Product Description

The Bon Appetit Cookbook By Barbara Fairchild "'You can always tell a Bon AppTtit recipe: It's a sophisticated twist on a beloved classic, and it's easy to make...our goal is to give you the cumulative expertise of Bon AppTtit, with more than 1,200 recipe

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #50886 in Books
• Brand: Koen Books
• Published on: 2006-08-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 816 pages

Amazon.com
It's high time that Bon Appétit, one of our longest-running cooking magazines, published a collection of its recipes. The Bon Appétit Cookbook offers over 1,200 formulas--a vast selection that includes dishes for every menu stop and occasion, with sections on bread, burgers, pizza and sandwiches. Characteristically, the majority of the formulas--like Chinese-Flavored Fried Chicken with Green Onion Ginger Dipping Sauce, and Spicy Steak with Corn Soft Tacos--reflect an inventive, cross-cultural approach. A wide selection of sweets, such as Chocolate Chunk, Orange and Hazelnut Cookies, and Lemon Blueberry Shortcakes, is also offered; there's even a chapter on drinks.

Though most of the dishes invite good eating, and all are approachable, a surprising number, like Blue and Red Flannel Hash (with potatoes, hot sausage, pickled beets, and blue cheese) are overwrought or of questionable taste. Herbs are sometimes used excessively (a seafood-cake recipe for six calls for 1-1/3 cups of chopped cilantro), or in dubious combination, like rosemary and tarragon. Readers should also know that ingredients are sometimes not named in the methods, but are called for by number--for example, "add the first five ingredients"--obliging cooks to stop, search and count. In addition, recipe yields in a given chapter can vary by four servings or more. Though some of the larger-yield recipes, like that for cassoulet, are obviously meant for groups, others, like Greek Orzo and Shrimp Salad, which yields twenty servings, could be offered as appropriately for a family meal.

These things said, the book, which is photo-illustrated, will make a welcome addition to many cooking libraries, and should be especially handy when guests must be fed. Readers who have long loved and relied on the magazine will be particularly happy to have so many of its recipes in one place. --Arthur Boehm

Amazon.com Exclusives

• Read a letter from Barbara Fairchild

• Test Kitchen Tips

Listen to Audio Clips of Barbara Fairchild Discussing:
• How We Cook Today
• Changes in the Food World
• The Approachable, Relevant, and Fun Bon Appétit Cookbook
• Last-Minute Party Planning
• Recipe Development and Testing
• A Great Holiday Meal

Exclusive Recipe Excerpts from The Bon Appétit Cookbook

Grilled Asian-Style Scallop and Asparagus Salad; Pomegranate, Beet, and Blood Orange Salad

Herb- and Garlic-Crusted Beef Tenderloin with Red and Yellow Bell Pepper Relish

Cranberry-Orange Cheesecake with Chocolate Crust

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Mirroring the magazine on which it is based, this collection of 1,200 recipes is accessible, applicable to most home cooks' lives and a pleasure to cook from. Editor-in-chief Fairchild, who started at the magazine in 1978, sums up the classic Bon Appétit recipe as "a sophisticated twist on a beloved classic, and it's easy to make"—qualities illustrated in such dishes as Upscale Macaroni and Cheese, which uses blue cheese, red peppers and celery, and a lighter Chicken Paprikás, which omits sour cream in the sauce but uses both hot and sweet Hungarian paprikas. There's a nice range of dishes, from American to Chinese, Latin American to French, and the introductions to the recipes helpfully offer serving recommendations, notes on ingredients and possible substitutions. Refreshingly, recipes for suggested sides appear alongside recipes for main courses (e.g., Pan-Seared Chicken with Goat Cheese Mashed Potatoes). Novice cooks will feel comfortable using the book; "Notes from the Test Kitchen" detail all manner of culinary tools, key pantry items, cooking terminology and techniques like rolling out pie dough. Although the book's approach is more plebeian than, say, that of The Gourmet Cookbook, fans of Bon Appétit will relish this invigorating compilation of greatest hits. 32 pages of color photos, 59 illus. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"Recipe clippers will cheer happily the hardbound Bon Appetit Cookbook by Barbara Fairchild, the magazine's editor, who with her staff has assembled more than 1,200 recipes that neatly summarize America's food fancies of the past 50 years, both passing and lasting." (New York Times Book Review, December 3, 2006)

Half a century after the magazine's founding, Bon Appétit's first cookbook has arrived. True to its long gestation, it's a big one: More than 1,200 recipes, all culled from past issues, run the culinary gamut from breakfast to dessert, low-calorie to indulgent, simple to stylish.
And from easy to -- well, just slightly less easy. The book is not intended to send home cooks over hurdles or teach fancy tricks. "Our recipes feature ingredients you can find in any well-stocked supermarket," Barbara Fairchild, Bon Appétit's editor in chief, writes in her introduction. Many dishes come together in less than an hour. Few of the recipes occupy more than a page, and most fit comfortably in half that space or less.
Yet without requiring daunting procedures or ingredients, "The Bon Appétit Cookbook" manages to come up with interesting, even sophisticated dishes suitable for entertaining, if that's your goal, or just for feeding the family on a weeknight.
With the best recipes of the past 50 years at your fingertips, can you do without the magazine? In case you were pondering that possibility, the book offers an incentive not to: With each purchase, you get a free one-year subscription to Bon Appétit. (The Washington Post, September 20, 2006)

Mirroring the magazine on which it is based, this collection of 1,200 recipes is accessible, applicable to most home cooks’ lives and a pleasure to cook from. Editor-in-chief Fairchild, who started at the magazine in 1978, sums up the classic Bon Appétit recipe as "a sophisticated twist on a beloved classic, and it’s easy to make"—qualities illustrated in such dishes as Upscale Macaroni and Cheese, which uses blue cheese, red peppers and celery, and a lighter Chicken Paprikás, which omits sour cream in the sauce but uses both hot and sweet Hungarian paprikas. There’s a nice range of dishes, from American to Chinese, Latin American to French, and the introductions to the recipes helpfully offer serving recommendations, notes on ingredients and possible substitutions. Refreshingly, recipes for suggested sides appear alongside recipes for main courses (e.g., Pan-Seared Chicken with Goat Cheese Mashed Potatoes). Novice cooks will feel comfortable using the book; "Notes from the Test Kitchen" detail all manner of culinary tools, key pantry items, cooking terminology and techniques like rolling out pie dough. Although the book’s approach is more plebeian than, say, that of The Gourmet Cookbook, fans of Bon Appétit will relish this invigorating compilation of greatest hits. 32 pages of color photos, 59 illus. (Sept.) (Publishers Weekly, June 6, 2006)

"…a worthy addition to any collection". (Detroit Metro Times)

Customer Reviews

This Cookbook was a "Must-Buy" for me!
I have been a subscriber to Bon Appetit magazine for over 15 years and was very excited to see that they had published a cookbook. When I purchased it, I was definitely not disappointed! Recipes like "Spinach and ricotta gnocchi", "Potato, leek, gruyere, and oyster mushroom gratin", "Braised Greek chicken and artichokes" and "Lemon Curd with toasted coconut and blueberries" sound very tempting.

The magazine recipes that I have prepared over the years have turned out wonderfully. My mom and I always make our Thanksgiving meal from Bon Appetit recipes, usually from a stack of Thanksgiving issues we've been saving. I was delighted to see that our turkey recipe, "Roast Turkey with Herb Rub and Shiitake Mushroom Gravy" was included in the new cookbook. It's not something for every day, but it does make such a wonderful turkey that we've used the same recipe for about 10 Thanksgivings now. Not all of my favorites made the cut (there was a terrific "White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake" recipe that's not there), but the recipes they selected are probably the best of the best.

The cookbook is massive and contains over 1200 mouth-watering recipes covering all the basic sections of any comprehensive cookbook (appetizers, salads, meats, vegetables, desserts, drinks, etc). The text is almost entirely recipes, with only a paragraph or two here and there of commentary. Only a few pages of photos are tucked between the recipes, but that was not a negative for me since I'm really in it for the recipes (and it probably kept the cost of the book reasonable).

I have always found the recipes in Bon Appetit to be elegant and delicious. Only a few have hard-to-find ingredients (like a specific liquor I wouldn't have on hand), but most include specific quality ingredients, like shiitake mushrooms, bosc pears, or pecorino Romano cheese, so the cook can get the flavor and texture intended. For example, there is a delicious sounding Sicilian meatball recipe that calls for fresh breadcrumbs made from French bread instead of dried crumbs. The recipes are easy enough that most cooks could prepare without problems, but they are from-scratch and will require more effort than those in basic or "quick-prepare" cookbooks. However, there are plenty of recipes in this book that are simple enough for week-night cooking, and those that require extra effort and usually worth it!

Overall, I'm very pleased with this book and will probably use it quite a bit (which is saying something since I have 100+ cookbooks!) I would definitely recommend this book to cooks who want to prepare food that is delicious enough to impress!

Good Cookin'
I gave this as a gift & the person (a co-worker who likes creative cooking) absolutely loves it...

so many recipes, so little time
I was more than surprised at the abundance of easy recipes in this book! I had enjoyed the magazine but a few of those recipes I had deemed too hard to do. The book still carries a few of those for the more ambitious chef, but it has so many recipes anyone can do! This makes a fantastic gift also!