Sunday, December 14, 2008

Il Viaggio Di Vetri or Williams Sonoma Collection

Il Viaggio Di Vetri: A Culinary Journey

Author: Marc Vetri

This debut cookbook, from what many food critics consider to be the best Italian restaurant in America, showcases chef Marc Vetri's culinary talent & refined rustic-Italian cuisine. Extensive location & technique photos from Philadelphia's Vetri Ristorante & in-depth wine notes accompanying each recipe. 125 recipes.

Publishers Weekly

More than a cookbook, this debut from acclaimed Philadelphia chef/restaurateur Vetri is a guide through the particular Italian cuisine and culture on which he has based his career. In brief memoir-style essays, Vetri describes the Lombardy taverna education that transformed a struggling jazz guitarist with a keen interest in his family's native cuisine into the creator of what some critics have called America's best Italian eateries. Repaying the generosity of his mentors, Vetri opens up his kitchen, too, including his signature dishes: impossibly light spinach gnocchi, sweet onion crepes and rustic stewed rabbit over polenta. Trusty sommelier Jeff Benjamin provides wine notes for each. While Vetri presumes that the reader has a fairly sophisticated palate and an expansive amount of free time to cook, Prep Ahead and Improv tips included for many dishes invite creative variations and allow for the occasional skipped step. And as exotic as veal sweetbreads with rhubarb and crispy brain Milanese might sound, dishes like a cucumber salad spiked with ribbons of preserved lemon or salt-baked whole fish lavished in a truffle-butter sauce are relatively simple. Amateur chefs may have only dreamed of having a culinary journey like Vetri's, but with this book he has given them a reliable key to turning dream into reality. (Oct.)

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Judith Sutton - Library Journal

Vetri's small northern Italian restaurant, Vetri Ristorante, has received rave reviews almost from the day it opened in Philadelphia in 1998. Like Mario Batali, one of his biggest fans, Vetri spent several years working in restaurants in northern Italy, and that culinary journey sparked the passion for cooking and respect for ingredients that is evident in his food today. The restaurant is known for its welcoming ambiance and warmth as much as for its sophisticated menu-with such offerings as Pistachio Fettuccine with Artichokes and Olive-Crusted Wild Bass with Confit of Leeks-and that charm comes through in the cookbook as well. The recipes are not simple, but they are carefully written, with advance prep and "improv" notes, and most include thoughtful wine suggestions. Highly recommended.



Interesting book: Medical Assisting or The Home Inspection Book

Williams-Sonoma Collection: Pasta

Author: Erica De Man

From spiral pasta tossed with fresh pesto to a delicious lasagne layered with duck and cream sauce, the variety of pasta dishes is an endless source of inspiration in the kitchen and a pleasure at the table.

Williams-Sonoma Collection Pasta offers more than 40 easy-to-follow recipes, including both classic favorites and fresh new ideas. In these pages, you'll find inspiring pasta dishes designed to suit any occasion -- from a light summer supper to a festive dinner party. This expertly photographed, full-color recipe collection, appealing to both novice and experienced cooks, will become an essential addition to your kitchen bookshelf.

"I hope you'll use a recipe from this book to make pasta for dinner tonight!"




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