Capital Cooking Cookbook Review

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(More customer reviews)I've been a cookbook junkie for a long time, yet the country's recent explosion in interest in eating well has been followed by an increasing number of mediocre cookbooks. The Capital Cooking Cookbook, however, is refreshingly different. I picked it up after catching Ms. DeSantis's D.C.-produced television show on Colours, a small network on Dish. The book stands out from most cookbooks for a couple of reasons. First, it is not just a cookbook, but also follows the story of the Capital Cooking show and how Ms. DeSantis, the host and producer, started it as a creative outlet from her day job as a lawyer. That alone may inspire readers who have dreamt of a creative world outside of their nine-to-five. It also features some beautiful, as well as a few humorous, pictures of Ms. DeSantis and the Capital Cooking crew hard at work.
Second, the recipes are diverse but accessible. They range from simple homestyle meals that are not that difficult to make but taste really good (I have already tried several of them at home) to high-end restaurant recipes (for which Ms. DeSantis often provides alternative ingredients/techniques for the common kitchen at home). This style is likely born of the fact that Ms. DeSantis is not a chef by training but has cooked with some of the best chefs in the Washington area and included their recipes in the book. The photography is mostly clean and colorful, and I like the book's relatively smaller size and fewer number of recipes as compared to larger cookbooks. This may seem counter-intuitive, but I often become lost in cookbooks with hundreds of recipes, confused as to which recipes are truly the best to try out and wondering if many of them aren't simply "filler material." Not so with the Capital Cooking Cookbook.
Hopefully we will see additional books from this up-and-coming entertainer, and that a hardcover version is available in the future. The Capital Cooking Cookbook is excellent and well worth owning.

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The Capital Cooking Cookbook features a delectable collection of recipes exploring the culinary riches of our nation's capital.The companion book to the TV series, Capital Cooking with Lauren DeSantis, highlights cooking traditions of regional cuisine from around the country as well as international dishes.

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The Everything Restaurant Recipes Cookbook: Copycat recipes for Outback Steakhouse Bloomin' Onion, Long John Silver's Fish Tacos, TGI Friday's ... Cake...and hundreds more (Everything Series) Review

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(More customer reviews)I understand that one shouldn't review a cookbook when one hasn't tried the recipes. But I can at least tell you why I won't be trying any of the recipes from this cookbook: I have no faith that any of them will work.
I don't read a cookbook to learn to make cinnamon rolls from store-bought pizza dough, or "Olive Garden Bread Sticks" by topping frozen bread sticks with olive oil and Parmesan cheese.
The "Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits" recipe, which begins with Bisquick, leaves off the visible parsley flakes. The only reason I would make a clone recipe for anything is because I want it to resemble the original.
The "Dave and Buster's Muffaletta Salad" sounds delicious, but the proportions are off. 1.25 pounds of pasta should serve more than four people, and then the recipe only calls for three tablespoons of salad dressing. Perhaps it turns out perfectly, but I'm not going to waste a long list of ingredients finding out.
The "Starbucks Coffee Frappe" recipe in the book is a blended drink garnished with whipped cream--in other words, a Frappuccino. The "Starbucks Mocha Frappucino" (yes, that's how it's spelled in the book) recipe is an iced coffee recipe. It is not blended. Either someone switched the recipe titles around, or else the author has never been to a Starbucks in her life.
This book has nothing to recommend it over the other, more authentic, copycat cookbooks, such as America's Most Wanted Recipes: Delicious Recipes from Your Family's Favorite Restaurants or Top Secret Recipes Unlocked: All New Home Clones of America's Favorite Brand-Name Foods.

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Everyone enjoys eating out at a favorite restaurant. But who likes waiting for a table or paying inflated prices for a meal? With more than 300 fast and easy recipes, now you can re-create your favorite restaurant dishes and "dine out" in the comfort of your own home! This cookbook includes family-sized portions of favorites like:Chili's Grill & Bar Boneless Buffalo WingsApplebee's Bourbon Street SteakOlive Garden's Minestrone SoupLong John Silver's Fish TacosT.G.I. Friday's Dragonfire ChickenCinnabon's Cinnamon RollsWith these tested and verified recipes, The Everything Restaurant Recipes Cookbook will help you make near-identical restaurant meals--and earn rave reviews from family and friends--on a much smaller tab!

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Top Secret Restaurant Recipes: Creating Kitchen Clones from America's Favorite Restaurant Chains Review

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(More customer reviews)I found that the book was a great investment for people who might not have the funds or the patience to be at the restaurants all the time to have great food. Everything that I've made has been excellent, and though I'm sure that the author tried to find the closest ingredients that could be found with ease at your local market (and in comments to the people who gave a bad review that he couldn't find the ingredients out of the country, we're lucky someone has found a way for us to make the recipes at ALL! How's he supposed to know you can't get Mayo where you are and what substitution you could use in its place? ) Also to the person who made the comment about it not being "gourmet fare" the recipes that are in the book aren't supposed to all be gourmet fare, they're supposed to be recipes most people LOVE & it wasn't like you couldn't look over the book and judge if it was for you before you bought it! I LOVE this book, and it looks like everyone else does too! Great Job Todd! THANKS!

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CopyKat.com's Dining Out at Home Cookbook: Recipes for the Most Delicious Dishes from America's Most Popular Restaurants Review

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(More customer reviews)[...] is a website where one can find over 1500 recipes that duplicate famous offerings from popular restaurants (mostly chains), as well as a few from grocery stores and products on grocery store shelves that are better fresh than made from a box. The question some may ask is, "Why would you make Boston Market meatloaf at home when you can just go over to Boston Market and have it?" Good question.
Many people have visited, but do not live near, the Olive Garden, Outback Steakhouse, Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, or Boston Market (among the many restaurants included in Dining Out at Home). Cravings for Outback's Queensland Chicken and Shrimp or Rainforest Café's Caribou Coconut Chicken (pictured) may not be strong enough to warrant the round trip to a distant restaurant.
No one can promise that the Wendy's Chili copy you make will taste exactly like the chili you get at Wendy's, but then again, it's not made with chopped-up, leftover hamburgers and is, in fact, a whole lot better than the original. Home chefs are not guaranteed restaurant results, but most of the dishes are equal to the originals or close enough to satisfy that T.G.I. Friday's Nine-Layer Dip jones from which one suffers.
The techniques for creating the poser dishes are not difficult, however some of the recipes are complex and require a multitude of ingredients. The time spent in the kitchen for a few of the recipes will exceed the time it takes to order dinner and eat it in the restaurant. However, for those who actually enjoy cooking, there's lots of fun to be had in recreating popular dishes, as well as reinventing them. It's important to remember, though, that [...] Dining Out at Home Cookbook recipes are not the original recipes from the source restaurants, but [...] version of those recipes. "No sponsorship or endorsement by, or affiliation with, the trademark owners is claimed or suggested by the author or publisher."
Recipes for dips, desserts, entrees, drinks, salads, and side orders are included in this collection. In addition to the restaurants already mentioned, others inspiring recipes are Jack in the Box, Red Lobster, The Cheesecake Factory, Chili's, IHOP, Brennan's, Hooters, Cinnabon, and many others.


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