Product Description

Donna Hay is swiftly becoming the source American cooks go to when they ask themselves, "What should we have for dinner tonight?" She has garnered a passionate global following for her fresh and modern approach to food -- bringing out clean, sparkling flavors with simple techniques and streamlined instructions. In The Instant Cook, she offers more than a compendium of flexible recipes; it is an elegantly simple philosophy of cooking, and of eating.

Donna Hay pulls together flavor combinations and cooking skills from the Mediterranean and the Pacific Rim - two of the most luscious and quick-cooking cuisines on the planet - to create delicious meals with a handful of ingredients in a few minutes. She gives home cooks the confidence to cook with instinct and with style.

Exquisite full color photographs on every page illustrate Donna’s signature look -- chic yet never fussy. It reminds you that cooking is a pleasure. Pour a glass of wine and catch up with family as you cook; shop without waste or confusion; host a weeknight dinner party with little planning and less effort. The Instant Cook is destined to be the cookbook that is never put back on the shelf.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43696 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-01
• Released on: 2005-04-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Oversized, glossy and gorgeously photographed, this cookbook has the body of a fashion model but the soul of a harried mother. It offers dozens of inventive and delicious recipes, most of which require very little time in the kitchen and all of which make use of convenient ingredients. Marmalade Grilled Pork Steaks asks for little more than some pork, this morning's marmalade and a frying pan, but the recipe yields wonderfully tender salty-sweet steaks. Tomato and Eggplant Tarts are like pizza for grownups (and Hay is one of those down-to-earth cooks who doesn't shy away from using frozen pastry crusts). Grilled Chicken and Vegetable Stacks are attractive piles of protein; here Hay offers a terrific vegetarian variation, as she does in several recipes throughout the book. And the desserts-Blueberry and White Chocolate Mousse, Cheat's Apple Tarts and Chocolate French Toast-are as easy as they are enticing. So what's not to like about this volume? Two small things: the first is that it was originally published in Australia, and several of the recipes have yet to be Americanized. (Squid hoods, anyone? Desiree potatoes?) The other is that these pages are so lovely to look at that it seems a shame to splash them with soy sauce and dribble them with oil. After all, a cookbook this handy isn't likely to dwell on one's coffee table for long.
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About the Author

Donna Hay is an Australian-based food stylist, author and magazine editor and one of the best-known names in cookbook and magazine publishing in the world. Her previous eight books have sold more than 2.2 million copies internationally and are renowned for their fresh style, easy-to-follow recipes and inspirational photography. These best-selling, award-wining titles—including The Instant Cook, Modern Classics Book 1 and 2, and Off The Shelf—together with donna hay magazine, have captured the imagination of cooks worldwide and set a new benchmark in modern food styling and publishing. She has recently released the extremely popular Donna Hay Home range of servingware, kitchenware and foods.

Customer Reviews

It's not that tricky
Donna Hay's books are always beautiful and full of yummy food - simple versions of different recipes. It seems a little unfair, however, for the publisher's review to take exception to the Australianisms in it - it's written by an Australian, for heaven's sake. Australians are used to looking up ingredients they are not certain of from American cookbooks, I am sure American readers are smart enough to do the same - and might even have fun learning something. Also, the reviewer who complains about bringing to a simmer and not being told to peel the ginger: simmer is not the same as boil, it is gentler, and of course you peel the ginger, why do you need to be told this?

mixed bag, cook at your own risk!
I've tried many recipes in her Modern Classic I book and I have to say it's a love hate relationship with her books. They are gorgeous and inspiring to look at (5 stars), but instructions or results can sometimes be disappointing (2 stars). I always recommended her books to friends with a warning (great looking books but the measurement and instructions can be inaccurate, cook at your own risk!). Some instructions are so streamlined to the point of skipping seasoning all together, and dishes came out beautifully to the eyes but are totally bland to the taste. Her Asian recipes are not authentic either, when cross referencing other books with the same recipe.

Very happy with Donna Hay's recipe books.
They are beautiful, they have elegant and -- more important -- easy recipes with an international flair. I am considered a gourmet cook by others...and I couldn't be happier with this and her other books.