[.ca] The New American Chef: Cooking with the Best of Flavors ... (ISBN 0471363448)

Take a trip around the world through 10 different cuisines.:
THE NEW AMERICAN CHEF has a simple premise: Interview some of America's pre-eminent experts on 10 different cuisines (Japanese, Italian, Spanish, French, Chinese, Indian, Mexican, Thai, Vietnamese, Moroccan), and share their knowledge and insights with readers through honing them down into 35 fascinating pages per cuisine. The result? Readers are able to take an educational and delicious tour around the world through the histories, cultures and cuisines of 10 nations. This is a great book to read, and an even better book from which to cook, as it features dozens of recipes perfected by some of the country's best chefs and cookbook authors including Mario Batali, Rick Bayless, Daniel Boulud, Penelope Casas, Susan Feniger, Lynne Rossetto Kasper, Zarela Martinez, Mary Sue Milliken, Julie Sahni, Piero Selvaggio, Nina Simonds, Masa Takayama, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Paula Wolfert, Su-Mei Yu, and many more. This single volume can take the place of 10 tomes on your cookbook shelf. However, if you're looking for even more great reading about each of these cuisines, Nach Waxman (legendary owner of New York's infamous Kitchen Arts & Letters bookshop) provides his recommendations for further exploration at the end of each chapter. THE NEW AMERICAN CHEF is the perfect gift for the food lovers in your life (even yourself!).

One of the best books of the year:
I had already thought that THE NEW AMERICAN CHEF was one of the best books I read all year. I subscribe to the authors' enewsletter, and just read that this book was mentioned as one of the best books of 2003 in a number of publications, including by Gael Greene of NEW YORK, Kathie Jenkins of THE ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS, Carolyn Jung of THE SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, Marilyn Marter of THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, William Rice of THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, Bart Ripp of THE TACOMA NEWS TRIBUNE, Cheri Secard of FABULOUSFOODS.COM, MURIEL STEVENS of THE LAS VEGAS SUN, and Marion Sullivan of THE CHARLESTON POST AND COURIER. Great minds think alike!!

A great book.:
This book rocks!! I like to get my information at a glance. That's why I really like certain aspects of this book, especially all the charts on how to stock your kitchen cupboards and spice cabinet in order to cook each cuisine. I've also just started dabbling in cheese, so the cheese recommendations in the Spanish chapter are really helpful. I also like the wine recommendations to go with Indian food, because I find beer kind of boring. This is a great book, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes to experiment with new cuisines in the kitchen.

A great book, if you can find it!:
As a fan of the Dornenburg and Page duo, I love their new book The New American Chef. I am also happy they expanded beyond restaurant chefs to include some of my favorite culinary writers in their roundtable of experts (Paula Wolfert, Corinne Trang and Julie Sahni are three of my favorites). With summer here I am looking forward to making Jose Andres's "Gaspacho Andaluz" and Daniel Bouloud's "Cherry Gratin". I only have one problem with this book. I am dying to order copies to take as house gifts this summer but it's been listed as "out of stock" on Amazon for the last three weeks. A great book for year-round cooking or summer hammock reading.

A fascinating look at 10 different cuisines:
I have been trying to buy a copy of this book on Amazon ever since hearing the authors speak at the Cascadia Culinary Arts conference here in Washington on May 22 (they were incredible) but it's been "out of stock" for weeks. VERY frustrating. I wish that I had bought a copy at the conference, but I didn't want to carry it around at the time. If I knew how hard it would be to find a copy, I would have! I spent two hours reading a friend's copy of "The New American Chef" and found it fascinating. The authors joked that it's the "Cliff Notes" of 10 different cuisines, but it's so much more. I love the idea of their "culinary compass" that they wrote about in the beginning of the book that maps out the way chefs cook today, and whether their focus is on experimentation or authenticity. It was obvious from their talk and from what I saw of this book that they think about food differently from other writers. I want my own copy!