Nightly Specials: 125 Recipes for Spontaneous, Creative Cooking at Home (Hardcover)

~ (Author), (Author) "A salad can be the ultimate nightly special for two reasons..." (more)
Key Phrases: large bowl halfway, fine sea salt, chile mayonnaise, Grand Marnier, Standing Rib of Beef, Coconut-Scented Basmati Rice (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In Nightly Specials Michael Lomonaco, former chef at Manhattan's Windows on the World and Le Cirque, offers 125 easy dishes--food for everyday enjoyment. Avoiding complication and fussy invention, Lomonaco focuses principally on old favorites, like Maryland-Style Crab Cakes and Chicken Pot Pie, to which he often gives a satisfying twist. (His meatloaf, for example, contains pecorino cheese, tomatoes, and oregano.) Included also are "original dishes" like Hacked Chile Lobster, Corn Cakes with Smoked Salmon, and Beef and Porter Stew, also uncomplicated to prepare. The Lomonaco approach extends to tempting desserts like Triple Berry and Pecan Crunch Pie, Silky Coconut Flan, and a particularly good flourless chocolate cake. Recipe variations called Nightly Specials--you can, for example, exchange grilled chicken breast for the roast beef in a hash with mushrooms--round out this very attractive collection. All the dishes celebrate an improvisatory spirit that leads cooks to create menus based on what's freshest in the market--your own nightly specials. --Arthur Boehm

From Publishers Weekly

Mahi mahi is on special, kale is fresh, lemons are abundant; what should you make? Celebrity chef Lomonaco’s newest cookbook tackles the line between recipe and technique, offering home cooks a window into his world of inspired impromptu dinners. Simple but fancy-sounding dishes—like Marinated Salmon Carpaccio with Green Apple and Dill—act as templates. "Replace the salmon with sushi-grade tuna and the apple with 1 small mango and 1 small papaya," he suggests in a sidebar alongside the recipe. One of these little sections accompanies every recipe in the book, and though they’re small, they do help teach readers the logic behind creative cooking. "If you cannot find blood oranges, no problem," he assures in Ceviche of Bay Scallops and Blood Oranges. "Any orange will be fine. But also consider ruby red grapefruit from Texas." For a cook intimidated by the creative process (or one who lives in an area with erratic access to vegetables), these recipes nestled within recipes are a great favor. The dishes themselves are an odd mix of restaurant-fancy food from Lomonaco’s time at 21 and Windows on the World, old standbys (like My Mother’s Italian-American Meatloaf) and a mishmash of Asian and Latin flavors. His use of unusual starches like yuca, quinoa, "risotto," wheat berries and barley will appeal to carb-conscious eaters. There are a few confusing moments—he suggests looking for ginger that feels "soft to the touch" and recommends boiling collard greens for a whopping 90 minutes before sautéing—and the dessert section is surprisingly complicated. Overall, however, this strong collection of recipes will be welcome to any cook, and those in Lomonaco’s strong fan base won’t have any trouble finding a place for it on their shelves.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks (November 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060555629
• ISBN-13: 978-0060555627
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #826,444 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good Book for Frequent Cook. Lots of Variety, December 6, 2004

By	B. Marold "Bruce W. Marold" (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

`Nightly Specials' is written by Michael Lomonaco with an assist by ace New York City celebrity chef co-writer Andrew Friedman and with photographs by the Rothstein husband and wife team who also did Eric Ripert's `Return to Cooking' opus. Michael Lomonaco was the head chef at the Windows on the World recipe on September 9, 2001. By pure chance, he was not in the World Trade Center when the terrorist attacks occurred.

The premise of this book is clear made clear in the title, as it focuses on the restaurant chef's practice of constructing daily specials from either what is especially good in the market today or ingredients which may be left over from a dish yesterday which did not move as well as expected. While this is a great lesson for home cooks, Lomonaco cannot take a lot of credit for revealing and elaborating on this practice, as Tom Colicchio did it brilliantly in his first book, `How to Think Like a Chef'. Colicchio's book did not impress me greatly when I first read it, but constant repetition of this principle by countless other chefs have revealed exactly how important this technique is to the professional chef. And, as my skill in cooking grows, I find myself going more and more to this way of thinking in deciding what to make for dinner today.

Almost all celebrity chef books strive to either present the very best techniques from their fine dining restaurant or make a genuine attempt to adapt their favorite home and restaurant recipes to the skills and budget of a home kitchen. The very best of the first type are, for example, `The French Laundry Cookbook' by Keller and Ruhlman and `Tru' by Rick Tramonto. These books make no pretense that you will be able to duplicate their dishes. The purpose of these books is to show you how it is done in first class restaurants and possibly give you some ideas in general for improving home cooking. This is not to say that none of these recipes are possible at home, it is just that the author does nothing to simplify them, and makes no apologies for that fact. The very best of the second type of book are, for example, `Wolfgang Puck Makes it Easy' and `Charlie Trotter Cooks at Home'.

Lomonaco's book is much closer to the second type than to the first, as he is teaching a common professional practice to the amateur cook with recipes they should have no difficulty in doing in the home kitchen. Lomonaco adds to the utility of the book to the home chef by providing several recipes for `Snacks, Sandwiches, and Pizzas'. This seems to be a trend, as Wolfgang's new book does exactly the same thing.

When I was an information systems professional and just as much an inveterate book buyer as I am now, I would consider a $50 book on a programming language, database system, or design technique worth the cost if it had but a single technique capable of improving what I did in some systematic way. My attitude towards cookbooks is very similar in that all it takes to turn my opinion from `ho hum' to `oh boy' is one unfamiliar and interesting recipe which is easy to make, yet can make a big impression on fellow diners. Recipes for risotto or polenta or spaghetti or ceviche or braises or chowders or roast chicken or gratins or pizzas or paellas or even sandwiches really don't make a big impression, as I have whole books devoted to each of these subjects. In some cases, I have a whole shelf of books which covers the subject. So, what can chef Michael tell me which is new under my personal sun. As I am a sucker for both new cookware and for squid recipes, the thing which caught my eye was a squid casserole in a Spanish cazuela, a low porcelain dish with a strong family resemblance to a Tart Tatin pan, except that it's sides seem to be a bit lower.

So what about this book will turn on those of you who do not have 300 cookbooks? First, the chapters cover the full range of dishes from salads, soups, and sandwiches to shellfish, fin fish, birds, and beasts and berry desserts. So, this book touches all the bases, with lots of stops at traditional stations with recipes for all those risottos, polentas, and pastas I cited above. Then, there are the variations Lomonaco gives to each of his 125 recipes, so that, in practice, the author is really giving suggestions for up to three times this many dishes. So, if you find one you like, you get two or three ways of changing it around to fit the market or your pantry on any particular day.

My hunch is that this aspect of the book will be more valuable to a home cook who cooks often, at least three times a week, but who still does not have an extensive cookbook library. I cite experienced cooks because the `Nightly Special' variations given by chef Lomonaco do not say a lot about how much of the substitute ingredient to use, so there is some danger of overdoing it. And, as Mario Batali reminded me last night on his Christmas special, it's all about the balance of ingredients.

Another aspect of the book's offering is that it offers substitutions for ingredients that may not appeal to everyone. If, by chance, you happen to dislike scallops, yet you like shrimp, the book will tell you how to make the dish with both. This is how the book will be valuable to the occasional cook. While I have not read Pam Anderson's book, I suggest Lomonaco's volume would be a great companion to `How to Cook Without a Book'.

Recommended professional recipes and a big lesson in the use of the pantry for the home cook.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Go To Nightly Cookbook for Special Food!, November 8, 2004

By	rodboomboom (Dearborn, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

Amazon Verified Purchase

Many great restaurants have their wait staff announce when taking orders: "Tonight's special are ....." I'm one of those that attentively listens and asks questions and frequently orders from specials.

Turns out my thinking is like Lomonoco's: this is where chef's creativity is being experimented with, usually to highlight an ingredient just found, or use up ingredients that are around, or to try something new to see how it catches on before making it on permanent menu.

He believes this nightly special concept is an important intersection for the home chef, since the restaurant chef has little time to get too exotic with the line chefs and must provide clear and not-too-detailed steps to get these specials out.

Here in this creative and sizeable collection Lomonaco of TV fame (FoodNetwork and Epicurious) and 21 Club and Windows on World has had background and experience to let his imagination and zest for food to be displayed in over 125 "spontaneous and creative" recipes for the home chef.

They are nicely broken into usable groupings, i.e. soups, salads, fish, beef, etc. What is nice and usable is the concept being adapted by lots of wonderful chefs such as Ming Tsau and others is that of basic recipe with tradeoffs and substitutions of both ingredients and techniques. These options make it superb for home chef who wants to do more with food than simply micro or heat up in pan, but wants to minimize labor over stove and prep area. These still take some time to prepare and only addition would have been nice is estimates provided of prep time and baking/cooking time.

What is provided are creative, scrumptuous food that we have come to expect and appreciate from Lomonaco: "Roasted Summer Vegetables with Blue Cheese"; "Open Faced Swordfish Portobello, and Pancetta Club"; "Alpine Baked Pasta"; "Toasted Barley and Butternut Squash"; "Ceviche of Bay Scallops and Blood Oranges"; "Pan Roasted Halibut with Asparagus, Fava Beans, and Thyme Broth" (here is example of his options: not wild about fava beans, substituted french green beans with great results); "Grilled Whitefish Salad with Yellow Tomato and Tarragon Vinaigrette"; "Grilled Pork Chops with Coffee Barbecue Sauce"; "Triple Berry And Pecan Crunch Pie."

A beaut that many will not find if they are not familiar with this exceptional chef, who has a flair and energy for great food which certainly has caught my menus. I have stacks of his recipes from TV and now am delighted to have this sizeable, beautiful collection with nice size and great color photos.

3 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The spirit and themes of a restaurant's special dishes, February 13, 2005

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Executive chef and host of "Epicurious" on the Travel Channel Michael Lomonaco collaborates with veteran cookbook writer Andrew Friedman to present Nightly Specials: 125 Recipes For Spontaneous, Creative Cooking At Home, a cookbook celebrating the spirit and themes of a restaurant's special dishes: to take advantage of the catch of the day, or the time when certain fruits and vegetables are in season; to experiment with new ideas that may become menu staples; to enhance culinary creativity; and much more. Full-color photographs illustrate such vibrant dishes as Linguine with Manila Clams and Spicy Sauce; Maryland-Style Crab Cakes; The Best Fries You've Ever Made!; Gingered Green Beans, and a great many others. More than just a cookbook, Nightly Specials is a gateway to inspiration and imagination for any personal professional chef interested in trying something new.