Customer Reviews

Flavor

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Many celebrity chef cookbooks published in the last few months have been packaged as coffee table books and have been written with an emphasis on some distinctive aspect of cooking which will help it stand out from the pack and sell at relatively high prices. Rocco Dispirito's spin on the cooking experience, as the title makes obvious, is on the role of balancing flavors, or, more exactly, the four classic tastes (sweet, sour, bitter, salty) in preparing food. As we all learned in high school biology class, the four tastes are experienced on the tongue and the remaining components of flavor are experienced by thousands of receptors in the nose. Flavor is actually more about smell than it is about taste. But, the four classic tastes are much easier to classify, so Rocco and his co-author(s) focus on that. There is a brief mention of the newly conceived umani taste found in foods such as tomato, beef, mushrooms, and fava beans. Rocco, wisely, I think, leaves it at that. After introducing the tastes, the theme is carried throughout all the recipes in the book, identifying the predominant tastes of all the ingredients in each recipe. This theme is not merely a gloss, forgotten by the time one gets to the entrée recipes.

This book can be seen on several different layers and the value you find is based on how valuable you find each of the layers in the presentation.

At the most basic level, there are the recipes. For a list price of $35, the number of recipes is pretty thin. There are 105 recipes divided into Appetizers (18), Soups (11), Salads (10), Entrees (35), Side Dishes (11), Desserts (13) and Reserve List (7). The last category needs explanation. All the recipes in the other 6 categories are, I believe, fairly straightforward, with a very reasonable number of ingredients. This is not the same as fast. Many recipes do require long cooking or marinade times and very few require less than an hour of active time, even though few require any fancy techniques or equipment. This is a sure sign that the restaurant recipes have been adapted to home cooking. The Reserve List recipes are all distinguished by being more difficult to prepare, with more steps and more ingredients. These are the types of recipes you will find in a book by Daniel Boulud. The recipes in this book are based on French seafood style of cooking with a heavy infusion of Southeast Asian (Thai cum Vietnam) flavors and methods. Some are simple, but most have that upscale New York restaurant about it. But then, one of the reasons you buy this book is to do Union Pacific recipes at home.

At the next level, you have the overlay of flavor notes on the ingredients. For the real foodie, this aspect of the book really works. For me, it reinforced the epithany I had while watching the 'Jamie's Kitchen' special where Jamie is testing his students for their appreciation of taste. It is so easy to get lost among the trees of equipment, techniques, nutrition, books and recipes and forget that above a bare subsistance level, it's all about flavor, which is the engine which drove the great world cuisines to coax great results out of inexpensive ingredients by seemingly involved methods. It is clear that Rocco is not seeing things hidden from other chefs. He and his collaborators have hit upon a way to bring this to the foreground.

At another level, the book adds very useful information about each recipe, giving the total time, active time, difficulty, number of protions, and recommended wine paring for the dish. The serving size is standard. Nothing new there. The total and active times are uncommon, but they shouldn't be in high end cookbooks. I believe these times are very realistic. The difficulty rating is a great addition. My only reservation is that no recipes outside the reserved list have a rating of more than 3 out of 6. Still, a very good thing.

The top level is the way in which photographs have been used in this book. There is a photograph for the finished product for almost every recipe. Almost all of these photos are very good. There are also many photographs of ingredients. Pretty. Not that useful. There are several techniques which are illuminated by a series of photographs, but NO TEXT. They look like pages from a book seen in Fahrenheit 451. All pictures. No reading. They work, but they would have worked much better with a little text. As in Jamie Oliver's book, there are a lot of photos of Rocco and colleagues fondling ingredients. Except for the one with the young girl covered in chocolate, I could do without them.

As long as you get this book at a discount price, it is definitely worth it for the amateur chef. It will succeed in making cooking more interesting and it will give you some great experiences with exotic ingredients. Rocco's advice on encountering new ingredients is right up there with Alton Brown's advice on thinning out your kitchen equipment. Another added value are the lists of ingredients by taste and by season at the back of the book. The obligatory list of internet ingredient sources is there as well.

I have just a few pet peeves. Rocco does a great service by pointing out which ingredients infuse well in water and which ingredients infuse well in oil, but then spoils the whole insight by relegating it to 'scientific babble'. The other minor annoyance is when he assigns classic names such as pot au feu to a dish which are substantially different from the classic recipe, then neglects to put these named dishes in the index.

A great gift for the foodie on your list.

The popularity of this cookbook should be credited to hype and only that. Hype brought on by the staged exposure the author has created for himself on TV and book signings. (Does he ever spend time in the kitchen??) Unfortunately, I bought the book before seeing the TV reality series on his restaurant. The book's interesting but I didn't learn anything new. The only thing I did learn was from the TV show. So, I ask myself, why would I, or anyone else, want to put a penny in the pocket of such a arrogant prima donna such as Rocco? The are far better and finer Italian cook books on the shelves for anyone from a novice to advanced and I recommend that anyone looking skip anything with Rocco's name on it. Anything by Mario Batali comes to mind.

The only reason I can figure why anyone would want to buy this book is to have Rocco's name on their shelf. Dumb reason!

I don't have any idea why I expected this to be an Italian cookbook. The book is beautiful to say the least, but has only three pasta recipes. I, unfortunately, live in Kansas and am unable to purchase the beautiful fresh fish that so many of these recipes require. I am also not able to purchase, at least locally, many of the exotic ingredients Rocco uses. It wasn't what I expected, but it might be your cup of tea

"Flavor" by Rocco DiSpirito is a cookbook based around the four basic flavors (sweet, sour, bitter, and salty), and how to combine these flavors with different types of food to create some incredible dishes.
This book is loaded with full color glossy photos of some incredible looking dishes. All of the recipes have exotic names and look like something you'd find at the best restaurants in New York. 'Flavor' would look great on any bookshelf or coffee table, however it is not very practical as a cookbook. The information in it is a very overwhelming and not something the average person is going to be able to make. The recipes are difficult, and call for a LOT of ingredients that you will have to look up and go out of the way to find. It also has a wierd color "flavor index" that is very confusing.

This cookbook is a real knock-out. Visually as stimulating as the recipes are for the taste buds, the minute I opened it, I couldn't bear to close it. Its foundation is Rocco's exceptional palate, incorporating elements from all over the world and combining flavors that stimulate the taste sense in new and different ways. It's haute cuisine all the way, but accessible. Simple elements, the basics, fish, meats, vegetables, side dishes, desserts are combined with herbs and spices beyond the usual. The recipes are quite simple and easy to prepare, and the book is laid out very well to help you do so. Being an aromatherapist, I'm always seeking aromatic stimulation, and these recipes fit the bill.

In addition, the book gives you suggestions for wines that go with each recipe.

I've eaten at Rocco's first restaurant in NYC, Union Pacific, on East 22nd Street, and this book makes me feel that I can prepare the same type of food at home, simplified. I treated my cousin to a meal at Union Pacific and we both moaned and groaned through the entire meal in delight. If you want to do the same thing at home with your friends and loved ones, get this book.

Why is amazon.com/borders.com censoring my reviews? I submitted an edit to my initial review and you have not posted it. Why not? In that edit I critiqued Ms. Dean's inexplainable down-grading of Rocco's book, simply because as she puts it, she was overwhelmed by Mr. Dispirito's color-coding system. It was a clear non-sequitur to a terrific cook book. I advised Ms. Dean and any reader looking for a simple book to buy Betty Crocker, Martha Stewart, Emeril, Childs, and other American popularizers of foreign fine cuisine. Stay away from the authentic greats of culinary cuisine -- Escoffier, Bocuse, Trotter, Keller -- and the young breed of real Chefs -- Rocco Dispirito, Jamie Oliver, etc. If you wish to encounter a true artist in the vein of a Trotter or Keller, but a fusionist, buy this amazing book that comes with hundreds, not dozens, of color photos, and dozens of careful step-by-step instructions for complete dishes. Mr. Dispirito's book is amazingly simple to use. It's not just a cookbook. It provides the reader a complete theory of cooking, often giving away many secret cooking techniques used by professional chefs. Considering I despised "Rocco's image" (repeat: "image") on THE RESTAURANT, I love this book and must admit Rocco is a genius chef and wonderful communicator of food knowledge. With this book, the reader will essentially learn about contemporary fusion food -- i.e. combinining western and eastern flavors in mouth-watering dishes. There are dozens of complete recipes in this book. Mr. Dispirito's organizational structure is fantastic. His advice on using contrary flavors to balance out a dish-gone-wrong, is practical and brilliant. Now YOU TOO can save a dish you thought previously unsalvagable.

Never before have I seen so many great recipies , easy top shelf recipies.
My wife was very impressed when I cooked these meals. I am a father of two beautiful children and my wife was estatic when I made the goat cheese ,radish salad.

I love Union Pacific and Rocco's

Rocco is as much fun to read as he is to watch on the show "the restaurant"
this is a must have.
I bought 5 copies for my friends and family. Estatic!!!!!
Rocco We love you. You are the greatest chef of all time.

I love cookbooks, but I admit that my cooking endevors usually lean towards the mundane. With that in mind, this book overwhelmed me with it's color coded flavor information for each meal, with the seeming exoticness of them, and the unique ingredients that some of the meals had.

That being said, I found that even with my past in cookbooks that there was still much to be had from this one. The instructions were easy to read and follow, and with serving size, difficulty, and other need to know information quick to find on each page, the functionality of the book impressed me.

Overall, I think it's a must have, even for someone like me who doesn't cook much other than 'regular' chicken and beef. It's enough of a challenge with food that I think we'll enjoy exploring the receipies presented, and it'll be great to use for cooking for company.

Flavor is everything you'd want in a cookbook. Hundreds of great color photos, amazingly simple recipes, plenty of resources like a pictorial guide to all the ingredients used in the book as well as plenty of style and substance. My wife hates cooking and loved the book-go figure.
This guy Rocco delivers on all levels.
Buy Flavor now.

Save your money. This book and its recipes are not unlike the way the very sad and egomaniacal author appears on television - all (fake) spark and no substance.