Rating: 
Summary: Makes you wonder why we left cooking in the first place...
Review: ...THE BOOK THAT EVERY FOOD LOVER MUST OWN. This is an eclectic mix of culinary and visual artistry encased in an extremely well designed book. A Return To Cooking will have you creating dishes that will leave you and your guests in awe. Its recipes are EXTREMELY well written - and really do work....even on the first try. This book bridges the mysterious gap between one of the world's best chefs and people who truly love good food. Congratulations to Chef Ripert and his team for creating such a wonderful and invaluable addition to the culinary field.
Rating:
Summary: A Return To Cooking - The Best of The Best
Review: A Return To Cooking is the best cookbook I have ever got in my life. Eric Ripert The Chef, Michael Ruhlman The Writer, Shimon and Tammar Rothstein The Photographers, Valentino Cortazar The Painter, and Andrea Glick The Personal Assistant - all and one as an A Team - had successfully fulfilled their complicated mission and created a new masterpiece of delight and pleasures. In order to share my pleasure with my family - I immediately bought extra copies of that wonderfull book to my daughters in law to let them enjoy the spectacular pictures and the highly creative recipes and story in the book. My recomendation: buy it for yourself and buy it as a remarkable gift to your beloved ones and friends.
Rating:
Summary: A Cook Cooks Book, Not a Chef's Cookbook
Review: Amazing result of a lifetime famous chef desiring to "cooK." So he and some friends decide to get inspiration by visiting four places in four seasons. Rest is here ... all-star cookbook! Magnificent is this result... from specatacular accompanying photos and wordsmithing of one my fav foodwriters (Ruhlaman). Large format.. large taste.. large creativity, e.g. Smoked Salmon Croque-Monscieur; Flash-Marinated Fluke with Lemon Confit; Mango, Passion Fruit, and Tarragon Salad;Chicken Pot-au-Feu with Ginger Cilanto Vermicelli;Portabello and Eggplant Tart; Salmon, Crab and Scallop Chowder; Grilled Magrets with Arugula and Cranberry. Here is not only food to reserve for finest of occassions to labor of love offering; but inspiration to follow conceptually or tangent off of to own creative menu generation. Both will occupy this reviewer for years to come from this exceptional volume.
Rating:
Summary: A Cook Cooks Book, Not a Chef's Cookbook
Review: Amazing result of a lifetime famous chef desiring to "cooK." So he and some friends decide to get inspiration by visiting four places in four seasons. Rest is here ... all-star cookbook! Magnificent is this result... from specatacular accompanying photos and wordsmithing of one my fav foodwriters (Ruhlaman). Large format.. large taste.. large creativity, e.g. Smoked Salmon Croque-Monscieur; Flash-Marinated Fluke with Lemon Confit; Mango, Passion Fruit, and Tarragon Salad;Chicken Pot-au-Feu with Ginger Cilanto Vermicelli;Portabello and Eggplant Tart; Salmon, Crab and Scallop Chowder; Grilled Magrets with Arugula and Cranberry. Here is not only food to reserve for finest of occassions to labor of love offering; but inspiration to follow conceptually or tangent off of to own creative menu generation. Both will occupy this reviewer for years to come from this exceptional volume.
Rating:
Summary: I love to cook, I love Le Bernadin and this book gets close!
Review: For a foodie, this is a five star book!!
I have eaten at Le Bernadin several times (during the joyous excesses of the late 90s), and was fortunate to have also dined twice in the cozy 'private room' that gives diners a view of the kitchen. I have Ripert's other book, the Bernadin fish book,and when I have managed to have almost everything needed on hand, (except the 5-hour stocks, etc), I was able to make a few outstanding dishes. "Return to Cooking", however, is less complex and less fussy in some, but not all, of its recipes. I have made several recipes from "Return" with great success, the easiest and best being Cod with Chorizo, Soy sauce and Sherry Vinegar.
This book is not for the beginner cook, or even for the timid intermediate cook. In my opinion, this is a cook book for someone who had tasted fine restaurant food and who has the desire, skills and budget to attempt to replicate their best dining experiences. My warning: if you need explanations about technique or don't have access to the freshest ingredients, you probably cannot bring these marvelous recipes to life.
Rating: 
Summary: excellent coffee table book, yet practical
Review: The book is beautiful: layout, photography, the food itself. As others have noted, the recipes are very good for a home cook: impressive, but not so complex as to deter a dedicated cook. Why 4 and not 5 stars? Because I think Ruhlman is merely an average writer. He spends too much time cozying up to M. Ripert. In browsing the book, I found several grammar errors (minor irritance, but in a book of this quality, I find disappointing). Ruhlman is no Reichl or Grimes -- but I think he tries to be. I think Ruhlman picks fascinating topics (I enjoyed Soul of a Chef immensely); it's just that, for me, his writing is a distraction from the content.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous
Review: The Veal chops with Morels and Herb Butter Sauce, the only recipe I have made out of this book so far, is one of the great achievements of human civilization. I have enjoyed Eric Ripert's chef's tasting menu at his Le Bernadin, an intimidatingly formal restaurant where Woody Allen sat at the next table celebrating the victory in his lawsuit. Apart from the croque monsieur, the recipe to which is included at the opening of this attractive book, the veal recipe was the equal of anything on his menu, even with my feeble hands at the stove. And for a far more digestible price. May I recommend this book to those who dare to enjoy life to its fullest.
Rating:
Summary: A look inside the head of a very good chef..
Review: This combination cookbook, art book, and memoir is the story of a major celebrity chef's retreat from restaurant cooking to spend four weeks of culinary invention with a supporting cast of one culinary journalist (Michael Ruhlman), one painter (Valintino Cortazar), two photographers (Shimon and Tamar Rothstein), and a sous chef / recipe scribe Andrea Glick, all in a rather pricy package. For the $50 list, one gets about 156 recipes, 15 of which are for condiments and ingredient preparations such as a vinaigrette and confit of lemon. Included in the price is the text by Ripert and Ruhlman which can be read in less than 4 hours, very good photographs of some, but not all of the dishes and photos of Rippert staring at and fondling ingredients, and about 100 paintings by Cortazar. The most valuable aspect of this book is what it reveals about how Rippert reached his level of excellence in the culinary arts, and how he works to maintain that level. Rippert appears to follow the same path as Bobby Flay, Emril Lagasse, Tony Bourdain, and, if you can believe it, Alton Brown, where these people were mediocre at school and other vocations until they discovered cooking, which, along with some very important mentors, they came alive with the passion needed for excellence in the culinary arts. Rippert's primary mentor was the great French chef Joel Robuchon, who demanded a level of excellence and discipline which only a handful of chefs can accomplish. The insights of this sort you simply don't get on the Food Network. Wolfgang Puck will give you his secret for a poached beef, but not for the way he thinks when he creates and tests recipes. The recipes are much more a part of this narrative of revelation than they are a worthy source of material for the food hobbyist, much less for the everyday cook. The recipes are not organized by ingredient, taste, or course. Some are simple, but many are very involved and use uncommon ingredients such as the always elusive Kaffir lime leaves and expensive ingredients such as foie gras and truffles. Each recipe give an estimated prep time and cooking time. This is an excellent reature and probably should be included in every worthy recipe book, but I suspect the prep times are a bit ambitious for the average home cook, even for an enthusiastic hobbyist who is not under any time pressure. Twenty-five (25) minutes is not a lot of time to perform some type of preparation on eleven (11) different ingredients unless you are Eric Rippert. One symptom of the impracticality of this cuisine is that an important ingredient for several dishes is lemon confit, which requires THREE MONTHS to prepare. And, it is not an ingredient you will commonly find even at the local megamart. True to Rippert's history and the cuisine of his restaurant, Le Bernardin, the majority of the more interesting recipes are for seafood and I think he includes several important techniques for dealing with them. You will want to prepare more than a few of these recipes, but I think the bottom line is that the recipes are much more valuable as a part of the narrative than they are a part of a cookbook. The photographs are very good; however, they are basically eye candy, except for the few glimpses of the attractive Ms. Glick, The paintings are pleasant. Somewhat more interesting eye candy than the photographs. The text in Mr. Ruhlman's voice is primarily background scenery, about as useful as the non-food photographs. Ruhlman has serious credentials in culinary writing, so I suspect he made a serious contribution to the words Eric Rippert's voice. The text in Mr. Rippert's voice is the main game. The only real dissonance I found in his discourse was when he shows his disinterest in pastry, claiming it was 'too scientific' requiring far too many measurements. The great irony of this statement is that Eric Rippert's methods represent the scientific method at it's best, constantly tasting and adjusting based on his experiences with intermediate steps. The overall package is attractive, with one glaring sour note. The font of the text is FAR TOO SMALL. This is a major annoyance, something which would have never gotten out the door at Knopf or Harper Collins. The book has much value for serious foodies with very good eyesight. The recipes are very good and well worth the investment, if you can get the book at a discount.
Rating:
Summary: Practical, Readable, Beautiful
Review: This cookbook is one of those rare combinations that includes readability, beauty, and praticality. The photographs and paintings make the book a treat for the eye; Ruhlman continues to be a terrific writer about food and cooking; and, Ripert;s recipes are intruguing without being artificially "artsy." Several of the recipes call for exotic ingredients, but in most cases subtitutes involving easy to find alternatives are suggested. The organization of the book is a bit odd, and it's not a reference work like "Joy of Cooking," but, anyone who finds pleasure and artistry in their cooking will appreciate this book.
Rating:
Summary: Practical, Readable, Beautiful
Review: This cookbook is one of those rare combinations that includes readability, beauty, and praticality. The photographs and paintings make the book a treat for the eye; Ruhlman continues to be a terrific writer about food and cooking; and, Ripert;s recipes are intruguing without being artificially "artsy." Several of the recipes call for exotic ingredients, but in most cases subtitutes involving easy to find alternatives are suggested. The organization of the book is a bit odd, and it's not a reference work like "Joy of Cooking," but, anyone who finds pleasure and artistry in their cooking will appreciate this book.
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