Truffles: Ultimate Luxury, Everyday Pleasure

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Summary: Trump Them With Truffles
Review: Everyone hears about truffles (something about specially-trained pigs digging them up from beneath trees in France), but rarely encounters them in the wild or in most restaurants. Certainly not at a dinner party. This practical resource book reveals the culinary history of these fascinating funghi, how they are grown and harvested, all the wonderful truffle products available today, and how to get them. And then there are the recipes - some from top chefs at leading restaurants in the U.S. - which sound so enticing that I plan to order up another truffle and some truffle butter and oil. If you want to one-up your culinary friends, invite them for dinner and stun them with "Poussin en demi-deuil" (a classic chicken dish from the Lyons region) or one of the other 115 recipes in the book. After a major success with the Poussin dish, I plan to try scallop-truffle Napoleons with creamed leaks. The subject matter and exquisite photographs of finished dishes distinguish this book from the ordinary cookbook.

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Summary: Another great cookery book by Judith Sutton
Review: For years, Chef/Writer Sutton has guided my choice of cookery books through her book reviews and articles. Now her latest work--I often turn to her previous piece on champagne and chocolate--is a joy to behold. Beautiful, well-conceived. And the recipes, etc. are also great. Good reading. Good eating. Great gift. The best cookery book of the year.

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Summary: Accessible Luxury
Review: I love truffles but I've always thought of them as something you order in restaurants, not use in home cooking. They're expensive and I didn't really know how to buy them, store them, how much to use, and all that. This very well-written book tells all--and now that there's no mystery and I'm not afraid of making an costly mistake, I will buy truffles and truffle products. Truffle butter, honey, oil, cheese, and flour are all simple to use and will be great fun to play around with. To me they are the best kind of convenience foods--they add alot of flavor and luxury without a lot of cooking or prep time. I don't spend lots of time cooking--I think you can prepare great food without it--and this book seems to have that same philosopy. The recipes are simple and enticing. They often focus on humble foods--like potatoes, eggs, pasta, rice, lentils, and vinaigrettes--which give you a great way to flavor all your favorite foods and make any meal special with very little effort.

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Summary: lots of typo's
Review: I, having cooked in one of the finest kitchens in New York, understand the difficulties of translating what is performed in the professional situation to the level of the home kitchen. And, simply put, this book makes it easy. It takes away the mystery that makes truffles intimidating at the same time that it makes them intriguing. One of the most common defects of cookbooks is that they fail to highlight details that are absorbed knowledge to the professional, but turn out to be intricacies that a home cook would not be aware of. The average person should dive right in to these recipes, without being scared of wasting a high-price ingredient. And with such a bountiful, cheap year for truffles, it would be silly not to give it a shot! You'll be glad you took the chance next year.

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Summary: A FIRM PLACE IN THE PANTHEON OF TRUFFLE LITERATURE
Review: I, having cooked in one of the finest kitchens in New York, understand the difficulties of translating what is performed in the professional situation to the level of the home kitchen. And, simply put, this book makes it easy. It takes away the mystery that makes truffles intimidating at the same time that it makes them intriguing. One of the most common defects of cookbooks is that they fail to highlight details that are absorbed knowledge to the professional, but turn out to be intricacies that a home cook would not be aware of. The average person should dive right in to these recipes, without being scared of wasting a high-price ingredient. And with such a bountiful, cheap year for truffles, it would be silly not to give it a shot! You'll be glad you took the chance next year.

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Summary: Mouthwatering
Review: If you love truffles, this is a book to luxuriate in. The photography and text really capture why people go to such lengths for this funny-looking fungus. It makes transition from kitchen to coffee-table. You'll want to cook with it and fantasize with it. Even if truffles are out of your budget, there are a lot of ideas here for using truffle oils and butters that will give you loads flavor for pennies. I just wish I had a truffle waiting for me in the fridge right now.

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Summary: Ugly--But Delicious and Worth Their Weight in Gold
Review: This book is a bit of a heartbreaker in these tight economic times: The best truffles--the revered white truffles of Alba, in Northern Italy--were going for about [ninety dollars] an ounce the last time I looked, or dared to look. Still, it's a good read. If you (like most of us) can't afford truffles but (like some of us) are still entranced by them, this books counts as 'armchair dining.' And if you can afford these gems, this book will help you buy intelligently. Not only are there many different kinds of truffle but these days 'counterfeit' truffles--second- or third-raters dragged in from Hungary and China--have been sneaked onto the market. The lore you need to to tell them apart (and what to do with them when you buy) is here presented by Rosario Safina, president of Urbani USA, the world's largest truffle importer. Safina and his co-auther, Judith Sutton, do a good job of presenting both information and recipes. Apart from genuinely useful information, they also impart some truly strange facts. Considering what truffles fetch on the market today, is it not strange for example that not so many years ago people were ashamed to eat them? They were poor folks' food--ugly, strong-smelling fungi hunted out by dogs and dug up from underground. Well, there was a time when New Englanders felt the same way about another poverty dish--lobster.

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Summary: lots of typo's
Review: this book might be good if it weren't for the many spelling errors

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Summary: the most informative truffle book ever written!
Review: This is one of the best cook books I've ever read. I am fascinated with all foods truffle related and was pleasantly suprised to find the recipies so simple to put together and the ingredients so easy to find. My favorite is the grilled truffle cheese sandwich, (gourmet food just can't get any easier or better than that!) Well yes it can, drizzle a little truffle honey on some vanilla ice cream... heaven. In a nutshell the book is eleganlty written and very informative. One other perk, the photography is absolutely beautiful! i would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in exploring the wilder, more exotic side of mushrooms!

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Summary: Truffles ¿ My Ultimate Choice
Review: Truffles Ultimate Luxury Everyday Pleasure Cookbook by Rosario Safina and Judit Sutton, with the marvelous photographs by Shimon and Tammar Rothstein - is much much more than an ordinary cookbook. The book treasures not only plenty of recipes (Over 115, I liked the smoked duck salad with pancetta, warm ricotta salata and black truffles, among other dishes too) and treasures not only The Rothstein's accompanying beautifull photos (didn't they just come out with Eric Riper's Cookbook A Return to Cooking?). The book also holds in its pages a brief history of truffles plus an important and an eyelightening information about The Truffles Family (White and Black Truffles and their relatives), How truffles grow and harvested, How to buy, store and serve truffles, and last but not least - introducing the truffle products: affordable luxuries. It calls for a celebration to all truffles lovers. It is also an opportunity to those, who are not aquainted with truffles, to taste it, to learn how to prepare outstanding tuffles-base dishes, and to start a new long friendship with that delicious food. Truffles are unique and The New Truffles Ultimate Luxury Everyday Pleasure Cookbook makes a valuable gift for my friends and myself.