The White Barn Inn Cookbook: Four Seasons at the Celebrated American Inn

Rating:
Summary: An Attractive Picture Book and Advertisement with Recipes
Review: This book chronicles recipes from the White Barn Inn in Kennabunkport, Maine in a seasonal format, very similar to the recent titles 'The Arrows Cookbook' and 'The Vineyard Kitchen'. The recipes in seasonal menus are wrapped in text describing the White Barn Inn and information about other hostelries in the Relais and Chateau chain of hotels and resorts. The object of the book seems primarily to publicize this hotel, restaurant, and chain. Since I had never heard of either before opening this book, the book has succeeded in that goal. As an interesting culinary work, the book is a failure, especially compared to the worthy titles mentioned above.

When rating cookbooks, I start with three stars if the book meets my expectations, give it four stars when it does so with high quality material, and give it five stars if it's content exceeds my expectations. If the book does not meet my expectations, it gets two stars. If it tries to pull the wool over my eyes, it gets one star. 'The Arrows Cookbook' set my expectations for this book, a seasonal cookbook for an inn in Maine, and, unfortunately for this title, the bar was set pretty high.

The text by Susan Sully, who appears to be primarily a travel writer, comes straight from a travelogue or advertising brochure. It is aimed entirely at encouraging you to visit this inn with sugary prose. I felt like I was gaining weight just reading her sections. I had the first inkling of what was afoot when the acknowledgments were to flower, cutlery, and antique purveyors.

The introductory material cites 140 recipes. This number is heavily inflated by including recipes for stocks, sauces, infused oils, vegetable purees, and smoothes, lemonade, and sandwiches. The inflation continues with a number of recipes for venison and pheasant. Once you get past the fluff, the recipes are heavily weighted toward local Maine seafood, especially lobster and scallops. An examination of the recipes reveals a competence you would expect from a chef at a highly rated restaurant. The lobster stock / bisque recipes use all the parts in the usual way. My only surprise was that while the lobster roe was used, there was no mention of using the lobster tamale.

The photographs in the book are worthy of the glossy, oversize format. I especially liked the one of the silver Porsche Carrera. The layout and typesetting was well done. The price was reasonable, and another clue that the object of the volume was to advertise.

The book would make a better than average souvenir for a visit to the White Barn Inn and it has a reasonable collection of lobster recipes. I would rather spend my money on a good paperback of seafood recipes by James Beard, James Peterson, or Alan Davidson.

Just as an aside, I wonder where the Publisher's Weekly reviewer's head is at when they give this book a flowery review, yet pan the ambitious Pino Luongo book on his Tuscan cuisine. Go figure.

Rating:
Summary: An Attractive Picture Book and Advertisement with Recipes
Review: This book chronicles recipes from the White Barn Inn in Kennabunkport, Maine in a seasonal format, very similar to the recent titles `The Arrows Cookbook' and `The Vineyard Kitchen'. The recipes in seasonal menus are wrapped in text describing the White Barn Inn and information about other hostelries in the Relais and Chateau chain of hotels and resorts. The object of the book seems primarily to publicize this hotel, restaurant, and chain. Since I had never heard of either before opening this book, the book has succeeded in that goal. As an interesting culinary work, the book is a failure, especially compared to the worthy titles mentioned above.

When rating cookbooks, I start with three stars if the book meets my expectations, give it four stars when it does so with high quality material, and give it five stars if it's content exceeds my expectations. If the book does not meet my expectations, it gets two stars. If it tries to pull the wool over my eyes, it gets one star. `The Arrows Cookbook' set my expectations for this book, a seasonal cookbook for an inn in Maine, and, unfortunately for this title, the bar was set pretty high.

The text by Susan Sully, who appears to be primarily a travel writer, comes straight from a travelogue or advertising brochure. It is aimed entirely at encouraging you to visit this inn with sugary prose. I felt like I was gaining weight just reading her sections. I had the first inkling of what was afoot when the acknowledgments were to flower, cutlery, and antique purveyors.

The introductory material cites 140 recipes. This number is heavily inflated by including recipes for stocks, sauces, infused oils, vegetable purees, and smoothes, lemonade, and sandwiches. The inflation continues with a number of recipes for venison and pheasant. Once you get past the fluff, the recipes are heavily weighted toward local Maine seafood, especially lobster and scallops. An examination of the recipes reveals a competence you would expect from a chef at a highly rated restaurant. The lobster stock / bisque recipes use all the parts in the usual way. My only surprise was that while the lobster roe was used, there was no mention of using the lobster tamale.

The photographs in the book are worthy of the glossy, oversize format. I especially liked the one of the silver Porsche Carrera. The layout and typesetting was well done. The price was reasonable, and another clue that the object of the volume was to advertise.

The book would make a better than average souvenir for a visit to the White Barn Inn and it has a reasonable collection of lobster recipes. I would rather spend my money on a good paperback of seafood recipes by James Beard, James Peterson, or Alan Davidson.

Just as an aside, I wonder where the Publisher's Weekly reviewer's head is at when they give this book a flowery review, yet pan the ambitious Pino Luongo book on his Tuscan cuisine. Go figure.

Rating:
Summary: More reading than cooking pleasure
Review: Visitors to Maine may enjoy this one for its evocative design. Cartwright, chef at the Kennebunkport establishment, shares 140 of his recipes and Sully waxes ecstatic over the charms of the Inn and its location. The lush photographs (lots of food close-ups) are stunning.

For those who have eaten or stayed at the Inn, this is a gorgeous keepsake. Ambitious, experienced cooks with time to make a batch of lobster bisque in advance of their Poached Eggs on Lobster Hash may enjoy the challenge. For the rest of us, it's a mouthwatering read-only.

Each seasonal chapter opens with menus. A spring seafood dinner menu begins with "Diver-Harvested Scallops on Asparagus with Champagne Foam and Caviar," moves on to a lobster spring roll with a "Thai-inspired" sauce, a palate clearing lemon sorbet, a main course of "Grilled Tournedos of Local Cod Loin with Crispy Shrimp and Calamari on a Spring Pea Puree with a Piquant Sauce, and then a " 'Twice-Baked' Rhubarb Crepe Soufflé with Buttermilk Ice Cream." You get the picture.

There are some simple recipes - a Barbecue Mayonnaise to use in lobster rolls, Wild Rice Salad, peach or berry iced teas, various sorbets - and there are some great presentation ideas (right down to the best shape of plate), cooking tips and ingredient suggestions (i.e. early harvested wild rice). But mostly this is a book to wow the reader and inspire a visit to the Inn for the real thing. Which is probably the point.