Product Description

"Knockout dining" leaves fans breathless at this Gramercy New American "paragon" where "rock star" chef Rocco DiSpirito produces "sublime," "synergistic" dishes. --Zagat, on Rocco DiSpirito's restaurant Union Pacific

He runs one of the most successful restaurants in New York City. He is seen everywhere from David Letterman to Good Morning America to the Food Network. He has graced the cover of Gourmet magazine as "America's Most Exciting Young Chef" -- and Zagat calls him a "rock star." Now, Rocco DiSpirito unleashes his culinary magic with Flavor.

In Flavor, DiSpirito shows readers how to create bold, intriguingly delicious food through combinations of ingredients both mundane and exotic. The cuisine is sophisticated but surprisingly easy for home chefs to replicate. Using the four flavors (sour, sweet, bitter, and salty) as basic building blocks, Rocco demonstrates how to combine and commingle flavors to create one-of-a-kind dishes.

Some recipes included in Flavor are:

-- Lemongrass Lobster Salad
-- Baby Lettuces with Pickled Squash Blossoms and Yogurt-Tahini Vinaigrette
-- Calamari with Coconut Curry and Green Papaya
-- Braised Veal Roulade with Root Vegetables
-- Cinnamon Glazed Duck
-- Lavender Creme Brulee
-- Peach-Phyllo Strudel with Goat Cheese Cream and much more

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #167683 in Books
• Published on: 2003-11-05
• Released on: 2003-11-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 368 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Before he was a television star (not just on the Food Network, but as the central character in the NBC reality show The Restaurant), DiSpirito was a rising star chef in New York with his high-end restaurant, Union Pacific. As Tom Colicchio did so ably in Think Like a Chef, here DiSpirito details the theory behind his cooking. In a nutshell, he seeks to balance sweet, sour, salty and bitter tastes in savory dishes such as Ceviche of Tuna, Sweet Onions and Lime, and Pomegranate and Cinnamon-Lacquered Duck. Each recipe has colored dots to indicate which ingredients provide which flavors; they also bear prep times, level of difficulty, yield and a brief wine suggestion: e.g., Black Sea Bass with Chestnuts and Blood Oranges is paired with a "medium-bodied Chardonnay with no oak." As at Union Pacific, DiSpirito works magic with seafood in particular, with such dishes as Charred Spanish Mackerel with Pear and Sweet Spice, and Calamari with Coconut Curry and Green Papaya. DiSpirito translates a few restaurant techniques for the home cook, as with a suggestion for using plastic wrap instead of the vacuum-sealed packaging used for sous vide cooking when making Chicken with Eggplant Carpaccio and Turmeric Marmalade. Desserts such as Mango and Papaya Carpaccio with Cilantro Candy are in the same lively spirit as the rest of the book, and photographs are also energetic. DiSpirito has considerately cordoned off the more advanced recipes in their own chapter, and a guide to ingredients helpfully includes photographs. Some stars can still relate to the little people.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"Dare I whisper, genius?" -- Gael Greene, New York magazine

"I have yet to taste anything on Mr. DiSpirito's menu that is not wonderful. I was moaning as I ate." -- Ruth Reichl, New York Times

"Part of Dispirito’s brilliance is his ability to make a few, seemingly disparate elements come together in something bold." -- Gourmet

"Rocco DiSpirito rules." -- Zagat

"The best creative chef in America today under 35." -- Departures

"Top 10 Best New Chef." -- Food & Wine

"[Flavor] celebrates the fundamental notions of taste, and the depth created by toying with sweet, salty, sour, and bitter flavors." -- Detroit Free Press

About the Author
Rocco DiSpirito, chef and proprietor of Manhattan's Union Pacific restaurant, attended the Culinary Institute of America at age 16, then studied at the Jardin de Cygne in Paris. He has worked at the Adrienne in New York City and was chef de partie at Aujourd' hui in Boston. Eventually, Rocco joined Lespinasse's opening team. In 1997, DiSpirito opened Union Pacific, where the "poetry and complexity" of his dishes earned three stars from the New York Times. He is featured on Melting Pot Mediterranean on Food Network and has appeared on many other TV shows, including Cooking Live with Sara Moulton, The Late Show with David Letterman, Emeril's Christmas Special, and The Early Show on CBS. He was on the cover of Gourmet magazine in 2000. He lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Great For Inspiration....
I am a professional Chef with a soft spot for cookbooks. Sometimes I follow the recipes sometimes I don't. Mainly, I like to look at the pictures for ideas and inspiration. My frustration with most cookbooks is there are too many words and not enough pictures. cooking is a sensual/visual experience and less science. If you want science then start baking! But with cooking there aren't too many linear paths to the end, rather many routes to the same place. So if you are a chef and like to see new ideas then at least check this book out. There are a lot of good flavor ideas. If your are a home cook looking for a trusted recipe then stay away. You will have a hard time with recipes in this book. They obviously weren't tested and will be frustrating for you.

Excellent coffee table book and useful cookbook
I have to agree with the general thrust of many of the reviews that highlight the look of the book. It looks really cool (at least after you take off the dustjacket that over-displays Rocco's goofy mug--the one negative about buying the book is the connection to Rocco), and I in fact have it sitting on my coffee table. Many of these review are wrong, however, in claiming that the book is only for looks and not for use as a real cookbook. I have made several of the dishes with excellent results, and have also culled some very helpful and practical tips and techniques (like using vegetable purees instead of starch or flour as a thickener) from the book. Granted, it is not on the level of a book like Joy of Cooking in this regard, but it doesn't have to be. One thing that it does display is that good cooking is not out of the average person's reach, and that the average kitchen can benefit from some "advanced" techniques.

Great Flavor
Flavor is everything you'd want in a cookbook. Hundreds of great color photos, amazingly simple recipes, plenty of resources like a pictorial guide to all the ingredients used in the book as well as plenty of style and substance. My wife hates cooking and loved the book-go figure.
This guy Rocco delivers on all levels.
Buy Flavor now.