Top Secret Restaurant Recipes: Creating Kitchen Clones from America's Favorite Restaurant Chains [Paperback]

Todd Wilbur (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2, 1997

It's no longer necessary to stand in line for a table at T.G.I. Friday's or Red Lobster. You can make the menu items you love right at home - with ingredients from your local supermarket. In this unique cookbook Todd Wilbur re-creates more than 100 signature dishes from America's most popular chain restaurants - including such hot theme eateries as the Hard Rock Cafe, Planet Hollywood, and Dive!. Wilbur's easy-to-make knockoffs, the products of years of research, are indiscernible from the originals - and the most ingenious way we know of to cut down on the cost of eating out. But watch out, once you start cooking, people may start calling for reservations at your dinner table! Here are some of the best-kept restaurant secrets that let you eat in with the great taste of eating out: Outback Steakhouse Bloomin' Onion, Chili's Fajitas for Two, Tony Roma's World Famous Ribs, T.G.I. Friday's Potato Skins, Pizza Hut Original Stuffed Crust Pizza, and Sizzler Southern Fried Shrimp. Plus you'll find out the fascinating history of each restaurant and loads of food lore...including how ice cream sundaes got their name. The perfect cookbook for everyone who loves to eat out.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Long before scientists in Scotland cloned Dolly the sheep, Todd Wilbur was hard at work replicating recipes from some of America's favorite restaurant chains. Armed with Ziploc bags for transporting leftovers and plenty of questions for his servers, Wilbur has combined the skills of a private eye and a research scientist to devise the tasty clones included in Top Secret Restaurant Recipes. Wilbur honed his technique on convenience food, creating exact duplicates of everything from a Big Mac to a Twinkie; in this book, however, he sets his sights on slightly more sophisticated fare. Within these pages you'll find sure-fire recipes for such chain favorites as Hard Rock Cafe's Famous Baby Rock Watermelon Ribs, Cheese Blintzes from the International House of Pancakes, and The Olive Garden's Hot Artichoke-Spinach Dip. Denny's, Shoney's, The Cheesecake Factory, and Pizza Hut are just a few of the many chain restaurants from which popular menu items have been "cloned." So the next time you have a hankering for Tony Roma's World Famous Ribs or a slice of Red Robin's Mountain High Mud Pie, don't bother to go out--instead, eat in with Top Secret Restaurant Recipes.

From Booklist

As restaurant chains proliferate, their food expresses a culinary Gresham's law: bad food drives out good. Wilbur, building on the popularity of his books revealing McDonald's Big Mac special sauce and Twinkies' filling, continues to plumb the shallows of chain-restaurant cooking. Here he tells the home cook how to make favorite dishes from such popular chains as Planet Hollywood, Hard Rock Cafe, and dozens more. What Wilbur cleverly uncovers are legal constructs more than culinary creations (witness the blizzard of trademark bullets appearing next to virtually every name). Wilbur's blueprint diagrams of food add to a perception of these comestibles as food engineering. Nevertheless, this book will be eagerly sought by library patrons delving for just the sort of chain-restaurant secrets Wilbur unveils. Mark Knoblauch

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Plume; First edition (June 2, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452275873
• ISBN-13: 978-0452275874
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (83 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #24,206 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #32 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Diets & Weight Loss > Food Counters
  • #98 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > U.S. Regional

More About the Author

Self-proclaimed food hacker and host of CMT's "Top Secret Recipe," Todd Wilbur is the author of a series of unique cookbooks which reveal simple secret recipes for creating home versions of America's most popular brand-name foods. With over 4.5 million Top Secret Recipes books in print, Todd designs each recipe through careful research, trial-and-error, creative reverse-engineering, and obsession. Readers will not only be fascinated with the backstories and impressed with the accuracy of the formulas, but will also find that they can save money when recreating these signature dishes at home and will enjoy the ability to now customize their favorite foods to suit specific diets and health concerns.

Todd has appeared on numerous talk shows in the 24 years he has been cloning famous foods, including The Oprah Winfrey Show, Dr. Oz, Today Show, Live! with Regis & Kathie Lee, Good Morning America, Fox News, Rachael Ray, Maury, and The Food Network. Season 1 of "Top Secret Recipe" debuted on CMT in October, 2011. When not taste-testing recipes on himself, his wife, his friends, and TV talk show hosts, Todd is busy teaching his 3-year-old daughter how to identify herbs in a sauce at their home in Las Vegas, NV.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

116 of 121 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Fantastic book!, January 11, 2000

By 

Angela Watts "Watty" (Michigan) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes: Creating Kitchen Clones from America's Favorite Restaurant Chains (Paperback)

I found that the book was a great investment for people who might not have the funds or the patience to be at the restaurants all the time to have great food. Everything that I've made has been excellent, and though I'm sure that the author tried to find the closest ingredients that could be found with ease at your local market (and in comments to the people who gave a bad review that he couldn't find the ingredients out of the country, we're lucky someone has found a way for us to make the recipes at ALL! How's he supposed to know you can't get Mayo where you are and what substitution you could use in its place? ) Also to the person who made the comment about it not being "gourmet fare" the recipes that are in the book aren't supposed to all be gourmet fare, they're supposed to be recipes most people LOVE & it wasn't like you couldn't look over the book and judge if it was for you before you bought it! I LOVE this book, and it looks like everyone else does too! Great Job Todd! THANKS!

57 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't leave home without it, February 22, 2001

By 

Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes: Creating Kitchen Clones from America's Favorite Restaurant Chains (Paperback)

If you happen to move overseas, it can be a great experience. However,when homesickness sets in and you want ribs, this book is a lifesaver. Let's face it, despite our reluctance to admit it, we all love some of the food from American chain restaurants (or why would they have proliferated across the country the way they have?) And if you want to give an American-style dinner, this book is really fun to have.

In addition to the ribs (reason I got the book) there is a terrific cinnabon clone which is a great Sunday brunch item, as are the blinzes. This is not HAUTE Cuisine, but sure is fun.

51 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just as good or better than the real thing!, July 26, 2000

By 

J. Austin "jodylync" (Dublin, OH United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes: Creating Kitchen Clones from America's Favorite Restaurant Chains (Paperback)

This cookbook is great! I haven't made every recipe in this book, but I have come close. Some of these items I have actually had. Some I haven't so I can't honestly say that these recipes are dead on with the real thing. What I can tell you is that I have enjoyed these recipes immensely. Favorites are Cheesecake Factory's Pumpkin Cheesecake (a new Thanksgiving tradition), Planet Hollywood Chicken Crunch, Cracker Barrel Hash Brown Casserole, and Hard Rock's Orange Freeze just to name a few. Todd is very good with the instructions and extra tips. For example, with the Outback's Walkabout Soup (another favorite) he tells you to be very careful when stirring or you will tear the onions. A highly recommended book!