Gourmet Books

I like this book - it's not the best I've read but it's got all the recipes needed to get you started. I find it extremely strange that Do Van doesn't have a recipe for beef stock in this book when you consider that pho bo is the national dish. Other than that it's a easy to follow book and the bbq chicken legs and chicken and lemongrass recipes are particularly good.

This is one of my many cookbooks. I like how the author gives substitutions for ingredients if you don't have them on hand. I wish that there were illustrations and that's why I only gave it a 4. P.S- The honey glazed pheasant/chicken is excellent!!!

I got this book from the library hoping to find some neat tips to save on groceries and kitchen items. This book gave me neither. It talks alot about how to cook gourmet type meals, not at all cheap. Not impressed with this book. I am glad I didn't order it.

I agree should have been called "Cheapskate Gourmet" or something like that. I did not find a book chock-full of big money-saving tips like I was hoping for. It's mostly a gourmet cookbook with tips that help curb costs specifically of gourmet cooking. I'm sure this book will save me money if it helps curb our habit of eating out, but it would probably increase grocery bill of a family already cooking at home.

I also am not thrilled at the paperback novel publishing type, with the small print, and binding that's hard to keep open. I'm sure it kept the book affordable, but it's not ideal for a cookbook!

This format and the content of this book are tedious and unentertaining. Every single money saving tip in here can be obtained from internet frugal sites for free. And on top of that, the recipes are ridiculous. Not only are they not family friendly, you could blow your entire food budget for the week purchasing the speciality items to make just one of the meals. Want to feed your kids Sea Scallops, Pheasant and Prosciutto wrapped asparagus on the cheap? Well then you might buy this book? But if you want to cook these things on a regular basis anyway there are much better recipes and cookbooks out there for gourmet meals such as this so you've pretty much wasted your money anyway you go with this book.

Unless maybe you are a single person who eats out at fancy resturants, and would like to consider this an alternative. Then again, that is if you could only understand half of the recipe directions! This book is the only ... thing you will be getting out of it. Not at all worth the money, (good thing I checked it out at the library before buying it), I would reccomend either The complete Tightwad Gazette, or Not Just Beans anytime before I would this book!!!!

Whenever you see photos in glossy magazines of beautiful people in stylish clothes sitting round in dappled sunshine, laughing and sharing good food and wine, do you wonder why your life's not like that?
Well now Russell Jeavons (of Willunga's `Russell's Pizzas' fame) paints us into a far earthier picture with `Your Brick Oven: Building it and baking in it' (Wakefield Press). The book is a step-by-step guide to exactly that and it has the immediate effect of making you want to turf the lifestyle porn, grab a bag of cement and work up an appetite.
The central feat of the whole process is the construction of the oven whose domed cavity maximises the storage, convection and efficient circulation of heat from the wood fire. The dome is perhaps the most elemental yet complex of all structures. Versatile too: from humble dwellings like the igloo and yurt to St Peter's Basilica; from the utopian Millennium Dome to the tower of the Hiroshima prefecture building. But it also echoes the hemispheres of the planet, the upturned bowl of the sky, and bears more than a passing resemblance to our craniums.
For these reasons alone, it seems well worth taking up Jeavons' challenge to build one with your own bare hands. A dome in the backyard - I'd like to suggest - will put you in touch with both the chequered history of human endeavour and the cosmos. Better still, build several and have spy satellites - or Earth Google - mistake your place for Pine Gap.
Jeavons establishes a compelling connection between the ancient development of the brick oven and the evolution of courses from starters to desserts. Conservation of heat and fuel is the key. When the oven is `soaked', it reaches the sort of temperatures needed for things like pizzas. As it starts to cool, it's ready for baking bread, and roasting meats and vegetables, til, right at the end, it's cooled enough to bake cakes and tarts. The book provides us with mouth-watering recipes for all these treats and more.
Instructional and atmospheric photographs, clear diagrams and stunning book design all further contribute to a slender volume that is educational, inspirational and easy on the eyes.

Stephen Atkinson
Adelaide
South Australia

There no way someone could build an oven by reading this book. It is a joke: no details on the construction or the materials to use. Extremely oversimplified. As far as the second half of the book about cooking in the oven, it is another joke. A few (very few) again poorly explained recipes and again lacking details. If you want to build an oven (I have) buy THE BREAD BUILDERS by Alan Scott and Daniel Wing. When I read "YOUR BRICK OVEN I felt I had been taken

If you want to build your own brick oven for baking, you can't go wrong with (and simply must own) YOUR BRICK OVEN: BUILDING IT & BAKING IN IT: it's a bible of facts about the step of building such an oven, from suitable sites to using it in baking. Base, domes and construction are all covered, along with first firing and cooking tips. While it's more a construction guide than a cooking guide, YOUR BRICK OVEN serves both audiences well - and as there are relatively few other books on the market on the topic, it earns a place as a unique recommendation for any homeowner adding such an oven to a house project.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Not what I hoped it to be. Not detailed enough to build a brick oven based on this book. The Bread Builder is a better book which I would recommend.

This 84 page book is evenly divided between intstructions on how to build a brick oven and recipes for baking in it. I have not tried the recipes. I made an impulsive purchase of this book because I have been interested in building a brick oven for some time. I mistakenly thought that I would gain some insights and practical tips that were missing from The Bread Builders by Daniel Wing and Alan Scott. I did not. There is, in my opinion too little detail in this book to actually construct a quality oven.

I've been an avid home chef for years, and the recipes seem complicated to me.

I did not find all the recipes in this book difficult to follow, and I have made a number of them. I don't consider complexity to be a valid criticism. After all, we're talking about A-list Hawaiian chefs here, not Rachel Ray. But these recipes do assume a fairly high level of knowledge on the part of the reader. For example, the "Lemongrass Coconut Cream" recipe has as one of the ingredients "1 cup thick bechamel sauce". I hope you know how to make that, because the cookbook doesn't say. Similarly, some recipes call for demi-glace without further explanation.

The editing of this book was sloppy and could have been better, and it would have avoided some rather ridiculous snafus like the "Rotisserie Island Chicken" that has "Huli-Huli Sauce" as an ingredient. Not so helpfully, the recipe is immediately followed by something called "Huli-Huli Style Sauce", one of the ingredients of which is 1/2 cup of Huli-Huli sauce! I'm still wondering what the hell Huli-Huli sauce is.

My number one criticism of this book is that many chefs include unusual, local-to-Hawaii, and hard-to-find ingredients in the recipes. Even those of us who live in an area with many Asian markets may have a hard time finding some of the ingredients like sambal olek, or ogo seaweed. It would have been good if the chefs would give the reader who does not have a lot of experience with this particular style of cuisine just what it is about these ingredients that make them special, and what one might substitute when the preferred ingredients are unavailable.

I do give this book 4 stars, because many of the preparations are indeed delicious.

When you purchase a cookbook like this, most people are hoping that the recipes would be written so that someone with a fair amount of cooking experience can follow the instructions and make the recipes. Not in this cookbook. The chefs often leave out important details so that only experienced cooks can follow and make the recipes. The worst one in the book is Eric Favre. His directions are so unclear it's as if he is being intentionally snobby and put his recipes in the book just for the royalties, not so you can make them. I'm sure there are many good recipes in this cookbook, you're not a chef, I'd strongly recommend buying another book.

I guess I actually expected a cook book type magazine, but instead it was filled with the usual information regarding weightloss, stuff that every magazine has already had an article on. I just wanted the recipes and felt like I got information I already knew with a side of recipes. Even with the recipes, I wasn't exactly impressed. Alot of them were time consuming, used too many "weird" grocery items that you have to buy a lot of and only use once. Overall, I guess I got what I paid for, a magazine with a few recipes for $4.99.

I have to totally disagree with the other reviewer. I'm not sure why a BLT or ice cream pie would qualify as something gourmet or complicated that you couldn't make for your family.

There are articles on eating healthy -- it's a magazine, not a cookbook -- but as they advertise on the cover, there are also 74 recipes. A few of the recipes are more complicated, but there are plenty of simple ones. For a family party, we made the asparagus wrapped in prosciutto and they were a huge hit.

And unlike most magazine recipes, these have all the nutritional info listed, so if you're on Weight Watchers, you can easily figure out points and everyone else can keep an eye on their calorie or carb count. I especially like the 9 a day story that gives an actual meal plan that works in the 9 daily servings of fruit and veggies for you.

I loved the issue and am keeping the recipes in my kitchen!

The recipes seem to take a back seat to everything else. You almost have to hunt to find them. Then, when you do, they aren't anything you'd really want to cook. I'm not a gourmet cook, so maybe that's my problem with this magazine. I want recipes for everyday people! It says in the magazine that the people who develop the recipes only include those that they would enjoy eating. I don't think these are ordinary people who cook for their families everynight. And, watch out for the "feel full diet" advertised on the front cover, it's just a hook. Eat more fiber and vegetables...duh. Like, we didn't already know that, what a breakthrough! Save your money.

Was highly disapointed after reading the recipes in Backpacker Magazine and then not finding them, nor similar items in the book. I was impressed with and interested in hardtack and corn dodgers, which neither one appears in the book. Also, a more complete title of the book includes "Gourmet Cuisine", had I known that at the time I probably would not have orderd it. I just want to get by with the basics and do not care about a five star meal. I eat to live , not live to eat. James

I found this book very good. One of the best recipes is the pizza. It may be hard to believe you can make GOOD pizza in the bush, but I have cooked it numerous times for my family, and they ask for it everytime we camp out. The dessert recipes have been good as well. This is a good book for someone like me that is just learning how to cook good food out of what you carry on your back.

I have this cookbook and it is filled with great and easy recipes. I have made a few things thus far and they are all very tasty. There is no mention of fastfood in this book, not sure where those other reviews came from. Great cookbook! My family enjoys it.

And it was terrible...she's like school on saturday...no class

- Trey Anastasio

This "cookbook" is not so much a cookbook as it is a directory for fastfood restaurants in every state and city in the country. My high hopes were quickly dashed as we opened the book, only to find the numbers and addresses of inumerable McDonald's and KFC's. The only thing fat-free about this "book" would be the pages, in my estimation.

I bought this cookbook for my mother as she is an avid cook and vegetarian. After a week of trying many of the recipes we gave up! Nothing in this book was remotely edible! This cookbook reads like a cross between a bad anecdote and a hodge podge of contrasting ingredients. Save your money, there is not even a sparkle of inspiration in its pages.

You might guess from the title that this is just the thing for busy people to eat well. Unfortunately it is only the title.

The contents of this cookbook are not gourmet...and what is the point of saving time with a fast to prepare meal if you have to spend twice as much time on the toilet?

I thoroughly enjoyed the half hour it took to read this book - that is to say that if you're in the mood for a tongue-in-cheek discussion about gourmet cooking, this is excellent. It is, however, not an instructional book whatsoever. It discusses different utensils and real styles of cooking, but it does not offer advice or recipes. Great as a fun gift to accompany some real cooking stuff.

One hundred and fifty may seem like a lot of restaurants, but I was surprised at how many good restaurants were missing. Of course, a lot of good restaurants have opened since the publishing date in 1999, but I was surprised that some very established restaurants near my home in Winter Park were not included. Since the book seems to like every restaurant it reviews, perhaps only those restaurants considered good were included. "No-holds-barred" is not how I would describe it. The book also seems to have, for better or worse, a lot of Asian restaurants in it. Instead, I would recommend the Zagat's for Central Florida, which includes far more restaurants in the Orlando area, along with both the Atlantic and Gulf beaches. It covers more low-budget alternatives and it also includes far more warning rather than praise type reviews.

Save your money and frustration too. We found recipes missing key ingredients and nothing we tried turned out good.