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Tyler Florence's Real Kitchen : An indespensible guide for anybody who likes to cook

Tyler Florence's Real Kitchen : An indespensible guide for anybody who likes to cook

List Price: $32.50
Your Price: $20.47
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Greatly improved my cooking
Review: I've taken up cooking as a hobby for about 1 ½ years now, and judge a cookbook on how well it improves my overall cooking ability. Based on that score, this is easily one of the best cookbooks I have in my small cooking library of about 15 books. This book even improved my preparation of seemingly mundane items such a scrambled eggs and green beans.

I like the fact that Florence presents a number of traditional recipes that are flavorful, without hitting you over the head with a bunch of spices, and reasonably sophisticated, without requiring long hours in the kitchen. That can be a fine line, and this book walks it well. And like his FoodNetwork show, Food 911, he presents techniques with the recipes, which can make quite a difference. Fans of his Food 911 show will recognize some of the recipes.

Specifically, the scone recipe produced some of the best scones I've ever had, and I had no prior experience with baking scones. I didn't follow Tyler's advice very carefully on the Stir Fried Beef and Green Beans dish, a screwed up the steps to fry tangerines and beef. It still tasted pretty good! The New York Cheesecake was addictive, and the simple green bean side dish with walnuts, shallots, and lemon juice was very easy to make, yet had an excellent and unique flavor. Other main courses in this book turned out excellent and are going to be served in my house for years to come. I'm eager to try many of the others I haven't gotten to yet.

I would caution that the one downside to the book is that a few times, I found the preparation time for a step in the recipe would take a significantly different time than what the recipe called for. For example, Tyler suggested wilting the spinach for the pan-fried tofu for thirty seconds. In practice, this took 2-3 minutes. I had a similar experience with another reviewer with the baked salmon. (I just left it in the oven longer.) The picture in the book with the scones recipe caused me a double take, before I realized they probably used a stock photo, instead of one of the actual recipe. For these reasons, I recommend any cook using the recipes here to be careful, because it does throw a few small curves at you. For complete beginners, I would not recommend it for this reason.

Forgive the cliché, but if I could only have one cookbook, this would be it. It really improved my performance in the kitchen and presents a great range of recipes.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Don't if you're not already at least a good cook.
Review: I've tried recipes from virtually every cook/chef on the Food Network but Tyler's recipes are the only recipes that have consistently turned out good, if not great. His show Food 911 has provided several staples in our household which are very easy to cook and prepare, due to the nature of the show.

With that in mind, I decided his book would be an excellent idea to buy and quite frankly, it is. The recipes are wonderful, savory and enjoyed by everyone - even kids. But I do have to agree with what some of the reviewers are saying, which is that you do need to have a little cooking know-how with this one to make it effective. I can see how someone who isn't very comfortable in the kitchen can make mistakes - perhaps Tyler's logic was that since it's the printed page, he could afford to make it a little more complicated as opposed to a tv show.

All in all though, if you're comfortable with your kitchen skills, by all means, this is a GREAT recipe book to keep in your kitchen.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: tyler florence is the ultimate
Review: I, too, am a fan of Tyler's shows, both "Food 911" and his new one, "Tyler's Ultimate." I recognize some of the recipes in this book from his "Ultimate" show, and am impressed by the stunning photography, explicit detail and casual prose.

Can't wait to impress my friends and family at the next dinner party.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent cookbook!
Review: If you're a fan of Tyler Florence and his show "Food 911", I think you'll really enjoy this excellent cookbook. Florence specializes in adding new twists to standard recipes to make them uniquely his own. Most of these recipes are fairly easy to put together and don't require a lot of exotic ingredients that many of us don't have in our homes or can't find in our local grocery stores. Most of the recipes I've tried from this book have been fairly easy to prepare and quite tasty.Florence seems to really enjoy what he does and his enthusiasm really rubs off. This is a fun, entertaining cookbook. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this for real gourmets but for the rest of us, it'll do just fine. Highly recommended.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent cookbook!
Review: If you're a fan of Tyler Florence and his show "Food 911", I think you'll really enjoy this excellent cookbook. Florence specializes in adding new twists to standard recipes to make them uniquely his own. Most of these recipes are fairly easy to put together and don't require a lot of exotic ingredients that many of us don't have in our homes or can't find in our local grocery stores. Most of the recipes I've tried from this book have been fairly easy to prepare and quite tasty.Florence seems to really enjoy what he does and his enthusiasm really rubs off. This is a fun, entertaining cookbook. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this for real gourmets but for the rest of us, it'll do just fine. Highly recommended.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: How to Impress Your Dinner Guests
Review: Intrigued by Tyler's no-nonsense approach to food, as seen on Food 911 and Tyler's Ultimate, I decided to pick up his book to see if the man was as good on paper as he is on TV. What a great, practical, delicious book!

All the recipes I've tried so far have very straight-forward directions (the Garlic-Chive Mashed Potatoes practically mash themselves) and flavors that are complex but don't require an "acquired palate." We are particular fans of the Hong-Kong Crab Cakes and Pan-Fried Tofu, with their subtle Asian flavors easily found via ingredients you can pick up in any grocery store.

The one "warning" I give is that I find the portion size to be quite large. I scale back the crab cakes by 1/4 (because our Whole Foods sells crab in 6 oz. containers) and still end up feeding two, with a small cake left over for lunch the next day. The mashed potatoes didn't need nearly as much cream and butter as called for, and we ended up with about 8 hearty servings (recipe says "serves 6"). And while my 6'5" companion can eat 1/2 a block of tofu in one sitting, I certainly scale back to less when cooking just for me.

Overall, a great book that will help you "wow" your dinner companions, or even just your own palate, and not send you on a wild ingredient hunt or drive you insane.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not as good as I thought it would be
Review: My sister and I absolutely ADORE our hottie, Tyler Florence. But, when I bought this book, I realized it wasn't at all like his great show. Many recipes contained hard-to-find ingredients and were too difficult to make. With kids, I would never make more than half of the recipes in the book. I was really disappointed, but won't stop watching his show. We still love him and will look forward to trying his new book coming out next year.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Tried and true!
Review: Never cared much for celebrity chefs, But Tyler does keep it real. If the chef can make it, So can you..
The recipes are very easy to follow and the outcome tastes exceptional. I'd suggest this book for a new cook trying their hand at cooking or a seasoned one .

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It is about time!
Review: Okay, so I have a huge crush on Tyler like any other woman who has seen him on Food 911. That said, this is still the best cookbook I have bought in a long time. Although most of the recipes involve simple ingredients and are accessible even to those with only a basic culinary skills, the result is full-flavored and elegant food. While I love to cook, I have resisted investing in cookbooks. I found it wasteful to only make a few special recipes from a book. With Tyler's book, you get a glipmse of cuisine from a wide variety of cultures. At the same time, most recipes don't require exotic ingredients that may be hard to come by. This book is true to Tyler's show. His goal is to get people who love cooking to try anything and be successful at it. Like it says in title this is truly "an indispenable book for anybody who likes to cook". Thanks Tyler, I have been waiting for this one.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: What a disappointment! :(
Review: Sorry folks! I was very DISAPPOINTED after preparing two recipes from this book. My husband hated the meat loaf & the oven roasted olives. Ick! I have two young children & was really looking forward to putting together some of these recipes. They are way too gourmet for me & the prep time is too long. I am always trying to put together something quick that tastes good. I will be returning my copy for sure.


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