Product Description

Jean-Georges Vongerichten, chef and owner of 18 restaurants around the world, pioneered Asian-fusion cuisine and cooks this food better than anyone on the planet. In Asian Flavors of Jean-Georges, he presents dozens of recipes for reproducing the dishes that have made his restaurants--Vong, Spice Market, and 66--the hottest dining destinations in New York City.

Jean-Georges began his love affair with Asian food when he became the chef de cuisine at the renowned Oriental Hotel in Bangkok at the age of twenty-three. His trips to the markets of Bangkok sparked a lifelong obsession with ingredients like ginger, lemongrass, curry pastes and powders, and all kinds of exotic fruits and vegetables. In 1992, when he came to New York to cook at Lafayette in the Drake Hotel, he was the first to combine the flavors of Thailand with French technique. The restaurant was a sensation, immediately earning four stars from the New York Times, and launching his dazzling career in the United States.

In 1997, he opened an outpost of Vong in Hong Kong and discovered the world of authentic and refined Chinese cooking and ingredients. As he says, “Every meal in Hong Kong contain[s] a thousand flavors.” He opened 66 in New York to showcase his newfound passion for the Chinese kitchen.

And then in 2003 he opened Spice Market, his homage to Asian street food, after five years of research and extensive travels through Southeast Asia (documented in the photos in this book). Once again, he translated Asian cuisine through a French sensibility for American diners. Spice Market instantly became his most popular restaurant and remains one of New York’s most sought-after reservations.

Now Jean-Georges has brought together the best of his pan-Asian recipes in one exciting cookbook. The recipes reflect Jean-Georges’s extraordinary talent for creating intensely flavorful dishes inspired by simple home cooking and street food. The secret is his subtle and surprising combinations, which, as in his restaurants, introduce Asian flavors to traditional Western-style dishes and cooking techniques. His special approach comes deliciously to life in such main courses as Grilled Chicken with Kumquat Lemongrass Dressing, Black Pepper Shrimp with “Sun-Dried” Pineapple, Cod with Malaysian Chili Sauce, and Lamb Shank Braised with Green Curry and Vegetables. Unusual side dishes include Steamed Spicy Eggplant and Coconut Sticky Rice. For dessert, there are treats like Chocolate and Vietnamese Coffee Tart or a Seasonal Fruit Plate with Lime-Spiced Salt. Each recipe is laid out in a clear, easy-to-follow style, and throughout the book invaluable tips are offered for streamlining preparation and cooking.

From taste-tempting appetizers, soups, and salads, to irresistible fish, meat, poultry, and vegetable dishes, to special sauces and one-of-a-kind sweets, the recipes in Asian Flavors of Jean-Georges promise to make dining at home as exciting as an evening out at one of Jean-Georges's fabulous restaurants.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #51882 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-23
• Released on: 2007-10-23
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Vongerichten is a culinary adventurer, and for those cooks eager to expand their own horizons, this is a welcome record of the chef's passion: the food of Thailand, China, India, Vietnam—indeed, all of Asia—passed through the filter of his inimitable creativity and classic French training. Featuring recipes for the food he serves at his Asian fusion restaurants—Spice Market, Vong and the recently closed 66—these recipes are not for the timid or the time-pressed, but they do open a world of exciting tastes to those cooks willing to put in the time. Requiring an augmented pantry (food sources are suggested by the author) and a taste for sometimes unfamiliar flavors, the recipes are clear and results worth the effort. Crunchy Potato Salad includes radishes, chili, vinegar and just a little sugar in a lively alternative to common oil- or mayonnaise-based dressing. The recipes in the appetizer chapter are the most complicated, requiring a minimum of 10 ingredients and eight or nine steps. But further along, Beef Brisket with Onions and Chile, representing, he says, his own Alsatian-Jewish-Chinese... roots and the things I love, is simple and offers a piquant surprise. Among the many virtues of this book is how quickly the cook will use that nam pla sauce that's been loitering in the fridge for years. The recipes offer a new perspective to the jaded palates of Western cuisine. Photos throughout. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

The world’s great Asian chefs hail Jean-Georges: 

“I am Japanese so it’s a given that I am good at arranging Asian food. Jean-Georges is not Asian but he is excellent at incorporating Asian influences into his own food, and coming up with ingenious combinations. Congratulations to Jean-Georges on the publication of this wonderful book with Asian flavors!”
 — Nobu Matsuhisa, chef and owner, Nobu & Matsuhisa restaurants worldwide

“Once again you have managed to give a very unique Jean-Georges twist to the Asian food traditions, safeguarding and respecting the very essence of them, which in my opinion is a harmony of sweet, sour, salty, and just the right amount of spiciness. It creates an explosion of flavors in your mouth and a culinary experience that clings to your taste buds long after you've left the dining table.”
— Norbert Kostner, executive chef, Bangkok’s Oriental Hotel 

“Asian Flavors of Jean-Georges, a savory chef d’oeuvre . . . This book of astonishing and imaginative recipes demonstrates that Jean-Georges, a fusion pioneer, remains as passionate a culinary explorer as he is a perfectionist of Asian-style cuisine. Anyone who prepares these fresh, aromatic, and seductive dishes will feel that they, too, have traveled the spice routes and street food markets of Southeast Asia. ASIAN FLAVORS presents a unique and nuanced palette of taste sensations by one of my favorite food artists.”
— Susur Lee, chef and owner, Toronto’s restaurants Susur and Lee

“Reading Jean-Georges’s latest book is a definite temptation to head straight to the kitchen right away. I draw tremendous inspiration from this respected chef and good friend’s artistic creation of exotic Asian cuisines with magical doses of Western sophistication. This book is definitely a work of culinary art that will have a permanent place among my collection of favorite cookbooks.” 

— Jereme Leung, founding chef and part owner, Shanghai’s Whampoa Club 

About the Author

JEAN-GEORGES VONGERICHTEN became a culinary star when he first began cooking at Lafayette in New York City. He went on to establish the charming bistro JoJo in New York; introduced “fusion” cooking at Vong (three stars from the New York Times), which now has an outpost in Chicago; created the four-star Jean-Georges and hugely successful Spice Market and 66 in New York; opened Rama (Spice Market meets Vong) in London; and opened several acclaimed restaurants in cities from Shanghai to Las Vegas. He lives in New York City, when he is not traveling to oversee his existing restaurants or open a new one.

Customer Reviews

Great Flavor Combinations!
This is an extraordinary cookbook. I have this one and also "Cooking at Home with a Four Star Chef" and I like this one much better. His combination of flavors is truly extraordinary. Some of the ingredients are not things you might have in your pantry (go to your local Asian Grocery and get them) but once you have them you can cook most of the receipes. I have never made anything from this book that was not superb. Some of the recipes (but not all) are complex and time consuming but the effort is truly worth it. You will not be disappointed.

Asian Flavors of Jean-Georges
Beautiful pictures that make your mouth watering. The recipes are quite complicated and very impractical (see: "Peking Duck", which should be hanged from its neck in a refrigirator and cooled by a running fan at the same time!!!). The recipes in most cases also require ingredients that are extremely difficult to find and to buy outside the Asian countries where they are commonly used. Not a practical cookbook at all.

Too bad
This book is not for pro.I didn't see any special technic in this book.Maybe ,just maybe the flavor is good.