Fancy Glass Book Review "Chocolate and Zucchini: Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen"

One of the most famous, and one of my all time favorite food blogs is Chocolate and Zucchini. (and I am not the only one who thinks it is great. check out the press page.) Pretty good for a blogger!

And now the author of that wonderful blog is also published!

Chocolate and Zucchini: Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen (Paperback)
by Clotilde Dusoulier

one of the great things about this book, is that the lovely author Clotilde, shared the book writing process with us, the loyal readers of her blog. She talked about the book proposal, how she chose topics and recipes, and working through the publishing process. She also celebrated with her online community when the book was set to go live. It was so much fun, and as a freelance author and want to be novelist it was great hearing about the process. I signed up for the book as a pre-order long before it was released.

I hadn't really had time to go through the book till recently. It is lovely! First off Clotilde's personality really shows through. And a lot of the basics she shares in the beginning of the book were helpful and well done.

I am going to be working my way through reading the rest of the book cover to cover, though I have already done a ton of browsing, skipping and skimming.

My one comment would be that I found all the many different layout-fonts a bit confusing and fussy at first. I am getting used to it, but it seems a bit over the top in that area.

So my Fancy Glass Book Review (1-5 glasses with 5 being the best)

Writing and Content- very well done, friendly and approachable with a real sense of the author's voice. 5FG






Layout & Design- a bit too much going on and I thought the photos did not do the recipes justice 2 1/2 FG





Recipe Selection- WONDERFUL 4fg (though I have not tried to make anything yet)






Overall a lovely cookbook that will keep a place on my shelf for a long time. 3 1/2 FG

i got asked to do a book review! (cool.) "Morimoto the new art of Japanese cooking"

Well, I feel like the fancy glass has arrived (a bit) I got asked to do a book review of the new Morimoto cookbook. They event sent me an Advance copy.

"Morimoto The New Art of Japanese Cooking."
--Iron chef Morimoto showing off his creativity and teaching about new trends in modern high end Japanese cuisine. Gorgeous full color, jam packed with photos. This new book from Iron Chef Morimoto goes over basics in prep and key ingredients. There are wonderful how-to's on prep and on dishes. With step by step photos.

This is a fancy book, but it is also packed with practical knowledge. I especially liked reading about different kinds of fish, and nori (seaweed), the how to's of sushi rice. For sure I want to try the recipe for Morimoto Chicken Noodle Soup. The chef loves that one himself and picked it as one of his 3 favorites in the book!.

Gourmet asked him...

What are your three favorite recipes from your book?
Each recipe is like a child…so you're asking me to choose among my children, which is impossible! However, if I have to pick three recipes, I'd say Morimoto Chicken Noodle Soup, Daikon Pasta, and Tuna Pizza.

The format and look and feel of this book is well worth the rather steep ticket price of $40 usa. I especially like the bamboo wood inspired section heading pages. And the photographer, Quentin Bacon deserves a standing-O for his fantastic work on this project. He kept the food looking fabulous but still real, and natural.

Morimoto also opened a fabulous restaurant in my hometown Philadelphia. I have not yet been but have always wanted to go.

you can read more about the chef and what he is up to now on his homepage.

and take a look at his innovative place in Philly.

Plus you can pick up his book at amazon.com and at amazon.co.jp if you are one of my Japan readers.

FANCYGLASS RATING-
as a visual experience and inspiration we give it a rating of 5 FG





as a practical recipe book (this one is a bit hard and requires good knife skills and special equipment) 3 FG