Best of the Best: The 100 Best Recipes from the Best Cookbooks of the Year

by Food & Wine Magazine

Buy only one cookbook this year--and get all the best recipes published this year Almost 1 million subscribers heartily agree: Food & Wine is the unrivaled leader in the field, and every year their... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0916103692
• ISBN13: 9780916103699
• Release Date: December 2001
• Publisher: American Express Food & Wine Magazine Corpora
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 2.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 8.5" x 10.3"

Customer Reviews

Delightful Variety and Successful Recipes Charm a Cook

The afternoon I purchased this cookbook (enticed by the attractive, clear layout and the fact that the "best" consisted of recipes from a diverse array of cooking volumes), I immediately took it to the supermarket and prepared several dishes within four days -- Palace Olive Poppers, Fast Gazpacho, Cheese-and-Mushroom Quesadillas, and Toasted Penne with Herbs, Goat Cheese, and Golden Bread Crumbs. The first three were extremely simple and not time-consuming, while the fourth required more time and effort but was certainly worth the investment. The Poppers I made again within a week because my husband craved them again (even a half recipe makes a meal) The Gazpacho fits it with my low carb diet, and also was successful for a pot-luck ladies' luncheon. I anticipate happily undertaking more treasures in this volume, including the Bite-Size Cheddar and Thyme Gougeres, Quick Fried Shrimp with Toasty Garlic, Sage Tagliarini, Tagliatelle Souffle(an unusual and impressive-looking creation), and Chocolate Heart of Darkness Cakes. Both the photographed dishes and descriptions of ingredients and procedures make for "tempting" as well as charming reading!

Adventurous

Have you ever wished for a cookbook that would test your cooking abilities just a little more? Maybe a cookbook that is not too complicated, but will take your cooking to the level of a chef? I found the recipes in this cookbook really made cooking quite fun and the colors, tastes and textures are also very exciting. I just finished making: "Pumpkin and Pancetta Risotto" and thought how wonderful this would be to serve in place of mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving. The creamy rice flavored with crispy pancetta, pumpkin treats and shallots is quite comforting, especially at this time of year. This dish is also so beautiful when you are making it and is perfect to make in October/November. If you do make this specific recipe, I recommend even adding some toasted pumpkin seeds as well. Just saut dried pumpkin seeds in butter or make extra pancetta (saltier than bacon) and top each serving with more mascarpone. You could really make a meal of this recipe and just add a cup of hot apple cider. My other recommendations for Fall from this cookbook are: -Chocolate Heart of Darkness Cakes (Sounds sinful, don't they? ;) -Pumpkin Ginger Crme Caramel on Spiced Pumpkin Cake with Pecan Shorts and Toffeed Pecans -Creamy Corn with Smoky Bacon Chanterelles, and Thyme -Long-bone Short Ribs with Chinook merlot Gravy and Rosemary White Beans -Sweet Butternut Soup with Thyme Crme Fraiche This cookbook is quite detailed and has many extras you won't find in other cookbooks. The Editors really make this very easy to use. There is a wonderful index as well as a list of recipes by book, so you could choose to look up 10 recipes by Tom Douglas if you found his cooking to be your style. The Index also has boldface numbers to indicate recipes with pictures. The contents include recipes for: hours d'ouevres, fish, chicken, pork, veal, beef, lamb, main dishes, vegetables, side dishes and desserts. Each year, the editors from Food & Wine search for the best recipes from the best cookbooks. This year their final selections have come from cookbooks by world-famous chefs. You can enjoy recipes from cookbooks written by Alfred Portale, James Villas, Marcel Desaulniers, Christopher Kimball, Jasper White, Jerry Traunfeld, Pam Anderson, Mark Bittman, Tom Douglas and Maya Kaimal to name a few. The Layout is especially enticing and creative. You not only get great recipes, you can find all the "test-kitchen tips" right with the recipe. That gave me more confidence to adapt the recipe. The recipes are also inspired at times by delectable multicultural fare. The editors started with 700 books, in which they found 300 recipes to test. 100 recipes were chosen to be in this really fun cookbook. Recipes from 27 cookbooks are featured. "So if you find yourself gravitating toward recipes from a certain author, you'll know that there's a cookbook out there that really suits you and that the recipes in it are written just as they are in these pages." -Judith Hill, Editor in C