Emeril's Potluck : Comfort Food with a Kicked-Up Attitude

Rating:
Summary: Tired, Boorish Personality, but reasonably good book.
Review: Almost every culinary celebrity cookbook aims at some twist to promote the career of the chef / author, and Emeril's latest book, `Emeril's Potluck' is no exception. What is distinctive about this effort is that it is so different from other celebrity chefs' offerings. Other recent culinary celebrity books I have reviewed have a slant aimed at foodies (serious amateur cooks) as with Rocco DiSpirito's `Taste' and Ming Tsai's `Simply Ming' or aimed at one of the current culinary hot buttons, as with Jacques Pepin's `Fast Food My Way' or `Cat Cora's Kitchen' which focuses on reminiscences and Greek cuisine. Emeril has gone his own way with at least two very distinct slants. The first is with the book's titled theme, potluck dishes and the second is the person and the business of the titular author, Emeril Lagasse.

There is a new interest in the first slant, with a recent very good book by leading culinary commentator James Villas entitled `Crazy for Casseroles' and an artfully done book on comfort foods, `Lost Recipes' by Marian Cunningham. But, this is hardly a hot topic like low carbs and fast cooking. In fact, the collection of recipes in this book is so basic that a final edit could have framed the recipes in the book in at least three different directions, toward comfort food, fast preparation dishes, and `family style' eating. In fact, the book reminds me of a story told about an information science book of about 20 years ago where it was claimed that at the last minute, in the light of the fast rise of object oriented programming and design, the author did a global change to the text with his word processor to change all occurrences of `procedure' and `subroutine' to `object'. It would not be hard to do a similar operation on this book with practically no harm done to the presentation or relevance of the recipes. This impression is reinforced by the fact that many of the `potluck' iconed sidebars have notes which have little or nothing to do with transporting the dish to your neighbor or the local parish.

The second slant of this book is the personality and product line of the author, Emeril Lagasse. Emeril is probably as little liked by foodie types as he is liked by the occasional food show viewer who treats `Emeril Live' as just a different flavor of reality show which is what it is. The great irony of the Food Network programming is that the greatest success in their shows and book publishing goes to culinary educators Alton Brown and Rachael Ray, while mainstream restaurateur culinary critics give Emeril's shows. Emeril's personality and marketing angles pervade the book. Every third recipe seems to include one of his products, primarily his spice mix, `Essence' as an ingredient. The locations and means of reaching his restaurants are in the back of his book. The web site addresses of all his commercial connections from the Food Network to All Clad to B& G foods are also in the back of the book. But, the most pervasive presence is Emeril's quite familiar persona in the introduction to each recipe.

Emeril's theme, encapsulated in his trademark exclamations, `Bam', `Kick it up a notch', `Gaaaarlic' and `Pork Fat Rules' is that his cooking takes traditional recipes and improves on them. This is dramatically different from the mantra of almost every other food writer today, where the holy of holies is fresh local ingredients. In a sense, I really respect Emeril for not beating this horse any more than it already has, and for touting his claims that he is presenting improved versions of comfort food classics.

Emeril's selection of recipes could fit a book on entertaining, fast cooking, comfort food, or cooking at home as well as his `potluck' rubric. This means that Emeril has managed to put together a truly useful book for the average cook, and I celebrate him for doing so. The recipe chapters are:

Basics: Syrups, salsas, mayonnaise, and simple recipes for basic stocks.
Drinks: Inexpensive variations on classics, all tasty and homey such as eggnog.
Starters: As I said, a good source of material for entertaining.
Salads: More classics such as Nicoise Salad, Pasta Salad, Green Bean Salad, Coleslaw, and Potato Salad
Soups and Gumbos: Chowder, Corn, and Leeks, oh my.
Casseroles: The main event which sticks to the familiar like lasagna Bolognese, ham and potato, penne a la vodka, and chicken potpies.
Beyond Casseroles: Comfort food which does not come in a gratineed in a porcelain dish such as fried chicken, chicken chili, shrimp etouffee, pot roast, brisket, and stuffed peppers. Emeril even glorifies the hoary old green bean casserole with the addition of two different Emeril packaged food products plus Fontina cheese.
Breads: Cornbread, Biscuits, and Dinner Roles.
Desserts: More classics such as carrot cake spice cake, pound cake, and strawberry shortcake.

If you are a devoted foodie and already own 20 or more cookbooks, buying this volume will probably not make a big impression on your collection of recipes, as you will already have three recipes for chili, seven recipes for coleslaw, and ten recipes for chicken stock. But, if you just have a `Joy of Cooking' and want some modern recipes with a bit more cachet to your non-foodie friends, this is the book for you. I doubly respect Emeril for the very moderate list price for this volume which fit's its image as a cookbook for everyman. For this, I will forgive him for putting his picture on every other page. The recipes are all good and simple and none violate any culinary gods. Even if they are not great, they will be easy and delicious. A few have a lot of ingredients, but none of them are exotic. Emeril even does us the favor of substituting familiar ingredients for the esoteric, as when he replaces crawfish with shrimp. A crustacean by any other name.....

Good, familiar, inexpensive, commercial laden recipes.


Rating:
Summary: Waste of time
Review: Don't bother wasting your time with this one. I wasted 3 hours waiting in line to get a signed copy- that he wouldn't even personalize let alone say hello to me. Then the book is a huge disappointment. There is a better selection in the Better Homes and Gardens cookbooks. I was highly disappointed in both Emeril and his book. He was very rude and I will not be wasting any of my time watching his shows or any more of my money purchasing ANY of his murchandise.

Rating:
Summary: Like Great Potluck Food? So Does Emeril!
Review: He always wants to help those who like food and cooking and want to kick it up notches. He provides us foodies with an excellent source for that dish one wants to contribute to a feast of cuisine with family, friends and dining functions.

There is a considerable variety of all the components of a great potluck feast: drinks, appetizers, salads, soups, casseroles, gumbos, sides, breads, desserts. There is nice section are starters like stocks and mayonnaise,etc., plus sources and restaurants.

As he relates it so well, food is about sharing and so Emeril shares some of his favorites here in the category of what he calls: comfort food kicked up as Emeril does. Many he just gives us classics and others he kicks up. Sampling the several hundred of recipes yield all kinds of ones to try and share: Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie; Oysters Rockefeller Soup; Kicked-Up Spinach and Artichoke Dip; Milk Shakes For Grown Ups; Courtney's Kicked-Up Fiesta Loaf; Paul's Make the Whole Crew Happy Sausage Meatballs with Red Gravy; Chicken Chili With Cornbread Topping; Cowboy Chicken Casserole; Retro Ambrosia.

There is something great for everyone's tastes and culinary skills to make and serve and share at all kinds of eating events. This is great potluck collection, not difficult at all in techniques or ingredients. Many will be blessed using this.


Rating:
Summary: Recipes you'll actually make.
Review: Most of the recipes in Potluck are actually things that I'm actually making and they're delicious. I would recommend this book especially to those in the parts of the country where heartier meals are prepared.

Rating:
Summary: Kicked up recipes with kicked up reading.
Review: Reading this cookbook from cover to cover was a pleasure. It reads like a family history. For any Emeril fan, his descriptions and tips read just as he talks. As to be expected, he also uses onions, bell pepper, and garlic in nearly all his recipes. Many of these we have seen before in various cookbooks, but Emeril updates them, adding his own flair, thus making the new versions seem fresh.



What works for me about this particular cookbook:



*All the handy tips that are given about various food items
*If an item is difficult to find, a substitute is given - and there aren't many of these.
*The majority of the recipes are ones that can be used in my own kitchen
*All seasons are covered


What doesn't work for me is one thing only. As much as I like Emeril, I would really have liked to have seen more pictures of the finished dishes rather than all of them be him.



As a collector of cookbooks, this is my first one by Emeril, but it certainly won't be my last! Great job.


Rating:
Summary: Marketing at it's finest
Review: The book itself is not bad, not groundbreaking, but some interesting stuff. However, a large number of the recipies call for Emerils products, "2tbls of Emerils Asian Essence", 2tbls Emerils Southwestern Essence" etc. So he sells you the book and then you have to go out and buy his seasoning mixtures. What a rip.

Rating:
Summary: A party cookbook for those invited to 'potluck'
Review: What is 'kicked-up comfort food'? It's what chef Emeril LaGasse specializes in producing - and what Emeril's Potluck: Comfort Food With A Kicked-Up Attitude so innovatively covers. This is a party cookbook for those invited to 'potluck' who wish to bring something flavorful, simple, and widely appealing. Dishes such as Aldain's Grandmother's Meat and Potato Casserole or a classic Country Captain Chicken dish are presented with the mark of Lagasse's recommendation and family experiences with the dish. While most will sound familiar, having a host of comfort foods tried and tested under one cover makes Emeril's Potluck appealing and special.