Dinner for Eight: 40 Great Dinner Party Menus for Friends and Family (New York Times Book) Review

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(More customer reviews)There is so much to like in this cookbook! The concept of entire seasonal menus put together for you, with notes on each recipe about what can be done ahead and when, plus wine suggestions is brilliant, right? Everything is laid out for you, and the recipes are fun and adventuresome. Unfortunately, however, too many of Landis' recipes end up being much more time-consuming than she would have you believe. I cooked three of the full menus for guests, and each time found myself really stressed out--exactly contrary to the main premise of the book! I would add that I am a very experienced home cook; I can't imagine how this would go for a novice. In addition, there are more than a few things that sound good but aren't: take the deviled eggs with guacamole, for instance. The avocado turns grayish-green in this combination. You can imagine how unappetizing this looks. In sum, this is a book that I really wanted to like and which contains some individual "keeper" recipes. It is quite flawed, however, and ultimately disappoints.

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Longtime recipe tester Denise Landis--who has tested Nigella Lawson's books and more than a decade's worth of recipes at The New York Times--is an accomplished and experienced home entertainer. Landis knows what makes a good dinner party and how to compose a menu that will impress guests while leaving the cook free to enjoy her own party. Featuring forty complete menus-appetizer, first course, main course, accompaniment and dessert--Dinner for Eight is organized by season, encourages mixing and matching, and guides any cook through a dinner party timeline of advance preparation and last-minute finishes.

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Best of Craig Claiborne: 1,000 Recipes from His New York Times Food Columns and Four of His Classic Cookbooks Review

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(More customer reviews)This book belongs to a special class of cookbooks where you get a whole lot of recipes for a low price per recipe. These books are not like `The Joy of Cooking' or `James Beard's American Cookery' where you get a lot of advice on cuts of meat, types of potatoes, and techniques for making an especially good pie crust. This type of book contains mostly bare bones recipes. They are one of the most common to find on the discount pile in the Borders foyer.
But, this book is a little different from most books of this class.
First, it is a collection of recipes from Craig Claiborne and Pierre Franey, and that is something special. As Paul Prudhomme states in his introduction, Craig Claiborne is one of the three most influential figures in American culinary writing in the last fifty years, along with James Beard and Julia Child. I suspect Claiborne's influence worked as much or more behind the scenes and may be less durable than the works of Beard and Child. What was public was almost entirely done in daily newspaper columns and reviews. Much of his other work was in the support of charity events and in the support of the careers of up and coming journalists such as Jim Villas and chefs such as Jeremiah Tower.
Second, this collection gains cachet by being the best of newspaper columns in the New York Times. Some very discerning editors picked them over at least twice. First, they were selected to appear in the paper. Then, they were selected from the best of these to appear in this book.
Third, the variety of dishes in this book is outstanding. The range of dishes is far better than, for example, a collection of 1000 Chinese dishes or the best 800 Jewish recipes. These come from around the world, from some of the best chefs in the world. My favorite finds are recipes culled from Danny Kaye, who has the reputation of being quite literally one of the finest Chinese cooks in the world, in his time. The sad fact is that the only remains of that talent are in the occasional recipe in collections such as this.
Fourth, unlike earlier large `New York Times' cookbooks edited by Claiborne, these recipes contain headnotes citing the source of the recipe and tips on their execution. The book also gives an excellent index of recipes by contributor, which is the way in which I was able to locate the recipes from Mr. Kaye. I'm certain these headnotes came from the newspaper articles in which the recipes were embedded.
If you like to have access to a large variety of dishes but do not wish to have a large cookbook library, this is the book for you. The closest competitor to this book may be `The New New York Times Cookbook' that has even more recipes, but no headnotes. This was my first cookbook and I believe every recipe I made from it was sound.
Highly recommended for all, especially those with a budget.

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