Product Description

His Chicago restaurant is praised in the food press from coast to coast, and now, Charlie Trotter, master of culinary innovation, tests new waters with this collection of recipes for astonishing new dishes featuring freshwater fish and seafood. 100+ recipes. 75 duotone photos.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #254281 in Books
• Published on: 1997
• Released on: 1997-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

Amazon.com Review
Charlie Trotter's in Chicago is rated as one of the finest restaurants in the world. Eating there is a leisurely and memorable experience because Chef Trotter is endlessly creative and meticulously precise in his cooking. He uses the best ingredients and says one should do as little as possible to embellish them. Does he practice what he preaches? In your dreams!

The simplest of the 75 recipes in Charlie Trotter's Seafood are for dishes like Olive-Oil Roasted Swordfish with Oven-Roasted Tomato and Black Olives, and the Slow-Roasted Salmon with Red Wine Risotto, Wild Thyme and Tiny White Asparagus. His more typical, and even more breathtaking, creations are often based on Hawaiian fish, like Steamed Gindai and Mussels with Lemongrass Broth. On the plate these dishes are all as artistically arranged as they sound.

This is food pornography at its peak. Every dish, as exotic and complex as a lesson from the Kama Sutra, is shown in gloriously intimate, obscenely alluring, vinaigrette-dotted detail by photographer Tim Turner. Ambitious cooks will appreciate Trotter's recommended piscatorial substitutions. Finding other ingredients, like bleeding heart radishes and shallot blossoms, is up to you. Not to mention making time to produce the infused oils and deeply flavored stocks often called for. The recipes are grouped, unexpectedly, by the wines best for accompanying them. Trotter starts with champagne and proceeds through 16 other kinds of wine, from white Viognier to red Syrah and Barbera.

If complex, original cooking fascinates you, here is the chance to navigate an ocean of new seafood ideas and culinary combinations. --Dana Jacobi

About the Author
CHARLIE TROTTER is the author of 14 cookbooks and three management books and is an eight-time James Beard Award winner. He is the chef and owner of the legendary Charlie Trotter's, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, as well as Trotter's To Go in Chicago. He recently founded C in Los Cabos, Mexico, and Restaurant Charlie in the Palazzo Hotel at the Venetian Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.

Customer Reviews

Not a cookbook for the home cook
I am sure that Charlie Trotter makes delicious food. He probably uses exquisite ingredients, and he definitely plates the food beautifully. It might even be fun to eat at his restaurant (although I think I'd rather eat at Lutece or Le Bec-Fin). But certainly you would never want to cook from this cookbook. The food is ridiculously and unnecessarily complicated. I have nothing against difficult recipes, but Trotter's seem to be complicated only for the sake of being "original."

Trotter seems to be the kind ofcook who thinks that (1) the more ingredients, the better; (2) the more exotic or unusual the ingredients, the better; and (3) all those ingredients have to be listed in the title of the dish. Braised Sesame-Crusted Yearling Sweetbreads with 100-Year-Old Balsamic Glazed Shallots, Mango-Fenugreek Mayonnaise, Herbed Polenta, and Reduction of Norwegian Sea Urchin Juices. I'm just making this up, but this "recipe" could very well be in the book.

In the backof the book he has a number of recipes for "basics." This not only includes stock, vinaigrette, etc., but also Pickled Lamb's Tongues. Really. I have no problem with anybody cooking (or even pickling) lamb's tongues, but calling them a "basic" is absurd.

I actually had a Charlie Trotter-style dinner this weekend. Pan-Seared Galette of Calf Forcemeat "En Croute" with a Chiffonade of Cornichons and Spring Greens, a Triple Reduction of Spiced Tomato Concassee, and Oil-Poached Russet Potato Allumettes. It was tasty, but it would have been just as good if I called it a hamburger with French fries.

If you're thinking about buying this book, get Georges Perrier's "The Bec-Fin Recipes" instead. The food is at least as tasty (certainly more classic and harmonious), almost as beautiful, and vastly more feasible to prepare.

Good picture and idea book
This is a beautiful book. The pictures are stunning and the dishes are inspiring. That said, most of the recipes are terribly complicated for the home cook. Many of the fish are hard to get and regional; most of the preparations often require things that only a restaurant kitchen can feasibly do (i.e. tomato water).

Still, some of the dishes are approachable by the home cook and the if you are inventive, many could inspire you to come up with your own creations.

An added bonus (or potentially a distraction depending on you point of view) is that the dishes are grouped by the wines that would be accompany them - a novel approach.

Use this for ideas ... only!
I can say that I am a reasonably competent home chef with an above-average knowledge of technique and most necessary equipment to get the job done. Having said that, I was impressed with the photos of nearly every featured recipe in this book and find the recipes to be admirably aggressive in their taste and texture contrasts. The recipes, however, are nearly all flawed in some significant manner in that following them verbatim will result in poor results. Even when this is not the case, I find these recipes to be "out of whack" from a taste perspective by any gastronome's standards and in need of serious tweaking. If you have good kitchen skills and seek to be inspired by the ideas in this book, then I would suggest it (USED!!) ... otherwise, there are much better cookbooks that will yield far superior results. I purchased the Charlie Trotter's Seafood and Dessert cookbooks and came to the same conclusion.