Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A passable companion to the TV series, November 15, 2004
Sadly, it's too obvious that the publisher tried to crank out "$40 a Day" as a disposable consumer product, not a lovingly crafted book. The book serves as a passable companion to the TV series, nothing more, nothing less: there are too few restaurant listings for it to be a decent travel guide and too few recipes to be a cookbook. Even as a supplement to the series, the book isn't exactly satisfying. There are some answers to questions loyal viewers have had ("What's up with being a miserly tipper?") and funny anecdotes here and there, but the experience recounted in Rachael's somewhat lacking prose is not as great as watching the show. Someone, please get her a thesaurus so we won't read over and over that this or that place "rocked" or was "rockin'" or "awesome"!
On a similar note, there are numerous grade school grammatical errors suggesting that the editors and proofreaders were asleep at the job (an English lesson for Rachael Ray and the editors of "$40 a Day": "it's" is a contraction of "it is" and "its" is a third person possessive pronoun). The unprofessional editorial quality of "$40 a Day" extends to a few grossly pixelated low-res images, which was probably downloaded from the restaurants' websites by an intern, and chunks of text in a hard-to-read display font. This may not bother some readers, but it is baffling that books with such elementary errors, and so many of them, go to press.
With more care and perhaps more additional information or stories, "$40 a Day" could have been a great book that can stand on its own. In its current form, however, the book merely serves as a cross-marketing tool for the TV show, falling short as a travel guide, a cookbook, or even just a decent, well-written book. If you must, get this book used. It certainly doesn't warrant the $16.95 cover price, and frankly, the publisher doesn't deserve your hard-earned bucks for such a sloppy piece of work.
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49 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very Good Companion ot the Show. Not much new material., October 23, 2004
Rachael Ray constantly surprises me with her Food Network shows and books. When I began watching the Food Network and saw Rachael appearing among high powered chefs like Bobby Flay, Wolfgang Puck, Mario Batali, and Emeril Lagasse, I thought her show was an invention of the Food Network and Miss Rachael was brought in as a pretty face and perky personality to front the show in much the same way that the distaff hosts of `How to Boil Water' are actors first and foodies second. I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that her show concept was entirely her idea and that the show and the first book actually predated Rachael's appearance on the Food Network. Then, I thought her appearing on the `$40 a Day' show was simply cashing in on her '30 Minute Meals' popularity. Wrong again. The eating out on a budget idea also came from Rachael and also predated her appearance on the Food Network. What will that girl do next? Actually, we know what her next gig is, on a show interviewing entertainment celebrities who also happen to be foodies.
The value you can get from this book depends a whole lot on where you live, how many of the TV show episodes you have seen, and whether you like to travel. The `where you live' is important because a large number of venues are in the northeastern US and on the southern Atlantic coast. So if you live on the East Coast, a fairly large number of locations will be within your reach in two to five days, round trip. The importance of how many episodes you have seen can work in two different ways. If you have seen no episodes, the book will be much more valuable than if you have seen several, and find little to interest you. On the other hand, if you have seen many episodes, and really like the kind of stuff presented in the shows, the book will tickle your fancy as much as the show does, with added value (more on this later). If you like to travel, even if you don't actually travel, but like the idea of travel, this book will be much more enjoyable than if you are a psychological homebody.
There are several things in the book that do not appear on the show. First, there more information on where Rachael got the information she used in planning her visits. The show features the Internet, free newspapers, and locals. To her additional suggestions, I would add the `New Yorker' and travel magazines.
Second, there are recipes from several of the eateries featured on the show. These recipes will be of little value if you are a major cookbook collector, as most of them are very common dishes such as clam chowder, pasta Puttanesca, and French toast. Third, there are tidbits of information on scenes which never made it into the show such as Miss Rachael's run up the Philadelphia Art Museum steps, emulating Rocky, in her sweats.
As an occasional traveler who has been to several of Ms. Rachael's venues, including Rome, Paris, Florence, New Orleans, Cape Cod, and Chicago, and who has had both very good and very bad luck in picking out places to eat, I find Rachael's advice potentially very useful. My least favorite memory, which grows more grotesque the more I read about Italian eateries, is a lunch I had in a very small room in Florence which appeared to be nothing more than the front room of a private house where the family had two or three tables and served the most dreadfully common food you can imagine. The other side of the coin is that this experience tempers my opinions when I hear of the abundance of great eateries in some out of the way corner of the world. I don't need Tony Bourdain to tell me there is some really bad food being sold out there. The other side of the coin is a chance discovery of an excellent tavern / restaurant I found in New Bedford on a whimsical turn off the Connecticut turnpike on the way to Cape Cod.
I can't really give this book five stars for several reasons. First, it is dated material. As the author says herself, places go out of business on a regular basis, so call ahead if you plan to visit these venues. Second, the material the book adds to the experience of the show is not great. It is much more fun watching Rachael do something embarrassing by simply being herself than it is to read about it. Third, the book is not a substitute for a true travel guide, as the selection of venues is very narrow. Even in a small town like Cooperstown, there are probably plenty of other good places to eat that will be reasonably priced. But, it is still a fun book at a very reasonable list price. I have a lot of admiration for Rachael and her publishers for keeping the prices of her books down to a very reasonable cost for the quality of the material.
Recommended for foodies and travelers.
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22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Worth Waiting For, October 22, 2004
I ordered this book on May 26. There were publication delays which resulted in my finally receiving the book yesterday! It was well worth waiting for. Unlike Rachael's other books, this one is in full color with lots of interesting pictures and the names and addresses of all restaurants she visited for 55 shows. There are some recipes as well. The restaurants are grouped geographically rather than chronologically, in the order in which she visited them. Evidently she read the message boards, because she explains why she tips 15%. She does it to bring the show in on budget. When she's not eating for the show, she tips 20% or more. She was a little dismayed when numerous people said that La Madeleine, where she breakfasted in Dallas, was a chain. She does not avoid quality chains, as this is, but rather does not go to fast food places.
All in all this is an excellent book and would be very useful for anyone who plans to visit a city where Rachael has spent her 24 hours. I know I'll look at it before I travel.
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