[.ca] Wolfgang Puck's Pizza, Pasta, and More! (ISBN 0679438874)

From Amazon.com:
Since the 1982 opening of his L.A. restaurant Spago, Wolfgang Puck has become a household name. Several restaurants, TV appearances, and cookbooks later, Puck has put together Wolfgang Puck's Pizza, Pasta, and More, a collection of his favorite and most popular recipes. "Eating with family and friends is like having a little party," says Puck. "It is pure pleasure, a relaxing and fun experience. Casual and easy to prepare, these are dishes everyone can make and enjoy." Puck starts with the basics--stocks, sauces, dressings, and condiments. With chicken or vegetable stock fresh made or stored in your freezer, you have the base for Hazelnut Brown Butter and Herb Sauce (toss with wild-mushroom ravioli and dust with Parmesan) or Tomato Garlic Basil Sauce (good for pasta or pizza). The salads range from a classic Caesar with Homemade Tapenade Croutons to a Grilled Ahi Tuna Niçoise Salad to a colorful stacked Roasted Beet Napoleon. Thin-crust wood-oven pizzas are Puck's signature and he does not disappoint. The Herbed Artichoke Pizza is studded with sautéed artichoke bottoms, niçoise olives, and caramelized onions and the Tangy Chicken Pizza features peppers, eggplant, and chicken marinated in olive oil, lime, jalapeños, garlic, and cilantro. Try the brunch pizza with scrambled eggs and smoked salmon on a leisurely Sunday. The pastas are equally as enticing. Puck suggests making your own and includes his fail-safe recipe. Particularly temping are Angel Hair with Wild Mushrooms, Asparagus, and Shaved Parmesan Cheese, Crispy Calamari with Chinese Noodles and Spicy Garlic Sauce, and Gnocchi with Braised Veal Shank. Besides alluring photos of many of the dishes, pictures of Puck and his staff preparing for the 2000 Academy Awards post-party are included (FYI: Haley Joel Osment's favorite pizza is Pepperoni and Mushroom). --Dana Van Nest

Wolfgang Puck's Pizza, Pasta, and More!:
As always, Puck gives us clever and innovative recipes, but this time they're better suited to professional chefs and restaurant budgets. I particularly point to recipes like the one for balsamic shallots which calls for a whole pound of shallots and one-and-a-half cups of balsamic vinegar. That much supermarket balsamic vinegar would be harsh and unpalatable, while a decently-aged balsamic from a specialty shop would take this dish, just a side dish after all, out of range for the average budget. Also, I don't think his testing team did a thorough job. I found several errors, obvious to me because I'm a professional too. Regardless of these points, I think Puck is a terrific chef and teacher, although he just may have lost touch with what people will cook at home as opposed to what they would rather eat in a restaurant.

This book is AMAZING!:
Rarely do I find a cookbook where I actually WANT to make every recipe. This cookbook is one of them. I've made the pizza's the pastas! Last night I made fresh spinach pasta. It was delicious and fun. I would HIGHLY recommend this book if you are a lover of California Cuisine. It's worth every penny!

Puck is a master, and this book proves it!:
Wolfgang Puck's skills as a chef and restauranteur are well established, but with this cookbook he joins the select group of food professionals (like Perla Meyer, Caprial Pence, and Alice Waters) whose knowledge translates beautifully into recipes a home chef can prepare readily. The recipes are not only well thought out and obviously thoroughly tested under home kitchen conditions, but the mix of flavors and textures is sublime. Puck's sensitivity to his ingriedients and his innovative flair for marrying ingriedients stand out: the dishes are exciting to eat and easy to prepare. We've prepared probably 20 or more of the recipes in this book so far, and we find it perfect for those evenings when you want something pretty wonderful for dinner but you're played out from a hard day at the office.

Definitely Worth Buying:
Although Wolfgang Puck has become one of America's best known chefs, I have not been overlly impressed with either his restaurants, nor his prior cookbooks. This cookbook was in fact for me, a very nice surprise. Mr Puck shares with us his secrets for his famous pizza and pasta recipes, and every recipe I have tried from this book so far has been great. One favorite is his Savory Squash Soup, and another his Herbed Artichoke Pizza. The recipes are easy enough for a novice cook to follow, and the food photos are truly inspiring. It is difficult not to run to the kitchen after browsing through this book. This cookbook has definitely given me a more favorable opinion of Mr. Puck.

A variety of tastes in one cookbook:
I had never been too impressed with what I saw of Wolfgang Puck and his celebrity chef status until I had the opportunity to try one of his restaurants in LA. While I wasn't blown away by the originally of the menu (there is very little difference from California Pizza Kitchen), the excution was simply terrific. All of the food, though items you can find on many other menus, was incredibly tasty and well done. Same can be said of this cookbook. There are recipes in it that you will find in other cookbooks, but the flavor of the dishes make it great. My favorites include the tortilla soup and the beet salad with blue cheese, both a nice combination of textures and flavors. While none of the pizza recipes in of themselves blew me away, the pizza dough recipe is one of the best I've worked with. Yeast doughs in general don't like to work for me, and maybe it is just that I finally got the hang of it with his recipe, but it was a great tasting dough which made a great base for any pizza.