Product Description

Vegetables is complete with over 150 recipes for soups, appetizers, salads, entrees, side dishes, and a chapter devoted to sauces and relishes made from vegetables or perfect to serve with vegetables. Accompanied by 75 full-color photos, you'll be eager to try vegetables that are new to you, or try a familiar vegetable in a new way.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #140456 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Customer Reviews

An excellent volume for the home cook
I've seen a number of books before from the CIA that were clearly for student and working chefs - recipes and instructions heavy on the technical specifications and light on the images. That's fine for the cook with heavy experience, but tough on the average kitchen denizen. So I was delighted to see The Culinary Institute of America Vegetables: Recipes and Techniques from the World's Premier Culinary College.

Let's ignore the very last claim, as restaurant schools from Johnson & Wales to those in Zurich, France, and Germany might disagree. Physically this is a well-illustrated and designed book. Recipes are laid out with the steps on one page, ingredients running vertically next to the steps, and a full color picture facing. That's critical, because students in a culinary school get to see the food when the instructors show them how to make it. But if you've never laid eyes on a dish, it's difficult to tell whether your results are correct or not.

The one place where the visuals are lacking is in basic preparation and cooking techniques as well as information on storage and individual vegetable types. But, realistically, economic realities come into play. The volume is already just over 290 pages long at a suggest price of $40; any more, and it would quickly hit the $70 and higher price of culinary text books, putting it out of the price range of all but the most ardent home cooks.

Recipe organization is in a standard set of categories: soups, appetizers, salads, entrées, side dishes, and sauces and relishes. What is unusual for a book covering vegetables is that it's not vegetarian; there are some recipes that include meat. I was actually happy to see that. Too often vegetables are treated as accompaniments to meats, poultry, and fish, and not as integral parts of the recipe concepts. Those who eschew eating that which moved about at one time won't like those parts of the book, but for most people, I think it's a sound approach. I also saw enough unusual dishes - such as Thai Fresh Pea Soup and Hoisin-Caramelized Root Vegetables - that this collection is unlikely to be a duplicate of the standard "exotic" recipes that you find turning up in one book after another. I look forward to the next volume they do in this fashion.

Book of recipes, not a "cookbook"
I was looking forward to this title to complement the material in some of the other great CIA titles I have with some veggie-specific information. However, in contrast to those titles, it is little more than a collection of recipes without the in-depth sections on ingredients and techniques that I have come to expect from the CIA.

The "cooking" part of this volume is barely 25 pages long; not enough to give any depth to any of its discussions. From there it launches into a collection of specific recipes using vegetables, without providing "master recipes" for any. For example, "How can I roast beets?" isn't answered with a direct "400° for 45-60 minutes in a foil packet" kind of answer anywhere. The recipes seem to be repeats from other (recommended) CIA books I have, such as The Professional Chef, 8th Edition, Cooking at Home with The Culinary Institute of America, and Techniques of Healthy Cooking, Professional Edition.

The recipes aren't organized by vegetable, as I might have liked, but by course (e.g., salads, appetizers, entries, etc). As a result, I do not find it easy to use as a "go-to" resource on my bookshelf.

This book would be at home on the coffee table of someone that has immaculate, polished stainless steel or copper All-Clad pots and Global knives on display in their kitchen. If your All-Clad and Japanese knives fall into more into the well-loved category, I'd save your money on this one.

(Interestingly, this is published by Lebhar-Friedman Books rather than Wiley -- No idea if that means anything in general.)

The CIA VEGETABLES
Whether you're a vegetarian, like myself, or want to accompany your meat/poultry/fish entree with fabulous side dishes, this book is wonderful. The photographs "draw" you in to the dishes and inspire your creativity. From appetizers to salads to entrees, the recipes are easy to follow and the results are guaranteed. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who never thought vegetables could be the highlight of their meal!