Emerils Theres A Chef In My Family (Hardcover)

His humor goes into the recipe titles as well: Waffable Waffles, Never-Enough Dinner Rolls, Talk About a Taco Salad, Totally Sloppy Joes, Blow-You-Away Bagel Chips, Rainy-Day BBQ Chicken, Best Baked Tomatoes, Just-Chillin' Chocolate Fridge Pie, My First Watermelon Granita.

This is one of the better cookbooks I've come across. Readers get a large book with kids' favorite recipes as well as recipes for grown-ups. All you have to do is give your breakfast, lunch or dinner menu a little "Emeril mix" and everyone leaves the table happy. Highly recommended.

I generally need to read several chapters of good cookbooks to get a handle on what should attract people to a particular book. I can find something noteworthy about very good and very bad cookbooks on the first or second page. This is true with Emeril's new book. The problem is, I'm not sure whether the things which stick out are good or bad. This is probably because I am not a kid, the primary audience for this book. So, I will simply report them and let you decide.

The first thing I noticed was the number of references to Emeril's restaurants, labeled products such as Emerilware from All-Clad and Wines from Fetzer Vineyards, and personal appearance events such as Food Network shows and Good Morning America appearances. The references to his food products such as Essence and hot sauces are very commonly cited as ingredients. I would object to these references in a book written for adults.

Most of the illustrations in the book are either crude line drawings or a composite of crude line drawings and photographs of Emeril or Emeril Homebase employees and families. The first questionable aspect of these illustrations is that unless you know what is being shown, there are many cases where I think the illustrations are too crude to be worthy of a document meant to teach. There is no question that drawings are often superior to photographs in that the drawing can focus on the essential aspects of the demonstration. Backgrounds and incidental objects can be omitted. These drawings, however, remind one of objects drawn in the cartoon 'Ziggy' where many lines are crudely drawn to exaggerate some feature for humorous effect.

Most recipe write-ups cover two oversize book pages. Between a quarter to a half of this real estate is taken up by large 'Ziggy' drawings of the dish plus, sometimes, a composite photo and drawing blending in a family scene admiring or interacting with the food. Some space is taken up by 'Ziggy' drawings demonstrating a technique. A photograph of Emeril, generally seen from head to toe, appears with almost every recipe. His smile and gestures appear to be there to cheer you on to make the dish.

I believe the description of each recipe procedure is quite good. It is especially careful in advising the adolescent reader at each turn where there is some safety issue of which they need to be aware or need adult assistance. In this vein, the book does an excellent job of making the young reader thoroughly aware of the fact that between heat, flames, germs, sharp objects, heavy objects, electricity, water, dust, and various combinations of these properties, the kitchen can be an incredibly dangerous place. The other side of the coin is that the warnings are so pervasive that the typically cynical and sophisticated fourteen-year-old will soon be put off by the constant warnings. A perfect example of this is that every recipe contains a heading to the directions with icons that warn of these various dangers. Unfortunately, most recipes include most icons, so I generally find myself ignoring them.

The best thing about the recipe write-ups is that absolutely nothing is simplified. Rather, if a technique is tricky or dangerous, there are clear warnings to get grownup assistance. I also believe that the recipes, if properly followed, will produce delicious results. My concern about the recipes is that if I were writing a cookbook for kids, I would focus my selection of recipes on classics, each of which would teach some basic cooking technique. There are many basic recipes here, but there are also many unusual variations on standards. One that caught my eye was the recipe for French toast, which did not do your basic day-old brioche plus custard. Instead, it gave us an elaborate French toast casserole with blueberries, cream cheese, and orange juice. The range of recipes, including breakfast, breads, salads, soups, snacks, main courses, sides, and desserts, is very well done. These chapter titles are a bit corny, but then, I'm not 12 years old.

The introductory material on techniques, safety, and equipment is excellent. The trick is to get your budding chef to take the time to read it. I was a little annoyed at the 'Ziggy' grade drawings of equipment for the lack of relevant detail.

If I were to grade this book, I would give it an A+ on teaching safety, an A- on teaching techniques, a B on recipe selection, and a C- for corniness and commercialism. I would not expect a young person to gain any math or science from this book. The author is Emeril, after all, not Alton Brown.

If your Emeril wannabe really likes watching Emeril on the Food Network or has any interest in any cooking shows, then this is certainly the book for him or her. If Emeril's enthusiasm succeeds in making the leap from the page to the young reader, the book will be a winner. I will be perfectly happy giving my copy of this book to my pre-teen nephew who has an interest in baking with the expectation that this book will nourish that interest.

Recommended.