Customer Reviews

Workin' More Kitchen Sessions with Charlie Trotter

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

 

 

`Workin' More Kitchen Sessions With Charlie Trotter' is based on Charlie Trotter's latest PBS series where, according to Trotter `friend and colleague' Rochelle Smith, Trotter imitates Jazz greats by improvising savory dishes based on twelve (12) central ingredients, plus a series on desserts. Like so many celebrity chef cookbooks, the chef whose name is on the cover generally provides the ideas and may actually create the dishes in the kitchen, but it is the support team which actually writes the recipes, edits copy, tests, the recipes, and does just about every other activity involved in creating a book. As Trotter himself prepared these recipes on TV, we can be certain that he certainly had a lot to do with actually coming up with the recipes, so his creative contribution to the book is assured.

Trotter is easily one of the most creative and influential writing chefs in the country, along with Thomas Keller, Alfred Portale, Daniel Boulud, and Tom Colicchio. Unlike culinary businessmen such as Wolfgang Puck and trendsetter restaurateurs such as Alice Waters, these chefs create new cuisine and explain to all of us less talented what it is really like to be a creative chef in a fine dining establishment. With all of that, why am I so disappointed with this book?

For starters, it is important for me to say that I am convinced that virtually all the recipes in this book are about as original as they come and I am sure that they are about as tasty as the finest ingredients and the best culinary minds and hands can make them. There is not a single conventional spaghetti, paella, risotto, roasted chicken, crepe, omelet, Panini, or crostini recipe in the book. Virtually the only recognized name dish in the book is a cassoulet, but this is done in a very unconventional way. There are some soufflés and a paella inspired recipe here and there but nothing you will find in Tony Bourdain's excellent send off of bistro dishes. Thus, like John Coltrane's famous renditions of `My Favorite Things', these dishes simply have never been seen before, and it is quite possible Trotter will never make them again.

Here lies the germ of the problem. If these dishes are one off improvisations by a world class chef, what in the world give us any assurance that these dishes have any value whatsoever to the practical home cook? The problem is compounded by a few very pedestrian problems with the design of the book. For starters, the headnotes to each dish are in a small type with a very light ink. It was literally difficult for me to read these paragraphs. Second, the very imaginative organization of the recipes by a principle ingredient was largely meaningless, as almost every dish could have been made a set piece for any one of half a dozen ingredients. My favorite example is a truly fantastic looking dish made of a lamb tenderloin with a peanut sauce, ginger, scallions, onion, carrot, parsnip, bell peppers, and so on, with a touch of mizuna, tatsoi, and basil. If I were looking for something to do with a head of frisee or romaine or Boston lettuce and I was paging through the section on greens, this recipe would do absolutely nothing for me. Third, while the photographs of the completed dishes were as good or better than I've seen in most books, the `atmosphere' snaps were done in a very dark green shade where one's eyesight would have to be a lot better than mine to make the effort to appreciate what Herr Trotter was doing when the picture was taken. Fourth, this is obviously a book meant more for the coffee table than for laying open on the kitchen table. This may not be a serious complaint, as Thomas Keller has given us an even larger `Bouchon'; however, Keller's book is literally packed with familiar recipes which virtually all of us can reproduce to good effect. Trotter's book has no such recipes. Fifth, I think the author(s) really short-changed us in the pantry recipes. I am very suspicious of the stock recipes as their procedures are very short and they instruct us to chop vegetables and simmer these for up to six hours. Virtually every other expert I have seen puts whole or simply peeled and halved vegetables in a stock pot and simmers vegetables from one to three hours. I think Trotter's stock recipes in the hands of an amateur who does not have $100 chinois strainers on hand are recipes for very cloudy stocks.

Some of the clues that tell me that these are not recipes for mere mortals are the instructions to do a brunoise dice of seeded tomatoes. According to my trusty Larousse Gastronomique, a brunoise is a `minute dice'; generally giving cubes an eighth of an inch on a side. I challenge you to successfully brunoise the flesh of a tomato! A second case is when the instructions ask you to do a chiffonade of onions that have been baked for an hour. Trotter may be able to do this without a lot of thought but I am simply not up to these prep tasks.

These are simply not practical recipes for amateurs. There is a lot of inspiration here and there is a lot of very good use of American ingredients. This is purely a book for professionals and serious foodies. I will come back to this book for inspiration when I have the urge to create a recipe for artichokes, corn, fennel, greens, legumes, mushrooms, onions, potatoes, root vegetables, squash, tomatoes, or cheese, but I will pass on it when I want to do my next 100 family meals.

Like Trotter's book `Raw', I give this three stars not for the lack of great culinary skill behind the recipes but as a warning to look twice before laying out $40 for this book. Keller's `Bouchon' is a much better value for the money.

I've been reading and cooking from this book for a couple of weeks now, and thrilling myself (and my resident taste-tester spouse) with the results. I've learned something new from every recipe, and it has helped loosen up my own creative cooking juices and get me out of the "old standby" rut. Trotter takes standard techniques and turns them on their head. "Leek confit" soup swims around oil-poached salmon, and a Thai-style curry sauce takes on a new meaning when it is used in a braise of short ribs and served over herby, crusty roasted root vegetables. No, this cookbook is not for someone looking to whip up a meal in 20 minutes or less with what they have in the fridge. But there are lots of other cookbooks for that. These recipes are challenging but very doable for anyone who has a good foundation in cooking, access to quality ingredients, and who is eager to spend some time in the kitchen. All of the dishes I've tried have rated high on the "wow" scale. I look forward to learning new riffs on old standards from this masterful chef.

Kitchen Sessions was my all time favorite cookbook. It was the equivalent of that perfect cd where you want to put every track on repeat and never get sick of listening to any one song. You may not listen to it for a while, but everytime you go back, it never disappoints you. I used the recipes in the first book time and time again to repeated success and appreciation of loved ones. Workin' gives that same excitement and feeling. I have gone through the book cover to cover many times already, and now have the delicious dilemna of not being able to decide which recipe to try first! What's especially exciting about Workin' is that like the original, this one is also organized by foodstuff, but instead of fish or meats...vegetables! They have a potato section, a legume section...squash...tomatoes...cheese and dessert too!

I am not doing the book justice, but here's a highest recommendation for this newest book from my favorite chef: Workin' More Kitchen Sessions with Charlie Trotter for the incredible recipes provided, but also because of the skills you learn. Is there anything better?

I haven't really used this book, but I wanted to warn other vegetarians who might be misled by some of the descriptions-- the book is divided into chapters entirely based on vegetables (e.g.artichokes, mushrooms, tomatoes). This fact, combined with the fact that Trotter's restaurant was one of the first in the country to offer a vegetarian tasting menu, might lead you, as it did me, to believe that this would be a vegetarian-friendly book. It isn't. In spite of being organized around vegetables, the vast majority of these recipes feature some kind of meat. Many of the chapters- like the ones on legumes, corn, root vegetables and squash- have no vegetarian selections whatsoever. Other chapters have one or two vegetarian recipes at most. If you exclude the dessert and cheese sections, I'd say there are less than 10 vegetarian recipes here. In fairness, some of the recipes are probably vegetarian-adaptable. E.g., there is a lobster and yellow beet borscht in which the lobster is just a garnish. But insofar as one modifies recipes in this way, there is a worry that the essence of the flavor and balance in the recipe has been lost. I realize that this is an idiosyncratic concern, and I voice it only to help someone else avoid replicating my expensive disappointment. Otherwise, this is a beautiful book whose overall style (as well as some of the recipes) will be familiar to readers of trotter's other books. It features high-style restaurant food which is inspirational, but largely impractical, for home cooks. The recipes are complicated, and preparation instructions rage from sketchy to downright misleading. I think Trotter's books are most useful for a knowledgable cook who doesn't need hand-holding and is comfortable running with the themes and substituting or omitting freely. This book is slightly less glossy than some of Trotter's single-theme books-- smaller in size with fewer pictures, but its still lovely and a little bit cheaper.

Reasonably easy recipes to make, ingredients can be easily located. Wine notes are an added bonus

I am an avid cook and know how to follow a recipe. I made Artichoke & Tomato Turnover with Herb Puree. After hours of chopping, simmering, making & rolling dough, etc, the results were inedible. The cream cheese dough was made is cream cheese, butter and flour; part of the butter melted out when it was baked. I can't imagine drizzling olive oil with herbs and romano cheese on top as the recipe directs. I later calculated that the recipe was 4000 calories for 4 servings. Trotter's "Cooks at Home" or Keller's "Bouchon" are better and more practical if you actually plan to make the recipes.

I wait with anticipation each time Charlie Trotter releases a cook book, time after time after time, it is different and exciting. This is what, his eleventh one! Last year it was RAW, this time its television cooking art. What more this book includes meat & vegetarian recipes which are delicious & ELEGANT. I like books with photographs of the dish, this book has that & behind the scenes photography. To me, it is interesting to see how cooking shows & cook books develope. If you have never enjoyed a cook book...this one has all the action. It is a perfect example of how great chefs keep their cuisine progressive and us throughly entertained by their amazing food.

If you like to cook and like creative dishes. This is the cookbook for you. I love this book. Charlie Trotter creates great tasting, creative combinations. I have yet to make anything in this book that was not fabulous. Good Christmas Gift!