[.ca] The Tante Marie's Cooking School Cookbook: More Than 250 ... (ISBN 0743214919)

Wonderful gift:
I bought this cookbook on a caterer's recommendation as a high school gift for a young man who is living with my family and hopes to become a chef. It was perfecto! I'm grateful he leaves it in my kitchen so I can make use of it, too. I've been cooking for 40 years, but I learned many new tricks and absorbed into my DNA several new recipes from just leafing thru these pages while sipping a latte in the morning. A must-buy for the serious but casual cook.

Who Thought a Cook Book Would Be a Great Read!!:
I like the recipes and have now cooked a number of them. The chicken with spinach and beans is an all time favorite! But I also find the book great reading. There are so many answers to questions I had -- or never knew enough to ask. I leave the book on the kitchen counter and find myself reading through the comments and tips again and again. I never knew how to reliably cut a cooked chicken, just how to hold the knife for slicing an onion, got the idea of buying a couple of hard (as they always are) avacados and sticking them in a drawer to ripen -- and so many more. This is a "must have".

Not just recipes, but how to cook!:
If Mary Risley had stopped after training some of my favorite San Francisco chefs, she would earn my undying gratitude. But what she's done with this book is invaluable. It's so much more than a book of recipes. She really teaches you how to cook -- with a recipe or off the cuff. Tante Marie's Cookbook sits on our kitchen counter as a constant checkpoint, no matter where we get recipes from. I always use it as a cross-reference against other books. I'll open a recipe in the Silver Palate, but I'll check Mary's techniques for cooking that kind of meat, fish or vegetable. When I incorporate her suggestions, it always comes out better - and I understand more thoroughly the principle behind the recipes. So this is a cookbook that will enhance every other cookbook you own. We are passionate cooks, but this book has taught us what we've never been able to do before -- cook without a recipe. In fact, at the beginning of every chapter Mary tells you how to select the discussed meat, fish or vegetable, what cooking methods are best for it, and how to cook it without a recipe. Mary straddles the difficult divide of providing a resource that teaches the experienced cook but is accessible enough to the beginner. In fact, if you own only one cookbook, this is the one to get. In addition to wonderful recipes, tricks, techniques and the how-tos that change okay to fabulous, this book is filled with great anecdotes and recipes from some of the Bay Area's best restaurants. All made accessible by Tante Marie herself, patiently explaining the difficult, offering alternatives for when you can't find some exotic ingredients, but firmly telling you when you simply can't compromise. (Mary declares "seared tuna has no place in Salad Nicoise!") We have a new vocabulary in our kitchen: "What does Mary say?" and "Mary says. . ." I promise you, if you let Tante Marie guide you, you'll never eat another so-so meal at home.

Good Find!:
A solid, well written book that I will be reaching for a lot faster than some of the current well known authors. For someone not having much time to de-code recipes, the techniques and content of the book are easy to read and very well done.

A wonderful cooking experience:
A wonderful cooking experience was had by all for myself and family. For some extra fun, my family and I sometimes decide to pick out a cookbook and make a meal entirely from that book. Using this cookbook we all picked out one recipe apiece to try out to make a full dinner. Our experence ranged from fairly competent and experienced to the true novice in the kitchen. We made our different courses and the at the end we were very happy with the results. We all agreed that the recipes were well thought out and easy to follow with excellent intstructions and sidebars to answer just about all of our questions. They were practical and informative with the net result being a pleasureable cooking experience for us. Being from the San Francisco area, we are exposed to many wonderful foods and restaurants which I think have increased our appreciation of well prepared foods. We think this cookbook will be enjoyable for all who use it. Chin chin!