Charlie Trotter's

My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. I love spending ALL DAY on a spectacular meal with several dishes. If you want to make a full Charlie Trotter meal, with at least three courses, it will take a Thanksgiving Day sort of effort. You'll spend hours reducing beet juice or wine, less than a tablespoon of which will be drizzled around a plate of four or five other components that took the whole day, too. You'll make a stock out of $20 worth of mushrooms where the mushrooms themselves get thrown into the compost. You'll find recipes that call for two of the recipes in the appendix....one of which calls for another recipe in the appendix! You will sit down to that meal aching and hot and proud.If that's your idea of fun as much as it is mine, you will enjoy this book.But the eye-opening part of this book for me was all the techniques for drawing the essence out of vegetables. And the way he will use different preparations of the same ingredient in one dish - fennel upon fennel upon fennel. Though there are several recipes that take a surprisingly short amount of time - someone else mentioned the soups, but there are others - they draw out the flavor of just a few ingredients in unexpected (at least for me) ways.A couple reviews here claim that Trotter calls for expensive, obscure ingredients and doesn't offer substitutions. I find that claim silly. In many of the recipes that call for, say, fresh porcini mushrooms he says to substitute if you want, but just in general, he assumes that the reader is a fairly accomplished home cook who knows that he's laying out a style of cooking to learn from, not a prescription to be followed robotically.That said, the style found here is a little dated. I'm sure if Trotter were writing this (or cooking!) today, he would choose a different arsenal of tricks. Not being a professional chef myself, I struggle to explain what is not modern about these recipes, but I can tell you that I feel like my creativity in the kitchen was expanded for having cooked a few of these meals, and that's plenty for me to recommend a cookbook. And I plan to cook more!

This book goes into detail and talks about about how represent the ingredients that you are using in the best way possible.

I am a cook from Cleveland, I've been in the field since age 14, I am now 18 years old. I would recommend this book to any aspiring chef. Coming from casual dining, to then 'gourmet' burgers, to casual fine dining, to now 12 course fine dining, I could have related to this book at any point. Mr Trotter is a visionary, and his views are beautifully conveyed in this book. All of these recipes can be practiced at home and come handy is so many real life situations at the restaurant. I now plan on buying Trotter's other cookbooks, this being the general one he also has a book for every division of course, as in a book for seafood, desserts, meat, etc. I bought this use, and recommend you do the same, you will not be disappointed.

When I first encountered Charlie Trotter's books, I actually laughed - how could even the most dedicated home chef even hope to create these dishes? Some recipes even required ingredients that were in season at different times of the year!Since then, the book has grown on me, and I've grown with it. His approach to food has opened a new chapter in my efforts to become an excellent chef, and his vision has gripped me with a mania that borders on the religious. Coming up to speed with his culinary style takes a lot of work and a lot of money, but once I found sources for the necessary ingredients, and stocked up my freezer with preparations like fennel oil, pinot noir reduction, and cubes of sauteed black chanterelle mushrooms, I am able to whip up a three-course Trotteresque dinner in just a few hours. Notably, I have never followed one of his recipes literally; it is impossible. Instead, you must draw from his techniques and improvise, using whatever excellent ingredients are available in your area at that time.In short, this is a landmark book that has completely changed the way I approach food. It is NOT for the casual chef, however. His cuisine should be approached with the kind of practice and discipline one might apply to, say, learning to play the piano. The path is long and hard, but the results are worth it.If you care - REALLY care - about becoming a truly great chef, then buy this book. If not, it's still worth it just to drool over the pictures.

These books are really pretty. The recipes are not very well written, and seem to be more about showing off the kinds of ingredients he's using than about how to execute the dish. I've put these in the donation pile, so someone else has them now, but I've noticed discrepancies in quantities and listed ingredients in several of the books. I don't think a whole lot of effort went into writing and proofreading the recipes, but that said, I did get some ideas out of them. Just had to pretty much invent the recipe to get it done.

Nobody seriously thinks you are going to translate these recipes into a home-cooked meal. That's not the point. You read this kind of book on cuisine as though it were a philosophy book. And he's clever about helping you do that. It's amazing, and amazingly beautiful. Maybe you won't make Charlotte of HoityToity with Goo Goo Sauce. But don't be surprised if you're walking through the market and some particularly pretty item of local, organic produce spirals out a whole menu. And that's Charlie's gift to you for reading his book.

Beautifully pictured food and delicious recipes. This book is a must have for collectors.

This book was suggested to me by a chef in Rochchester MN. I love this cook book. The recipes literally jump off the page and make you salivate while reading. The Trotter story is unique and great reading as well. I order three other books right away.

Amazing! Inspiring book. Used copy happened to be signed inside! Love it.

Love this book, the photos and styling are amazing. Great as a coffee table book. This book gives you ideas and inspiration even if you dont make the actual recipes. This is no everyday family eating but impressive dinner party style.

As a Head Chef, I recently purchased this book as a present to send to a dear friend (one of Sri Lanka's leading Chef's) who lost all his books and belongings in the Tsunami. I am sure he will get many years of pleasure from this excellent book - as I have. Superb for referencing.

Like Newmans watch, style never gets old! Its a classic and should be a part of any chef/budding chef collection! The man was a great!

Recettes très intéressantes mais souvent compliquées et peu adaptées à la maison.