book data
80 ratings,
3.55
average rating, 22 reviews
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published
March 20th 2008
by Chronicle Books
binding
Hardcover
isbn
0811864308
(isbn13: 9780811864305)
description
Pack your knives and go . . . straight to the bookstore. Top Chef presents the official companion cookbook to the No. 1 rated food show on cable telev...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 108)
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avg 3.55
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
honestly, i can do without all the airbrushed glamour-shot centerfoldy pages of the chefs, but i approve of the crabcakes benedict and almost all of the breakfast items are wonderful, many involving eggs and maple syrup. but really - wayyy too many nonfood pages. its disconcerting to get all hungry-worked up by looking at food pictures and then be confronted with pages and pages of people pictures...puts bad ideas in the brain.... brains.....
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2 comments
This book is great if you're a fan of the show bc it has interviews with all the judges (including my beloved Tom C.) and contestants (apparently Marcel is friends with Cliff now (!)), recaps of each episode/season and behind the scenes info (like the layout of the kitchen, food essentials, etc). It also has many, many successful recipes from all the seasons and they are broken up by breakfast, appetizers, poultry, etc so it is easy to find what I want. The thing is though, many of these are r...more
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Read in June, 2008
A funny read for fans of the show but the complex preparations and the amount of cilantro-laden dishes was off-putting. I don't like cilantro as a dominant flavor which got in the way of my usual pure joy in eating. There were some bright spots. Our quickfire smoothee challenge was really laugh-filled.
Here are the recipes I tasted and the cookbook club cooks who made them.
Me - Shrimp Poached in Olive Oil: Loved the infused olive oil and the avocado. Lime syrup ...more
Here are the recipes I tasted and the cookbook club cooks who made them.
Me - Shrimp Poached in Olive Oil: Loved the infused olive oil and the avocado. Lime syrup ...more
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It's so funny to me that many of the recipes in this book (and shown on Food Network or Bravo) contain the same staple of ingredients: leeks, celery root, microgreens, scallions, EVOO, truffle of some sort, broccoli rab, scallops, balsalmic anything, etc. I used to have such awe and admiration for so many chefs. I still do--it's just interesting that they are similar. I don't know what I'm saying. Good book. I liked the info about the chefs and Tom Colicchio. Love him.
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Read in January, 2009
It satisfied my pop culture curiosity while the current season is on a break. I liked the graphic design of the book - very modern and colorful, with lots of mouth-watering food pix (as you'd hope). I would find it hard to recommend to any but the most sophisticated chefs, due to the obscure ingredients and level of experise required for most of the dishes. Great for fans of the show, though!
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I'm a die hard Top Chef viewer, it's one of my top three favorite shows, ever. This book certainly brings attention to the knowledge base that a chef must possess. The recipes are extremely complicated to the average cook, but I'm sure they're relatively "simple" for the Top Cheftestants. Bios and behind-the-scenes stuff is interesting.
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Read in December, 2008
The perfect book for any hard-core Top Chef fan. If you love the show, you'll love the book as it is packed with information about all of the judges and contestants as well as some of the best recipes from the first three seasons! I love Tom and Padma! :)
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Read in November, 2008
Some fun recipes, but probablly most of them are to expensive for me to make. I don't understand why some did not have pictures. The stuff about the show was pretty lame and came off as pretty self-important. I did linger over the pictures of Gail Simmons though.
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Not just recipes from the first 3 seasons, but great bits from all the players - Tom, other judges, and the contestants, too!
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Read in March, 2009
I love the show Top Chef and this book is a great companion to it. It not only has recipies but also has stories and notes about the cheftestants.
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Read in February, 2009
It's a cookbook, but I like the show, so I found it interesting to read about "the characters." I love cookbooks, though, so as long as there are pictures to accompany the recipes, I'm generally happy!
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I really enjoyed this, because pretty much I'm a Top Chef fanatic, and I just ate up (pardon my pun) the whole book. My only complaint is that there needed to be more pictures of the food. Not that I would ever attempt these recipes, because I can barely handle grilled cheese, but that's one of my favorite things about Top Chef: seeing the plated food. Other than that, it was great. I can't wait for the second one. :)
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This cookbook is handy if you happen to have any truffles, Chilean sea bass, monk fish, sweetbreads, scallops, or any other expensive ingredient lying around in your kitchen that you can't think what to do with. As a huge fan of the show, I thought that the "inside" info on the show was lame. I'm glad I got this from the library instead of buying it.
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2 comments
Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
anyone who likes the show "Top Chef"
I really enjoyed reading this. I hesitate to call it just a cookbook, because it is so much more than that. I love the show Top Chef, and even though a majority of the recipes are far too fancy for my tastes, I loved looking at them and the pictures. The best part of the book is definitely all of the interviews and inside information on the show.
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Read in January, 2009
Love this show. The cookbook was neat in that it gave cool bios of the judges and contestants. I honestly do not think I would cook any of the recipes. Most of the dishes were cooked with constraints on the ingredients and cooking style. Fun to look at but if you are looking for a great cookbook, this is not it.
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Not that I could ever pull off most of the recipes in this book (some of the ingredients are hard to find/ridiculously expensive), but I loved the info about the show itself and all the behind-the-scenes stuff. The bit about Brian from Season 3 in the bathroom at the French Culinary Institute was priceless!
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Read in April, 2008
This is actually a half cookbook, half informational book about the first 3 seasons of Top Chef. Some of the recipes are actually doable for non-chef people such as myself, but I think the best parts of the book are the interviews and the behind-the-scenes bits about the TV show.
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This book was fun to read, but I wouldn't buy a copy for my myself. If you are a fan of the show, you will enjoy the bios and behind the scenes stuff. I loved reading the recipes, but 90% of them are way to foo-foo for my family of 7. Raw Geoduck? Yuck!
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I want so badly to try most of these recipes, but right now I am not living with the most adventurous palates. Plus, many of the recipes include expensive ingredients. The ones I have made have been excellent!
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in May, 2008
I should have borrowed this from the library rather than purchased it. There are a few recipes I'll try, but this book is more for the fans of the reality show than people looking for recipes.
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