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Buffet Book: Inspired Ideas for New Style Entertaining
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Buffet Book: Inspired Ideas for New-Style Entertaining, With Recipes

Average customer rating:

Excellent collection of menus and recipes.

Buffet Book: Inspired Ideas for New-Style Entertaining, With Recipes
Carole Peck , and Carolyn Hart Bryant
Manufacturer: Ici La Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

General | Special Occasions | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1931605092

Customer Reviews:

Excellent collection of menus and recipes........2006-03-23

`the buffet book' by Connecticut chef / restauranteur and caterer, Carole Peck and book editor, Carolyn Hart Bryant is a niche cookbook for a niche for which there are not a lot of good volumes. It's significant that the headline blurb on the front cover is by Ms. Entertaining herself, Martha Stewart which oddly praises the authors of the book without giving overt praise to a book which competes with so many of Stewart's own books, especially her flagship first book.

It is tempting to want to look for problems in this book, as it has the appearance of a much show and little substance book with big pictures and not very inspired recipes. Fortunately for those who have a real need for this material, the book is a really worthy treatment of the subject announced in the title.

One of the most appealing things I found about the book is that all the recipes given for a buffet menu are set up to serve the same or almost the same number of people for which the menu is designed. This is a simple consideration I find missed in similar books on entertaining for a large number of people. The next most appealing thing I found is that even without bragging about this aspect, most of the recipes are quite healthy in their use of fresh, basic ingredients instead of supermarket preparations and they use generally very healthy preparation techniques. In this regard, the book may even go further than many people are willing, in that, for example, the book suggests homemade condiments such as mayonnaise and catsup, in spite of the fact that Hellman's and Heinz both provide excellent products for these two condiments.

The irony is that this makes the book just a bit retro in spite of the subtitle, `inspired ideas for new-style entertaining...'. It is important to realize that while this book is an excellent collection of recipes and fine presentation in the form of informal entertaining menus, many of the recipes are pretty traditional, being `old wine in new bottles' such as a buffet version of the famous Caprese salad of mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil. The authors are just a bit coy in that they don't let out that this is a very old recipe.

All recipes are collected within twelve (12) menus, divided up into two seasonal chapters, Spring / Summer and Autumn / Winter. The division is as much about occasions occurring in this season as it is about seasonality of ingredients. A winter menu, for example, features artichokes and tomatoes. While my local produce supermarket carries both products the year around, the quality of both is lower than in season produce and the price is higher than in season produce.

This is clearly not oriented toward informed foodies. The introduction to the `A Mediterranean Buffet' menu was just a bit naïve in assuming it had to explain to us where the Mediterranean was, and the nature of Mediterranean cuisines. It is also no big surprise that a lion's share of the recipes in the book are based on the Mediterranean cuisine, or on the wider cuisines of France and Spain.

My biggest complaint about the book is that it is almost entirely dedicated to the menus and the recipes therein. There is some, but not much material dedicated to managing buffet organization. For that, see Ms. Martha's classic. Otherwise, this is a truly excellent collection of recipes and menus for audiences who are prepared to appreciate superior ingredients and preparation.

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