Restaurant Books

I do a lot of cooking, and this is my very favorite cookbook. Ken Frank is an excellent cook, and his restaurant, La Toque (which is now in Rutherford, CA) is my favorite in this country! His food is exquisite, the presentation splendid, and best of all, anyone really interested in good cooking can replicate the recipes in this book. It is a book for anyone truly interested in creating wonderful dishes using first rate ingredients!

We entertain a lot, and there is nothing better than a dish that lets friends help themself whenever they like. The variety in this book is so wonderful ~ delicious gems that are unique and delicious. Directions are simple and comprehensive - call me when you have a pot ready and I'll be right over with the Sangria!

`Kinkead's Cookbook' by executive chef / owner Bob Kinkead is a restaurant cookbook which succeeds in giving us something genuinely new, or at least new to my world of knowledge about food. This places it high in the ranks of restaurant cookbooks I have reviewed over the last year. This is not a really big surprise, as Kinkead and his restaurant get lots of exposure on the Food Network as a `best of' place to eat in Washington, DC and with coverage of sous chef Tracy O'Grady's efforts at the Bocuse D'Or competition a few years back. From what I have seen of Kinkead before opening this book is that he is a talented, no nonsense chef with a real concern for the success of independent restaurants throughout the country, not just his own establishments.

The main contribution of this book to the amateur's understanding of seafood is the fact that the average consumer simply cannot routinely purchase the same quality of fish as are routinely bought by leading restaurants. This is simply a matter of who gives the suppliers their best business. A DC housewife may spend $50 a week at her local fishmonger. Kinkead's will spend $50,000 in that same week, with deliveries being inspected by experts in picking out fish. The housewife will buy things that may have been on ice for two to four weeks from the time the fish was caught. The restaurant has a good chance of obtaining fish that was caught about a week ago. All this makes me wonder why no one has brought this up before. It seems a lot of talk about fish buying, including the trips by such luminaries as Wolfgang Puck and Masaharu Morimoto to the docks to inspect fish are largely photo ops. These senior chefs simply do not do this on a regular basis. Aside from the straight scoop on fish buying realities, Kinkead gives all the usual advice, in a bit greater depth than most sources, on evaluating the freshness of fish at the market. His primary contribution to our practical approach to fish is to buy it whole and butcher the little beauties ourselves.

Another of Kinkead's major contributions to our insights about high end restaurants is the fact that dozens of things contribute to the success or failure of a new restaurant, many having no connection with the quality of the food. He reels these off without giving a whole lot of advice on how to control them, but he does use these to make the pitch for supporting independent restaurants instead of going to large chain restaurants. The former is about good food. The latter is about money.

Kinkead also gives a brief exposition on what makes a good cook. This information is not terribly new, as it identifies Taste, Mastery of Fire, Knowledge of Chemistry, and skills with Tools, especially knives as the cornerstones of good chef skills. The most notable item on this list is that Kinkead is endorsing scientific understanding as a contribution to good cooking, not just thorough practical knowledge of how food behaves.

As far as how Kinkead expects us to approach his recipes, he states that he owns about 1200 cookbooks, and except for some pastry recipes, he has never followed any of the recipes in these books, in spite of being entirely self taught. Thus, this very candid author is not expecting a reader to pick out a specific recipe and follow it to the letter. He is also quite candid in saying that many of these recipes are difficult and require some skill in the kitchen. This is not a cookbook for the novice. This is not to say that a novice cannot learn from it. One of my favorite examples of professional wisdom is in the recipe for crab cakes, a Chesapeake Bay standard if there ever was one. Up until the moment I read this recipe, I always thought the standard method for cooking a crab cake was to pan fry it in about a half inch of oil. Kinkead says the heavily preferred methods are sautee or broiling. Who knew?

Except for the desserts, the large majority of recipes in this book is for fish and shellfish entrees, appetizers, and amuse bouche. And, as you may expect, the catch and the traditions of the Chesapeake Bay heavily influence the seafood dishes. There is also something of an Irish influence in the vegetable and side dishes, with excellent potato recipes including a gratin, champ, Matthew potatoes, and potato, cabbage, and leek strudel. The meat entrees are evenly divided between fowl, rabbit, lamb, and beef.

I often consider the space a restaurant cookbook dedicates to `Basics' to be a waste of space. But, like Thomas Keller's `Bouchon' book, Kinkead makes this section complete enough to make an excellent reference for other books of fish recipes. Not only does Kinkead cover a lot of preparations which others leave out, he gives details on preparations which others leave out such as the advice to remove the gills from fish heads before using them in stock cooking. While I often use an author's stock recipes as a means of judging their book, I must take Kinkead's recipes as the voice of authority; a yardstick against I would measure other books. He simply does not violate any rules I have seen on stocks, and gives me a few I didn't know.

Kinkead offers a number of interesting sidebars on a large variety of things including wine service and types of fish. He is also an advocate of low to moderate heat when sautéing. I add him to Tom Colicchio and others who disagree with teachers like Mario Batali who often speaks of `screeching hot' pans.

If you like cooking fish and shellfish, you must buy this book. It's a tad pricy, but well worth the cost.

I first fell in love with this kind of food on a trip to the New Hebrides Islands (the island of Espiritu Santo) in the 60's. Upon returning home I immediately purchased the only book of French cooking around--Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and put on 20 pounds. This book is wonderful! It's fun to read, easy to work with, and the food is really, really good. I loved the Split Pea soup and the Hunter chicken. Fortuneately, since the paradigm shift in French cooking during the 1970's, there's not a lot of high-fat food here--just good, solid, nourishing comfort food. Enjoy...

This is a beautiful book. I have to say that it is probably my very best, most favorite cookbook. This book is a real treat. It is full of entertaining stories and beautiful photographs. The photographer, Anthony Blake, has a real gift for capturing the imagination. It's a really nice book. My second most favorite book is the Baking Book by Linda C. It's got the same photographer, Anthony B. The recepies are very reliable.

This book is partly a gastronomic travelogue sprinkled with Ye Olde British history along the way. If you like taking in lush British country scenery and along the way sniff at the flavors of British cuisine, this one does live up to it.

The author addresses the sad fate of 101% traditional British cuisine that has since disappeared without a trace or soon to decline stage.

Its a trip down memory lane as he meets up with the farmers or artisanal food manufacturers with some inkling of what those foods with quiant names represents and who still eats them.

There is a strong sense of lament that if only the British have a greater sense of identity associated with its food like the French & Italians, then its rich food heritage need not be the sad fate it is at present.

i like to own this book for my future interior and exterior design.
------Kenny the designer

I was a big fan of Kerr's "Fell" series when I was a junior high-schooler, but since I've supposedly "grown up" I haven't read any books by her lately. But here I am, 23 and reading _Linger_. What a wonderfully complex and engrossing book. Every character is compelling and wonderfully sketched , and while the premise of the story might seem a bit corny at first glance, the telling is nearly flawless.

M.E. Kerr tells it like it is, and writes (seemingly effortlessly--it seems so unforced) about those things that many authors just can't make good and real. Politics, sex, intrigue--all here and the mix makes it fun for readers of any age.

hilarious, witty insider views of the best places in ny. i love it.

An excellent resource for novices and experts alike. I especially appreciated the did you know section that is a great way to learn new and interesting food facts. This book is a real asset to travelers who want to explore new and interesting cuisines and is highly recommmended.