Alfred Portale Simple Pleasures: Home Cooking from the Gotham Bar and Grill's Acclaimed Chef

by Alfred Portale and Andrew Friedman

When you imagine the quintessential New York City restaurant, one name comes to mind: Alfred Portale's Gotham Bar and Grill. The same is true when you think of the top American restaurants: Gotham has been one of our most cherished culinary institutions for two decades.

Led by executive chef and co-owner Alfred Portale, Gotham has been honored with four consecutive New York Times three-star reviews and has resided among the Zagat Survey's top five New York City restaurants for more than ten years. Known for Portale's defining modern American cooking, impeccable service, and soaring space, Gotham was recently named "Most Outstanding Restaurant" in the nation by the James Beard Foundation.

But what does Portale cook when he's not working? In Alfred Portale Simple Pleasures, one of our most accomplished chefs invites you to taste the sublime and surprisingly easy-to-prepare, restaurant-quality dishes he serves to friends and family at home.

The 125 recipes include home versions of Gotham classics as well as new recipes straight from Portale's home kitchen. They're all simple enough for any home cook, and spectacular enough to impress anyone who tastes them.

At the center of Alfred Portale Simple Pleasures are elemental main courses such as Roast Cod with a New England Chowder Sauce, Filet Mignon with Madeira Sauce, and Saut ed Chicken Breasts with Button Mushrooms and Sage. Pick one, then build a meal by pairing it with recipes from the chapters of salads, starters, and small plates; soups, sandwiches, and pizzas; pasta and risotto; side dishes; and desserts.

Along with the recipes, Portale offers pairing suggestions for building a menu, variations for adapting recipes according to season and personal taste, and flavor-building instructions on how to accent a dish with extravagant extras such as caviar or everyday additions such as flavored oils. In other words, home cooks will learn how to add a Gotham-inspired twist to their own favorite recipes.

The supermarket-friendly dishes include modern classics such as Spicy Shrimp Salad with Mango, Avocado, and Lime Vinaigrette; Pumpkin and Caramelized Onion Soup with Gruy re and Sage; and Saut ed Spinach with Garlic, Ginger, and Sesame Oil. Alfred helps you transform everything from ordinary weekday lunches to Saturday night dinner parties into anything but ordinary.

Of course, no meal is complete without dessert, and Portale delivers sweet and sophisticated send-offs, including Lime Meringue Tarts, a simple Summer Plum Pudding, and an elegant Chocolate-Grand Marnier Cake.

Alfred Portale Simple Pleasures -- nothing could be simpler or more pleasurable.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060535024
• ISBN13: 9780060535025
• Release Date: October 2004
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 2.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 8.0" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

Amazing!!!

I bought this book years ago when first embarking on my culinary adventures. Mr. Portale has shown me that cooking can be a simple task, leading to glorious results. I adore the pasta section. This cookbook will make you look like a rock star in the kitchen. Mr. Portale's other books are for more advanced cooks. This is definitely a great one to start off with.

Great cookbook

This is a cookbook for people who love to cook and would like some new ideas and combinations. The directions are good, the recipes work, and the food is delicious. It's easy to take off from the recipes, too, and use his ideas for the basis of a great new dish. As far as the truffle oil comment in a previous review, substitute good olive oil. I used three of his recipes for jumping off points for a large wine tasting dinner, and they all got raves. Portale's recipe for White Bean Crostini with Truffle oil, for example, is a simple and excellent do-ahead dish that can be assembled at the last moment. I substituted Moroccan olive oil for the truffle oil, and the crostini were a big hit. I expanded his Oxtail Braised in Red Wine with Mashed Root Vegetables in a lot of directions to serve eighteen--substituted short ribs for half of the oxtails, added 6 anchovies, and added taro root and potatoes to the root vegetable mix, but kept the essential recipe for the sauce and the procedure intact. It produced an incredibly flavorful dish that was easy to make the day before and just stick in the oven for the party. The dish is very wine friendly, too. I think that people who love food will love this book, and although Portale's a chef, the recipes are very simple and accessible for anyone who knows the way around a stove.

One of my favorite cookbooks...simply outstanding!

I own a large number of cookbooks, and this wonderful book by Alfred Portale is one of my favorites. The recipes are creative yet relatively simple and easy to follow. In particular, he is an absolute master with seafood. Recipes such as "Asian Stripped Bass en Papillote", "Lime and Butter-Braised Fluke (or Sole)", and "Roasted Halibut with Lemon-Caper Butter" have all become favorites in our home. I highly recommend this book.

One of the Best Examples of Modern Cooking

The book is called Simple Pleasures not Simple Cooking !! If you want to set your tastebuds alight, then go through some of the recipes in this book. Sure it isn't a book of simplistic recipes, of how to make your evening meal in 30 minutes or less, but that isn't what you buy this book for. If you want a book that shows you the recipes and thinking of one of the best modern American chefs, then you buy this book. Having gone through the book, I think that this will be one of the cookbooks that I will use the most. On a par with Bistro Cooking at Home by Gordon Hamersley, and Cooking One on One by John Ash. Some of the best of modern American cooking is contained in these pages.

love the restaurant, love the book!

Interesting info also given with some delicious recipes. Not for the "Semi-homemade" kind of cook. No gourmet ingredients necessary; truffle oil is readily available in most supermarkets.