Daniel's Dish: Entertaining at Home With a Four-Star Chef [Hardcover]

Unlike Guy Savoy's book, Boulud makes no pretense that these dishes are simple, and they are not. They are quite as complicated, on average, as the recipes in `Café Boulud Cookbook'. On the other hand, true to it's `at home' orientation, it avoids the more extreme recipes in a book such as `Chef Daniel Boulud: Cooking In New York City'.

In the introduction, Boulud makes a small claim to have branched out beyond his roots in French cuisine, but he has not branched very far. Almost all recipes have a French, or at very least, a European style.

Since this is a book about entertaining, it is quite appropriate that Boulud includes beverage recommendations from his expert restaurant sommelier Jean Luc Le Du. Credit to Jean Luc for not limiting his suggestions to wines. He is quite willing to recommend beer where it is appropriate, for an accompaniment to hamburgers, for example.

Also appropriate to a book on entertaining, the first chapter is devoted to mixed drinks and appetizers. There are five mixed drinks, one of which is non-alcoholic, and all of which appear to be specialities of Boulud's restaurants. If your crowd sticks to Jack Daniels and Scotch, these are a waste of space.

I have mixed feelings about the appetizer recipes, as they all require a long to very long list of ingredients, prep time or cooking time. As someone who has made both, blinis and latkes may seem like simple dishes, but they are not something you want to do for a party of eight when you are the only cook. The four tarts appear to require more ingredients, but they have the more novelty value and they are easier to make for six to eight portions than the blinis and latkes, especially if you have a way with piecrust. The carrot and custard tart is especially unusual. If your crowd is packed with foodies, make the artichoke and radicchio clafoutis. The notion of clafoutis alone will fuel conversation for at least an hour, as the name originally applied only to a fruit flan with black cherries. Boulud extends the notion to a sort of savory vegetable tart sans crust. One of the most valuable recipes in the book is the omnibus recipe for four different ways of preparing asparagus. Boulud repeats this technique with other recipes such as his four different ways of making hamburgers. Monsieur Le Duc makes wine recommendations for both artichokes and asparagus without missing a beat. The starters chapter has more recipes than any of the other chapters, and most of the starter dishes could easily serve as a vegetable or starch side to a protein main dish.

The chapter of thirteen (13) fish recipes is a very nice mix of relatively simple dishes with cod and sea bass to eye catchers like fancy lobster rolls and Vietnamese spring rolls. The vocabulary word in this chapter is mariniere, usually applied to cooking mussels. Boulud bends the dictionary again by applying the white wine technique to clams, tuna and potatoes.

The oddly short chapter on meat, poultry, and side dishes, with a bare seventeen (17) recipes gives some unusual dishes such as Guinea Hen casserole, but almost all of the recipes are souped up versions of well known dishes such as cassolet, lamb stew, duck a la orange, pork tenderloin, and roasted turkey breast. The most interesting recipe in this section is for roasted venison, where making the spice mixture; the marinade, the date sauce, and the garnish together take a lot longer than roasting, then broiling the meat. I would not make this dish for anyone who was not very interested in his or her food.

True to the entertaining theme of the book, the dessert chapter has twenty-one (21) recipes, most of that are unusual and challenging, but only two three of which involve yeast doughs. The word for this chapter is chamonix, which is so arcane, it doesn't even appear in my Larousse Gastronomique. Boulud's version is a muffin with lots of `cookie spices' and an orange sauce. Many of the recipes have simple names, such as phyllo apple tart, chocolate cakes, frozen strawberry souffle and chocolate mousse. Trust Boulud to turn each simple idea into a conversation piece. Some familiar desserts are really taken to an entirely different place as with the chocolate and pistachio crepes Suzette. You will be happy to find a very traditional clafoutis recipe with black cherries and hazelnuts.

Many recipes are interesting variations on well-known standards. So, like the clafoutis, many dishes will spark a lot of interest if your guests get into talking about the food. Not every dish has a photograph, but those that are photographed are competent and lend some value to understanding the dish. Unfortunately, I suspect some lapse of honesty with some of the photographs, as they do not seem to match the dishes. The kiwi pate photo lacks all trace of the characteristic kiwi green color.

Appendices give sources for both unusual foods and cookware. They also include menus for entertaining and seasonal menus. It is beyond me why Boulud could not do `seasonal menus for entertaining', but there you are.

If you entertain for people who really appreciate their food and wine, and you are competent in the kitchen, this book is a great resource. Almost all of the recipes require long ingredient list, lots of prep work, and good skills with sauces and custards.

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