Rating: 
Summary: Best Emeril cookbook so far
Review: After Emeril's last cookbook, "Prime Time Emeril", I had doubts about whether this new cookbook would be more egotistical rants with shameless "Bam"s thrown in with very little actual content. Not only were my fears unwarrented, this book exceeded every expectation I had and may be better than his first book, "New New Orleans Cooking".It was my fear that Emeril was getting too full of himself and his popularity, but this book goes back to what makes his cooking popular, pairing "comfort food" and regional cooking with classic French-style preparations. He takes the foods you love and cooks them using the techniques that separates average everyday cooking from culinary masterpieces. This book is much less commerical and self-centered as the last, although he does happen to hawk his own hot sauce when a recipe calls for it. This book has a little of everything, so just about everyone should be able to find something for their taste. The first chapter deals with basics such as stocks and seasonings, then Emeril works his way through appetizers, salads, seafood, meats, soups, sides, and desserts. Some are very complicated, while others are quite simple, so you can also decide just how fancy you want to get. I will say that most of them have long ingredient lists, but if this is what you must have for good eats, so be it. This book is especially a treat for those of us who have enjoyed meals at Emeril's various restaurants. I've been trying to decode a Bibb lettuce wedge salad with warm black-eyed pea and bacon dressing that I had at Emerils in March and low and behold it's there for me to try at home. If you own his other books, you'll see some repeats like barbecued shrimp, banana cream pie, etc., but not enough to really complain about.
Rating:
Summary: Good Book
Review: Although this book is quite good, it is really nothing out of the ordinairy. The recipes appear to be fairly good tasting however my favorite parts are the pictures that although random pictures of his restuarants, are quite interesting.
Rating: 
Summary: Practical, but not pretty
Review: Emeril fans will love another cookbook by this exciting chef, but overall, this cookbook lacks some of the pizzazz and color you would expect from a great chef. Emeril compiles approximately 150 of his favorite recipes in this book, sort of like a "greatest hits" collection. If you have plenty of other Emeril books, you may already have these recipes.
The book includes the standard fare of: appetizers, soups, salads, brunch, pasta, seafood, fowl, beef, and desserts. My biggest disappointment with this book were the photos. There are approximately 30 color plates in the center of the book, with the remainder being black and whites. The photos don't give clear images of food presentation, and in fact appear to be more people oriented than depictions of food. Do not buy this book to place on your coffee table to show off. It is however, a practical cookbook with recipes comprised of commonly available ingredients. When I placed this book on my countertop I had to weight down the pages to keep it open. It is on the small side, and would not hold open as I followed a recipe. The pages are printed on coarse paper (not glossy), and are not resistant to spills or other things typical in a kitchen environment.
Overall, Emeril fans should buy this book. If you're looking for a pretty coffee table book, look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good Meals, Well Presented
Review: Emeril's new book is different from many other recent celebrity restaurant recipe books, mostly in very good ways. First, while Emeril is definitely the star, he liberally shares credit for the work with all senior members of his large organization spread across nine restaurants plus 'Emeril's Homebase' in New Orleans. Emeril even goes so far as to credit all of his administrative staffs and sommeliers. The last is odd because there is no mention of any wine pairings to the food. Not being a great fan of fine wines, I don't miss this and do not hold it against the book. I point it out because it may be a feature important to some potential buyers of this book. Second, there is none of the coffee table look to this book. It is all business, devoted exclusively to the presentation of recipes. Following this theme, all the color plates are together in the center section of the book. I find this much more audience friendly, as the photographs are better placed to assist one in choosing an attractive dish from the selection available. The quality of the color photographs is good, but not excellent. The camera is a bit too close for my taste,as the front of a pizza is in focus while the back of the pizza is hazy. Third, the recipes in the book are much more organized around dinners, with recipes for both supporting dishes and major components being presented together with the recipe for the entrée. In spite of the entrée centric presentation, there is still a large and, to my eyes, a more useful than usual section at the beginning of the book on 'Basics'. This organization makes the book much more suitable to it's typical audience than many others. I believe people buy celebrity chef books primarily aes a resource for planning entertaining menus and to generally make their Sunday and holiday dinners more interesting. This book is a great help for that objective, with the bonus that you can throw out the fact that 'this meal is served at Emerils!' Fourth, Emeril makes it very clear that the recipes were created by many different chefs. I recognize only a very few recipes from his TV shows, and Emeril takes personal credit for very few of the recipes. This does not lead to a hodge podge, as all of Emeril's restaurants seem to be firmly based in the Cajun / Creole / Gulf Coast / Southern cuisine, with a bit of New York / Chicago steakhouse and Fall River Portuguese thrown in to leaven the mix. Fifth, this book is not overpriced. List price is reasonable, and with a discount I suspect it can be had widely for not much more than $20. I believe this is because this book is not a salvo to help garner Emeril a James Beard or IACP award, it is to bring people into his restaurants. This is why the book promotes the restaurants' ample wine cellars and sommelier staff, but says nothing about wine pairings in the style of Ming Tsai or Tom Colicchio. Sixth, I have found no errors which would typically be found and corrected by a copy editor. More than one upscale culinary coffee table denizen has been infected by such errors. The folks at William Morrow, the publisher, earned their place in the acknowledgments. In general, there are some simple recipes, but not many. I give Emeril and his collaborators credit for not making any claims that this is simple cooking, because it isn't. Most of the protein entrees require one or more secondary preparations of stocks, sauces, ingredients, and garnishes. Even if one replaces the stocks with commercial products, the number of pantry preparations is still large. On the other hand, with a few exceptions, I believe few of the preparations are hard for a dedicated foodie. I would caution people who use this book that there is some cooking expertise assumed here. Warnings for symptoms for which the cook should check to determine doneness or other culinary endpoints are rare. As stated above, the cuisine is classic American, with reliance on over the top quality beef, crab, shrimp, lamb, crawfish, and the like ingredients rather than on obsessively fine technique to achieve tasty results. There are few of your fussy French greens, replaced with a high reliance on Bibb lettuce. The Caesar salad, for example, is less fussy than Martha Stewart may like. It is certainly less fussy than you will find in a big ticket New York steakhouse. The observation on the Caesar salad recipe is typical of what I found in many recipes. The mashed potatoes recipe, for example, is several notches below what one would find under a roof of a major French restaurant. Another clue is the treatment of mustard in sauces. The sauce au pauvre recipe cooks the Dijon mustard for 10 minutes on moderate heat before plating. Every authority from Jaques Pepin on down warns against cooking mustard to avoid it's turning bitter. But, this type of over the top technique is not what Emirl is all about. Oddly, the only real disappointment I took from the book is that there were very few recipes from Tchoup Chop. This is the one cuisine which would diverge the most from Emeril's Cajun / Creole center of gravity. I would recommend any prospective buyer to ignore any connection with the flamboyant character on 'Emeril Live' and take the book on its merits.
Rating:
Summary: Hits the spot!
Review: I cooked several of Emeril's recipes from his website before buying this cookbook. Excellent eats every time! Some basic skills required, but they are not as difficult as some previous reviewers whine about. If you cannot make chicken broth, better stay away and order in a pizza.
Rating:
Summary: Another yummy Emeril book
Review: I really like Emeril. I've made a few of his recipes and they've always turned out to be yummy. So when I got this book, I had high hopes, and Emeril did not let me down. The book has a lot of recipes and they are all very original, interesting recipes (often quite complicated, but again this are the best recipes from his restaurants). The only reason I didn't give the book 5 stars, it's that in the other Emeril's books tradition, this book also didn't have a lot of photos. I just really prefer seeing what the end result should look like before I cook, especially with appetizers and entrees.
Rating: 
Summary: Tough to produce
Review: I'm sure they are all good...but I guess I was expecting simipler preparation....sigh....the good stuff is always so difficult.
Rating: 
Summary: For Chefs Only
Review: If you have 3 hours to prepare the entre, can purchase exotic ingrediants and have the ability to make a foam sauce this book is for you. If you are an average working class bottom feeder spend the money on fast food rather than this book.
Rating:
Summary: For Chefs Only
Review: If you have 3 hours to prepare the entre, can purchase exotic ingrediants and have the ability to make a foam sauce this book is for you. If you are an average working class bottom feeder spend the money on fast food rather than this book.
Rating:
Summary: Novelty at best
Review: My sister is a HUGE fan of Emeril's cooking show and restaurants around the country. I got her this cookbook for Christmas and she was so excited when she opened it. However, the recipe's in there require at least a professional chef to decifer!! It all sounds good in theory but when we tried one of the most basic recipes (Chicken Broth!), it turned out to be a disaster. Now the book is collecting dust on the bookshelve.
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