It's All American Food: The Best Recipes for More Than 400 New American Classics

Rating:
Summary: a classic
Review: David is a great writer - the recipes are great, but the book is also just fun to read. You'll discover new things as well as things you haven't thought of in in years (but are all of a sudden dying to make). I've made about 20 recipes from the book, all are keepers so far.

Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary Cookbook
Review: David Rosengarten is the best friend of American food. Viewers of the Food Network will remember him from his show - Taste, where he glorified the simple gastronomic pleasures. Regaling viewers with the perfect tuna fish sandwich was the type of no-fuss presentations in which he excelled. "It's All American Food" continues and builds on this excellent tradition. Specifically, Rosengarten makes a compelling argument for the uniqueness and importance of American food; the cookbook is a love note to America and her food. Don't feel inferior to the French and their fancy sauces, he seems to implore of the reader. But what about the recipes? Well, the cookbook is chockablock with over 400, divided into three main sections.

In Part 1, Rosengarten considers different ethnic-American cuisines. For example, he discusses how immigrants adapted the recipes from the old country to use the ingredients and techniques available in America. He focuses on how the American tradition gradually shaped the original recipes. So the Italian pasta sauce recipe isn't a trendy Southern Italian concoction with pine nuts and capers, but "Classic Brooklyn-Italian Meat Sauce." In other words, it's the kind of Italian food that your mother fixed or that you eat at the cheap bistro in the strip mall down the street. In addition to Italian-American food, sections cover Greek, Mexican, Chinese, Cuban, Moroccan, Indian, and numerous other ethnic traditions.

In Part 2, Rosengarten ponders regional American food. Moving westward from New England, he covers the food traditions of every area of the United States, including Pennsylvania Dutch, Cajun, Southwest, and Hawaiian. Some of the sections include only a couple of recipes, but enough so that the reader is provided with idea of the region and its food. In section 3, Rosengarten discusses a variety of classic American dishes that can't be categorized into ethnic or regional foods, such as meatloaf, cole slaw, and macaroni and cheese. All the comfort foods you ate and loved as a child and continue to crave are in this section.

With the proliferation of cookbooks in the last decade, a cookbook has to be truly original to stand out in the crowd. This cookbook is one of those rare finds to be treasured. "It's All American" should be savored like a good novel, not just stuck on a dusty shelf and pulled down to make an occasional recipe. Most highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Proofreader?
Review: On page 272, recipe for New York Cheesecake, I think one needs more than 1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs for the crust, probably 1 and 1/4 cups?

On page 414, recipe for Perfect Cinnamon Rolls, after the rolls have been arranged on the buttered sheet pans, do not the rolls have to to rise again before baking?

If I am wrong, I hope someone will explain.

Thank you.