Another Review at MyShelf.Com

Welcome to Michael's
Great Food, Great People, Great Party!
85 Stellar Recipes From the Celebrated Michael's Restaurants

by Michael McCarty
Forward by Liz Smith



      This is unquestionably a gorgeous cookbook. But it's gorgeous in multiple ways.

Yes, it's beautiful in the obvious, literal sense, filled with color photographs of beautiful fresh ingredients, gorgeous finished dishes, beautiful people - famous and otherwise - enjoying themselves, and sparkling settings, indoors and out. Set it out on a coffee table and people will drool. It's also filled with beautiful stories and thoughts and comments from Michael himself and the people who know him, who have enjoyed his company and his food. But really, if all I wanted were gorgeous comments and photos of people and food and places, I could look in any number of magazines or books of photography.

What I found the most gorgeous thing about Welcome to Michael's is that it's a real cookbook, for real people. A lot of celebrity chef cookbooks are little but gorgeous images and nearly impossible recipes, because they're clearly so strongly grounded in having a limitless pantry and limitless time available for cooking, along with an army of sous chefs handling the grunt work. Not this one.

Don't get me wrong, you can search through Welcome to Michael's and find some relatively chichi dishes, such as Risotto with Pan Seared Quail and Fois Gras, Baby Bhantrelles, and Pinot Noir Sauce. There's even a note flagging this recipe as a save it for a special occasion "restaurant" style dish. But my point is that you have to actively look for such recipes in this beautiful book; it's not about that sort of thing.

Most of the dishes are quality versions of things meant for everyday eating. There are plenty of recipes even beginner cooks could handle, while teaching them more than they would find in cookbooks marketed "for beginners." Michael really talks about the ingredients and techniques, telling you how to grill corn on the cob, cook fresh spinach, make a basic roast chicken, turn a store-bought baguette into magic with some olive oil, herbs, and a grill. All of it laid out in easy to follow instructions, well annotated with personal anecdotes and ideas and helpful hints, such as how to select a lobster, or what the difference is between white and green asparagus. I haven't made many of the recipes yet, but I knew from my first taste of one for Baby Artichokes With Parmesan, Meyer Lemon and Extra Virgin Olive Oil, that this is a beautiful cookbook which I'm going to turn a lot less beautiful with heavy use. It's a wonderful treasury of information and ideas meant to be tried, not admired from a distance. So do yourself a favor, grab a copy and start browsing and cooking. You could just read it for the stories and celebrity names and pictures, but if you're really good to yourself, you'll start making the recipes as well. The cookbook is as welcoming to the cook as the messages inside tell us the author is to his guests. Bon appetit.

The Book

Little, Brown
October 2007
Hardcover / Coffee Table Format
031611815X / 978-0316118156
Cooking and Entertaining
More at Amazon.com
Excerpts: [recipe]
[photo gallery]
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The Reviewer

Kim Malo
Reviewed 2008
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© 2008 MyShelf.com