Alfred Portale Simple Pleasures: Home Cooking from the Gotham Bar and Grill's Acclaimed Chef (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In cooking, says chef Alfred Portale, simple pleasures are "satisfying dishes that are relatively, and often surprisingly, easy to cook." His Alfred Portale Simple Pleasures offers 125 recipes for a wide range of such fare, derived from his acclaimed Manhattan restaurant, Gotham Bar and Grill, with other favorites added to the mix. The dishes, which reflect Portale's ability to meld the sophisticated and earthy, couldn't be more attractive. In wideranging chapters, which include "Small Plates" and "Soups, Sandwiches, and Pizzas," Portale offers the likes of Spicy Shrimp Salad with Mango, Avocado, and Lime Vinaigrette; Pizza with Roasted Chiles, Manchego, and Scallions; Duck Vindaloo; and Roasted Monkfish with Green Peppercorn Sauce. Included also are useful variations, as well as "flavor building" advice--you can amp up that monkfish, for example, with the addition of cremini mushrooms, shallots, and garlic butter. Though the recipes require no special ingredients, many of the formulas are, as Portale hints, best kept for times when the cook isn't hurried. The reward of pursuing Portale's approach also yields desserts like Lime Meringue Tarts, Chocolate Grand Marnier Cake, and Summer Plum Pudding. Simple Pleasures also offers color photos plus a helpfully illustrated ingredient glossary. --Arthur Boehm

From Publishers Weekly

As in his two previous cookbooks, Alfred Portale's Gotham Bar and Grill Cookbook and Alfred Portale's 12 Seasons Cookbook, Portale uses the same flavor-enhancing principles he's used at his top New York City restaurant, Gotham Bar and Grill, for 20 years, but works his magic on home-style foods rather than dishes that require a team of sous chefs to be executed properly. Portale makes particularly good use of vegetables, in such intriguing concoctions as Israeli Couscous Salad with Grilled Summer Vegetables, and Crisp Vegetable Salad with Sunflower Seeds and Mustard Vinaigrette. His headers are informative, like the one for Roasted Chestnut Soup that offers a rundown of how to choose and store the nuts. Repeatedly, recipes that sound somewhat familiar reveal a twist or demonstrate a technique: Roast Turkey, Avocado, Bacon and Blue Cheese Sandwich sounds almost ordinary, but includes a clearly explained method for brining a turkey breast that is helpful beyond the confines of one recipe. Roasted Wild Striped Bass with Leeks, Fingerling Potatoes and Lemon calls for steaming the fish briefly, baking it to draw out its flavor, then reducing the juices into a sauce, but Portale manages to maximize flavor while still minimizing the number of pans dirtied. Photos.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks (October 26, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060535024
• ISBN-13: 978-0060535025
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #429,443 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best Examples of Modern Cooking, April 16, 2006

By	Emile AULD (Manchester) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The book is called Simple Pleasures not Simple Cooking !!

If you want to set your tastebuds alight, then go through some of the recipes in this book.

Sure it isn't a book of simplistic recipes, of how to make your evening meal in 30 minutes or less, but that isn't what you buy this book for.

If you want a book that shows you the recipes and thinking of one of the best modern American chefs, then you buy this book.

Having gone through the book, I think that this will be one of the cookbooks that I will use the most.

On a par with Bistro Cooking at Home by Gordon Hamersley, and Cooking One on One by John Ash.

Some of the best of modern American cooking is contained in these pages.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorite cookbooks...simply outstanding!, November 21, 2006

By	D. Guinther (Madison, WI) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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I own a large number of cookbooks, and this wonderful book by Alfred Portale is one of my favorites. The recipes are creative yet relatively simple and easy to follow. In particular, he is an absolute master with seafood. Recipes such as "Asian Stripped Bass en Papillote", "Lime and Butter-Braised Fluke (or Sole)", and "Roasted Halibut with Lemon-Caper Butter" have all become favorites in our home. I highly recommend this book.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars love the restaurant, love the book!, November 10, 2005

By	nj cook (east coast) - See all my reviews

Interesting info also given with some delicious recipes. Not for the "Semi-homemade" kind of cook. No gourmet ingredients necessary; truffle oil is readily available in most supermarkets.