The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen

Rating:
Summary: A must have for any culinary enthusiast
Review: Peter Berleys new book is a godsend. Not only for vegetarians and vegans, but for any chef who wants to meet the demands for healthy cuisine in the mainstream. After reading this cookbook, any intimidation you have about natural ingredients and whole foods will go right out the window. Mr. Berley really sums it up in a no nonsense, cool style. If you want to impress your cynical carnivore friends, just prepare a meal from this book, and I guarantee you'll convert at least one person. This book shows that vegan and vegetarian cuisine is about as cutting-edge as you can get, and there are no boundaries. I rate Peter Berley right up there with the best chefs in this country.

Rating:
Summary: If 6 stars were an option, this book would rate it
Review: This is the ultimate cookbook for anyone who loves the art of cooking and is willing to bond with food in order to create delicious labors of love. Also excellent for stocking the kitchen with necessary ingredients and utensils. The recipes are fantastic, but it also aids the reader in learning how to branch out and become a creative cook herself/himself. GOT TO GET THIS!

Rating:
Summary: Finally! The bible for vegetarian cooking!
Review: Whether your a vegetarian for life or for the weekend, the recipes in this book are sure to please everyone. I have eaten Peter Berley's food for years at Angelica Kitchen in New York City and this book clearly demonstrates the years of experience behind these recipes. I own dozens of books on vegetarian cooking and as the title indicates, this book is the most modern approach to wholefood cooking yet. Peter Berley shatters the image of "bland" vegetarian food and replaces it with the truth: The most DELICIOUS and EXCITING cusine in the world! Buy this book!!!

Rating:
Summary: Great Source for Vegans and Vegetarians. Highly Recommended
Review: `The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen' is the first cookbook by Peter Berley, the author of a follow-up book, `Fresh Food Fast' to which I gave a somewhat poor review. As I am always a bit self-conscious about giving poor reviews to well-received authors, I always like to check out other works to verify that the book I reviewed poorly is a genuine fall from a level of quality which garnered their recognition.

I am resoundingly reassured in reading this multiple award winner (James Beard Foundation and IACP cookbook awards) that chef Berley has written what will easily be a leading candidate in my cookbook hall of fame for vegetarian cooking.

One of the most important distinctions to be made about this book is that it is not simply a good book of recipes for vegetables, although it does this job quite well. As the title indicates, this is a thorough coverage of many aspects of modern vegetarian cooking, without going to the extremes represented by complete lacto-ovo-vegans and `Raw' food advocates such as Juliano Brotman. At the same time, low-carb extremists may also be disappointed with Berley's cuisine as he is quite in love with artisinal bread baking, and, good yeast bread baking is simply not possible without white flour.

As befits a general book on cooking, the author gives us a very nice introduction to kitchen tools which, to my taste, touches all the right notes. This chapter will never replace Alton Brown's definitive book on kitchen equipment, but it does give much-needed plugs to the use of wooden cutting boards, food mills, mortar and pestle, and sieves. I am not as fond as Berley of the classic box grater and am happy to replace it with a cylindrical Mouli grater and the carpenter's rasp.

The book really comes into its own when it discusses pantry items, as it covers some of the vegetarian's best-kept secrets. Mirin and miso are old hat by now, but I highly endorse checking out kombu, a `sea vegetable' from Asia and Umeboshi, a fermented plum paste used as a substitute for anchovies or fish paste. A real boon as a substitute for very important Mediterranean and East Asian staples. Other important little secrets appear later in the chapter on tofu, tempeh, and seitan. Tofu and tempeh are also very familiar to foodies nowadays, but seitan is quite new to me. Briefly, it is gluten from wheat flour, freed from all soluble starch. Since this is not a supermarket staple and since I don't expect Alton Brown to be doing a `Good Eats' show on it any time soon, the author very astutely provides us with a method for making the stuff. It is at least as difficult as making artisinal bread and I suspect I am more interested in making bread than in making Seitan, especially as its production removes nothing that is anathema to a vegan diet. It is basically another animal protein substitute that may be used like tofu. I was pretty intrigued, although, in the seitan recipes which replace classic meat dishes such as pork and sauerkraut and shepherd's pie.

While Berley's book is not oriented throughout to seasonal cooking, much of his writing about vegetables does celebrate the seasonality of certain fruits and vegetables. The first chapter of recipes covers stocks and broths, beginning with a utility `All Season Vegetable Stock'. One of the very nice things about vegetable stocks is that they are done a lot faster than meat stocks, and Berley is quite correct in simmering his vegetables for no more than an hour. The next recipe introduces another exotic Asian ingredient, Kombu, for producing a dashi broth, a staple ingredient of Japanese soups. This chapter also includes a roasted vegetable stock plus a summer, autumn, and winter miso soup. As corn chowder is one of my favorite dishes, I was especially happy to see his recipe for a summertime corn and vegetable chowder.

Reproducing classic carnivorous favorites with vegan ingredients is a major theme in the book. One of the most interesting examples is a Seitan Bourguignon replacement for beef that, to my eyes, has all the attraction of the original, including the 2 cups of Burgundy wine, mushrooms, orange zest, and tomato paste. All you need is a source for the 1½ pounds of seitan.

The author gives all the attention you would expect from a vegetarian chef to cooking with grains and beans. But, I was very pleasantly surprised to see the attention the author paid to bread making. And, he does not limit himself to quickbreads and the standard yeast white country bread. He surveys virtually the whole range of bread making, including unleavened flatbreads from India and artisinal breads based on wild yeasts collected from the must on grapes.

As the author freely admits, bread baking is much to big a subject to be covered adequately in a single chapter, but he is very wise to include a reference to his bread making inspiration, Nancy Silverton, whose book `Breads From the La Brea Bakery' were a revelation which changed his whole way of looking at breadmaking. As interest in artisinal bread making is on the rise, I think the author's take on bread making in America was just a bit too dour. On the other hand, I applaud his attention to the subject as a source of inspiration for vegetarian bread bakers.

While I try to suppress my subjective reaction to a book until I have surveyed it from beginning to end, I confess the `gut reaction' is often the best clue to whether other people will like the book. And, my gut reaction is as favorable to this book as it was unfavorable to his second book. Like the books which inspired him, Berley's book is a great jumping off point for vegetarians and a great source of recipes and ingredients for enriching a vegetarian cuisine.

Very highly recommended.