Shana R. (LynniePennie) reviewed Ethan Stowell Cookbook: New Italian Cooking on + 169 more book reviews
I love cookbooks and I am a fairly accomplished home cook so I was really looking forward to this book. I regularly use recipes from Gordan Ramsay, Jacque Pepin, Julia Child amongst other culinary masters. In Ethan Stowell's cookbook there are some nice recipes and the instructions are easy to follow, but it will be more of an occasional use cookbook for me. There's only one basic recipe for pasta and gnocchi which I use regularly. Amongst the many unusual recipes there are a number of recipes that have very unusual ingredients like Pig Ears, Geoduck, Lambs Tongue, Oxtail, Sea Urchin and Goat Leg. I have a very well stocked pantry and I consider myself an adventurous home cook, but some of these ingredients are not things I have around or can easily buy.
So, I'd rate this book 2 1/2 stars if I could. There are some nice recipes here and some great advice on how to make certain sauces and other items but, many more that I don't think most people would be able to find the ingredients to try. Although there are some excellent recipes, many of them seemed to either have just shock value or unusual ingredients that one would need to go to a specialty store to obtain. This made the recipes generally more complicated than I am up for. The chef also dictates in many places how to eat the food as well and I found this getting on my nerves after a few pages.
Also, a lot of my enjoyment of a cookbook is the color photos of the food. My copy is an Advance Readers Copy and all the photos are in black and white. Perhaps, the published copy will have color photos. In closing, this is a nice cookbook, but, not one I will refer to very much. I wouldn't recommend this cookbook for home cooks who want to just find a few impressive recipes. Probably, this cookbook is best suited to a professional chef who wants to expand their experience cooking more unusual and exotic proteins.
So, I'd rate this book 2 1/2 stars if I could. There are some nice recipes here and some great advice on how to make certain sauces and other items but, many more that I don't think most people would be able to find the ingredients to try. Although there are some excellent recipes, many of them seemed to either have just shock value or unusual ingredients that one would need to go to a specialty store to obtain. This made the recipes generally more complicated than I am up for. The chef also dictates in many places how to eat the food as well and I found this getting on my nerves after a few pages.
Also, a lot of my enjoyment of a cookbook is the color photos of the food. My copy is an Advance Readers Copy and all the photos are in black and white. Perhaps, the published copy will have color photos. In closing, this is a nice cookbook, but, not one I will refer to very much. I wouldn't recommend this cookbook for home cooks who want to just find a few impressive recipes. Probably, this cookbook is best suited to a professional chef who wants to expand their experience cooking more unusual and exotic proteins.
