Rating: 
Summary: Sophisticated Useless Dishes
Review: Sure, Mario B. can make exotic fancy rare finds that can be prepared into what one might call: Italian Dishes. My question is, what Italian makes these dishes? I am a born Italian and never seen food prepared in such an upscale distorted unappetizing fashion.
Its food that one will never make or utilize therefore, I find them useless. If you cant make recipes from a cookbook, whats the point. His imagination is certainly on another level, nowhere touching the earth or has any concept of what real Italian food is. Mario can be informative and can describe food very well, and might impress a few but lacks the geniune flavors of the real thing.
Rating: 
Summary: The recipies WORK
Review: tasty and do-able--I can't imagine a kitchen without this book
Rating: 
Summary: Great tasting stuff, but...
Review: the history and geographical information is outstanding and gives the reader a great appreciation for the foods and where they may have originated. My problem is finding ingredients. A lot of the ingredients are impossible to find unless you live somewhere near an Italian community. Otherwise great book that follows along the lines of Mario's great show.
Rating: 
Summary: "Simple?" I think not.
Review: There is no doubt that Batali is an excellent cook. There is no doubt that these are excellent recipes. However, the title would lead one to believe this a compilation of rustic, simple country recipes. I think that is a tad misleading. Batali includes many difficult-to-find ingredients, such as crawfish, boar and pomegranate molasses (?) in some unusual combinations.Lots of lovely color pictures, which are essential for any cookbook. Recipes ARE good. However, I would rename this book "Italian-Global-Fusion Haute Cuisine."
Rating:
Summary: Fun to Look Through-Not as Fun to Use
Review: This book is enjoyable to read, but not as useful as I had anticipated. Many of the recipes just don't use ingredients that I can easily find or even care to use like rabbit, squab, pheasant, frogs' legs etc... That said there are some good, practical recipes-just not as many as I hoped for. I'm Italian and grew up around delicious homemade Italian food, just not the type of dishes Batali creates. Batali's recipes are indeed authentic, but not necessarily tempting. There aren't enough pasta recipes, but plenty of meat and seafood recipes in the book. Unfortunately this book spends more time on my bookshelf than in my kitchen. Try to look at a copy before purchasing this one.
Rating:
Summary: Simple Italian Food = Delicious Italian Cooking
Review: This book truly lives up to it's name. The recipes are simple, the ingredients lists short and the ingredients readily available in our area. We love the background information and the helpful hints for the kitchen. Anyone who buys this book must try the Crab Tortelloni (p. 81) and the Proscuitto di San Daniele with Apple Salad . . . just to get started. Our entire Christmas Eve menu is planned from this book!
Rating:
Summary: Brought good Italy Food to Korea!
Review: This cookbook brought good italy food to me and my family in Korea. We love to eat sketti almost every week now. Meatball is good. Very big and good pictures. My ninos (children) love book. GOOD!
Rating:
Summary: Lidia's Italian Kitchen
Review: What recipes that I used are very good. I did find that they are not work intensive. I have watched Lidia's TV program and find it very instructional.
| 
