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cookbook reviewsbooks for cooks

Reviews by Jeremy Emmerson

December 2003
The season is here and if you are stuck on what to buy a fellow chef, food lover or if you even feel the need to treat yourself, here are six spanky cookbooks that will make you the recipients best friend...

The Cakebread Cellars Napa Valley Cookbook
Wine and Recipes to Celebrate Every Season’s Harvest
by Dolores and Jack Cakebread
with resident chef Brian Streeter
List Price: $35.00
Price With Amazon.com: $24.50
You Save: $10.50 (30%)

Buy It Online

Dolores and Jack team with resident chef Brian Streeter to share more than 120 seasonal recipes and wine suggestions comprising thirty years of winery house cooking. The collection includes family favorites from the early days when Dolores cooked for everyone on the property, as well as recipes created by such renowned chefs as Alan Wong, Mark Franz, and Jan Birnbaum. It is packed with pictures and simple recipes.

Winning Styles Cookbook
Recipes from the James Beard Foundation
by Elin Jeffords

List Price: $42.00
Buy It Online

Winning Styles is a veritable all-star team of super chefs who reveal the stories behind their success as well as more than 100 recipes — all complemented by stunning full-color photography throughout by John Ormond. Food professionals and home cooks alike will revel in this practical guide that is also a beautiful testament to the memory of the illustrious James Beard. Look out for some big name chefs like; Rick Bayless, Gary Danko, Guenter Seeger and Charlie Trotter (would any big name cookbook be complete without him).

Raw
by Charlie Trotter, Roxanne Klein

List Price: $35.00
Price With Amazon.com: $24.50
You Save: $10.50 (30%)

Buy It Online

Speaking of the man, Trotter has just co-authored a fantastic new book that focuses on the current trend of raw "cooking". Written with Roxanne Klein, owner of the Larkspur (California) based Roxanne's Restaurant and pioneer of raw food. Raw cooking uses only vegan friendly ingredients. Items are never cooked to above 118 degrees Fahrenheit. Whether you believe this style of food is a fad or here to stay this book is a great buy. Not only are the dishes beautifully photographed courtesy of Trotters long term lens master Tim Turner, but the recipes are original, flavorful, ingenious and guaranteed to be slipping into kitchens globally...

The All American Cheese and Wine Book
By Laura Werlin
List Price $37.50
Price with Amazon.com $26.25
You Save: $11.25 (30%)
Buy It Online

Written by Berkeley, California-based food writer Laura Werlin is the author of (The New American Cheese: Profiles of America's Great Cheese makers and Recipes for Cooking with Cheese). This is a very straightforward book, with chapters that include "All About Cheese," and "All About Wine." Here you will find the seven basic cheeses and how they are made, as well as information on winemaking and tasting. In "Bringing Cheese and Wine Together" Werlin gives us her ten basic guidelines as well as lists and charts that reveal clues for perfect matching of wine and cheese. And then the heart of the book, the pairings of 50 cheese makers and wine makers throughout the US, which displays a real feel for the passion that underlies these two major product categories. These profiles are delightfully matched with recipes Werlin files under Hors d'Oeuvres, Pizzas, Cheese Plates, Cheese Bar, Picnics, and Desserts. This is a beautifully designed book with outstanding photography underscoring all that Laura Werlin has to share.

Art of Aureole
Charlie Palmer
List Price: $50.00
Price With Amazon.com: $35.50
You Save: $15.00 (30%)

Buy It Online

Ok clear off the coffee table for this one. Charlie Palmer's latest book showcases more than 75 signature recipes, each photographed in a bold, artful composition inspired by the character of the dish, this collection captures the enduring qualities that have made his restaurant Aureole a Manhattan classic. However the layout of the recipes is crazy - each one is set at a 45 degree angle. It's really unpractical, but great to see an artful, whimsical publication, defiantly a great gift.

Chicken, Chicken, Chicken
Price: $38
(not available from Amazon)

Buy Direct From Ici La Press (with free shipping)

I have never been a huge fan of single subject books but Chicken, Chicken, Chicken (of all subjects) really breathes life in to a tired topic. French authors Laurence and Gilles Laurendon mix humorous literary excerpts and intriguing historical anecdotes about the chicken with an encyclopedic knowledge of the world's most noteworthy breeds.

The Laurendons have scoured the world to present some 70 of the finest chicken and egg recipes, ranging from classic French dishes to flavorful Asian stir-fry creations and Sunday dinner fare from the American Great Plains. The publication is further complimented by the brilliant photography of photographers Akiko Ida and Laurent Parrault who collaborate to create a strikingly elegant visual presentation of the finished culinary creations. Their beautiful photographs of more than 50 breeds of country and ornamental chickens, supplemented by profiles and coupled with rich literary and historical background, offer a delightful new point of view on the fowl that has played such a prominent role in culinary and human history over the centuries. Buy this one for yourself!

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