recipes are pictured in detail. Although parts of the book are arranged by season, the table of contents also lists things by meal (breakfast, small plates, fish, dessert, vegetarian, etc.) I found the book easy to navigate with a clearly deliniated table of contents and a great index list of ingredients. That way, if you have a certain item in mind (peppers, for example) you can find things from all different seasons. Some of the recipes do seem complex, but the instructions read as "easy enough" and I think everything is well explained.

IF YOU'RE A "TOP CHEF" FAN: You will DEFINITELY love this book, I say that without hesitation. And what a bargain! Usually "full color" like this goes for $35 or more (like the Jamie Oliver books and the Rachael Ray or Giada, three others that I love). For about $20, this book is great! It's AWESOME if you are a fan... it has pictures of cast members, summary pages of the seasons, and recipes from the "Quickfire" challenges as well. GREAT eye candy (admit it, Sam from season three is ALL THAT and Padma is gorgeous). There are also notable quotes from multiple seasons at the bottom of pages and on the sidebars (who could forget Dave's famous, "I'm not your..." quote!). I'm a huge fan of the show and the book is great... it's about time they came out with a cookbook! I can't wait to see what happens on season four!

The book is LOADED with color, photos, behind-the-scenes stuff, and all those recipes you wondered about. Dale's lamb chops from the finale? They're here! The photos of all the participants are really well done. The food looks great too. I will be spending many happy hours with this book. There's lots to read. Congrats to BRAVO, the book reflects all the excitement of the show.

Without a doubt this cookbook is a must have for any Top Chef fan. However, this book makes me seriously question the dishes cooked on the show. Last night I picked what appeared to be the easiest recipe in the book, the Sunflower Seeds & Carrot Loaf. If you remember Carlos made this amuse-bouche for a quickfire challenge in which contestants had to get their ingredients from a vending machine. The dish won the challenge. I followed the recipe perfectly and what resulted was one of the most phallic, God-awful things I have ever tasted. From the appearance to the lingering after-taste I have never had such a bad culinary experience.

I think my "title" tells you what I think of this book. I really had no interest in the fluff, on competeing chefs. The dishes that were created sparked my wish to settle in and try a few of these wonders. Sorry, it did not give me the desire.

If you're a Top Chef fan, not only will you love reading all the juicy tidbits/behind-the-scenes details of what makes the show work so well, but you'll also get to relive creative (and delicious sounding/looking) recipes at home! I haven't tried any of the recipes out yet, but nothing is very daunting/lots of them look quite easy in fact. I can't wait to try Harold's and Brian's recipes as soon as I can. Oh yeah--and the book layout looks like the show without being gimmicky (and I love the chef's cloth dust jacket, very cool!).

As an MTV-style cat-fest, this book does well, touching on the rivalries, pretty faces, and nasty noises of all our favorite culinary impresarios over the last three years. Unfortunately, most of the recipes are about as untried and unworkable as they were on the show. One would almost have had to be to culinary school to follow many of the directions in the first place, and that still doesn't guarantee that the recipes will work. A.O.K. as a coffee table book, but be prepared to be inventive when you flop with every third dish!

I watch the show and wanted the chance to cook some of their dishes. I could care less about the show info and stories that are throughout the book, I really just wanted recipes. Theres a spicy street food (I think it was pork with a jalapenos, carrot, and vinegar slaw) recipe that really was great. I did find some recipes I will never try as they include ingredients I've never seen and have no clue how to get them. Would have liked more useable recipes, less show "fluff", and maybe a little more focus on technique. I guess I was expected and wanted a cookbook, and this was really part cookbook part fan book.