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Rating: 
Summary: Non-Cookers Beware
Review: I am a relatively new cook in my household, and I picked up this book to learn how to prepare some different dishes. Wolfgang is extremely concerned with taste, which is why I love going to his restaurants. However, he is also concerned with exotic new things and presentation, which makes me a bit wary. I don't care how my food looks when I've spent fourteen hours at work and want to make something quick. However, his book is great for leisurely meals and special occasions. His pumpkin ravioli are especially fantastic!
Rating:
Summary: Non-Cookers Beware
Review: I am a relatively new cook in my household, and I picked up this book to learn how to prepare some different dishes. Wolfgang is extremely concerned with taste, which is why I love going to his restaurants. However, he is also concerned with exotic new things and presentation, which makes me a bit wary. I don't care how my food looks when I've spent fourteen hours at work and want to make something quick. However, his book is great for leisurely meals and special occasions. His pumpkin ravioli are especially fantastic!
Rating: 
Summary: Easy Ways to Cook at Home Like a Great Chef
Review: I am a stay-at-home mom, so I look for cookbooks that are easy to follow. Even though my girlfriend recommended this book, I was hesitant to buy it because I figured Wolfgang's food would be much too hard and fancy to make. But she was right, the recipes were easy and had really cool step-by-step photos. I have made his Chicken Pot Pie, Fettuccine Wolf-fredo, and Potato Salad so far, and they were all outstanding. My husband said jokingly that he is going to kiss Wolfgang for making his wife into a good cook. I definitely think this book should be in every home kitchen.
Rating:
Summary: WOW - Easy to Follow and Great Tasting Recipes
Review: I am a stay-at-home mom, so I look for cookbooks that are easy to follow. Even though my girlfriend recommended this book, I was hesitant to buy it because I figured Wolfgang's food would be much too hard and fancy to make. But she was right, the recipes were easy and had really cool step-by-step photos. I have made his Chicken Pot Pie, Fettuccine Wolf-fredo, and Potato Salad so far, and they were all outstanding. My husband said jokingly that he is going to kiss Wolfgang for making his wife into a good cook. I definitely think this book should be in every home kitchen.
Rating:
Summary: Easy Ways to Cook at Home Like a Great Chef
Review: I eat at Wolfgang Puck's Cafe in Evanston a lot, and have been to the Spago in Chicago for a special occasion. I love the food at both places. But I never thought I could cook Wolfgang's great food at home until I picked up this book and saw how simple he makes it. His instructions are really easy, and he includes step-by-step photos to show you exactly how. And the finished food pictures look mouthwatering and aren't fussed up like lots of cookbooks. I've made several of his chicken dishes, all delicious, and some incredible soups. My family went crazy over the bacon-wrapped meatloaf and his garlic mashed potatoes. The cheesecakes are the best ever. And his chocolate cupcakes with the warm melting centers are [super].
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad overall but too elaborate for household kitchen
Review: In this cookbook, Wolfgang Puck brings together all his favorite recipes and dishes from his famous restaurant. The cookbook is divided into different sections such as Appetizers, Soups, Pasta etc. The sections helped me find what I was interested in cooking that day, without having to do too much searching. I thought that this cookbook was very nicely laid out and the design was beautiful and tasteful. Some of the recipes were also interesting and made a nice presentation when cooking for friends. Now that I¡¦ve told you some of the good things about this book, here was one thing that I didn¡¦t like about this cookbook: I think the recipes lean towards the elaborate side of cooking things. Most of the meat dishes take more than 30 minutes to cook without the preparation time and require extra steps that I normally would not take for everyday cooking just for myself. Most of the time while I was cooking I felt that there would have to be an easier way to do some of the steps. It would be best not to follow the instructions blindly and do a little modification when cooking with this book.
Rating:
Summary: Wolfgang Delivers More Than I Expect. Sound Cooking
Review: On the face of it, Wolfgang is unquestionably one of the best-known names in the world of culinary celebrities. To the great general public, he is probably the only name and face to outshine Emeril Legasse. But, the celebrity of both men seems to be based more on media exposure than on sound culinary achievements. While chefs such as Thomas Keller, Charlie Trotter, Daniel Boulud, and Tom Colicchio are less well known, their reputation with foodies is soundly based on culinary achievement, even if only known through their writings and reputation through media reviews. Puck's reputation to the world at large is based primarily on his position as caterer to the Academy Awards and other high visibility Hollywood events. He has a fairly large network of successful restaurants, including some middle end chain style establishments. I have always had the suspicion that he stole some thunder from Chez Panisse in the popularization of 'California Cuisine', especially since Jeremiah Tower, the self-proclaimed inventor of this movement looks down his nose at Puck in his book 'California Bites'. Similarly, Tower buddy Jim Villas, not known for having any California stripes, thinks little of LA's Puck while praising New Orleans' Lagasse. Lastly, Wolfgang has gone the budget route in lending his name to a low end line of cookware, competing with Martha Stewart's everyday ware rather than with Emeril's high-end All-Clad lines. So does Wolfgang have real chops in the kitchen? The evidence of this book is that his written cuisine is at least as good as Emeril's, his teaching approaches the quality of Jacques Pepin, and his creativity with the fusion of Latin American and Oriental cuisines with European concepts appear no less tasty than those of Norm Van Aken. The only thing the book lacks is that little twist most celebrity chefs give their books nowadays. The twist here is simply that it is from Wolfgang Puck. The good things about this book are: 1. Listing of all recipe names in the Table of Contents. This feature automatically makes a good cookbook more valuable, especially a mid-sized celebrity chef book like this. This fits the best use of the book as a resource for finding dishes for entertaining to fit a particular theme or taste. 2. The emphasis on the sensory queues to the progress of cooking rather than on blind timings. All good chefs repeat this principle, but Wolfgang puts it front and center. This is a central skill of the professional chef whose work would be simply impossible if she worked by time with half a dozen dishes fired at a saute station at the height of service. It is also one of those professional tricks which should be learned by the home cook. The problem of the amateur is that while the recipe may have been written using a gas range and a zinc clad copper saute pan, the cook at home is probably using an electric range with a Teflon coated aluminum pan. And that is just one of the variables. 3. Puck's chapter on basics is first rate, including very useful pictures at all the right places. It covers all the usual techniques for artichoke surgery, but it also includes recipes for court bouillon, puff pastry, and fish stock. I am of two minds with material like this. There are books which include a few pages of worthwhile material and try to give the impression that this is all you need to know, when people such as Jaques Pepin and James Peterson have written whole books on this subject and have not exhausted the subject. So wouldn't the author have been better off devoting this space to more recipes? On balance, I think Wolfgang did us a service and his material here makes me want to seek out his earlier books to find more of the same material. 4. Wolfgang's recipes are a pretty fair mix of the traditional, such as the oft repeated Pasta Puttanesca and the chicken pot pie, to the trademark neuvo Pizza with smoked salmon and caviar. On the negative size, Wolfgang's English writing seems to have the same Austrian accent as his speech. I'm really surprised that a publishing house such as Random House couldn't supply a copy editor to smooth out some of the more mangled wordings. Also, the subtitle of this volume is 'The Best of Wolfgang Puck', but it doesn't make clear whether that means the best material from his earlier books, the best recipes from his restaurants, or the best material from his TV shows. This is a small matter, but it would have added value to the material. As someone, like Wolfgang, of Austrian background, I am often disappointed that the second most prominent Austrian-American (after Arnold Schwarzenneger) who also happens to be a famous chef does not do a book of Austrian food. But, this book is no slouch. I would recommend it to anyone who has few cookbooks and is looking for an entertaining menu resource or simply for a wider variety of recipes. It is just slightly pricy at list price for 125 recipes, so look for it at a discount. For foodies, this book gives good value in honing one's pantry ingredients and prep skills. As other reviewers have noted, these are not quick or easy recipes, but they are worthy of anyone with the time and interest in improving their cooking skills.
Rating: 
Summary: You would have to LOVE the work nuveaux cuisine requires
Review: to be able to enjoy this cookbook, because, ONE, All the recepies are much more complicated versions of classic dishes that I have prepared in the past .... ie. I tried to fry the spaetzle dish to a golden brown ... good luck ... TWO, Some of the recepies just don't even cut it as far as taste is concerned...... I have for years made Salmon tartare from an old Russian recepie so I was pleased to try the Tuna tartare in this book ... but .. even sticking to the ingredients ... there was a lot left over after the party .... I think this book and the recepies would be great in a kitchen where you have more than 1 cook preparing the meal ..... sorry ,,,,,...
Rating:
Summary: You would have to LOVE the work nuveaux cuisine requires
Review: to be able to enjoy this cookbook, because, ONE, All the recepies are much more complicated versions of classic dishes that I have prepared in the past .... ie. I tried to fry the spaetzle dish to a golden brown ... good luck ... TWO, Some of the recepies just don't even cut it as far as taste is concerned...... I have for years made Salmon tartare from an old Russian recepie so I was pleased to try the Tuna tartare in this book ... but .. even sticking to the ingredients ... there was a lot left over after the party .... I think this book and the recepies would be great in a kitchen where you have more than 1 cook preparing the meal ..... sorry ,,,,,...
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