Rating: 
Summary: Artistry...if you have time to spare
Review: The flavor principles introduced are noteworthy, however, they can be achieved in a much less labor intensive manner. For inspiration, fantastic, but there are multiple, often complex elements to each dish. Unless you have hours to prepare each stock, sauce, and vinaigrette, you might want to look elsewhere. A note: this book is aesthetically triumphant and would make a fabulous gift.
Rating:
Summary: Artistry...if you have time to spare
Review: The flavor principles introduced are noteworthy, however, they can be achieved in a much less labor intensive manner. For inspiration, fantastic, but there are multiple, often complex elements to each dish. Unless you have hours to prepare each stock, sauce, and vinaigrette, you might want to look elsewhere. A note: this book is aesthetically triumphant and would make a fabulous gift.
Rating: 
Summary: Bizzare ideas make for incredible creations.
Review: The food at the resturant was fantastic and I seriously doubted that I could recreate such dishes as "Fetucccine with lobster bolognese sauce" but with the explicit directions and helpful suggestions, I was able to use the lobster shells to flavor the stock, then finish off the dish by adding just the right amount of tarragon and cream. Who would have thought that you would do anything but throw the shells in the garbage. It took four hours for me to make the dish but it was worth every second.
Rating: 
Summary: Fabulous recipes, pretty easy to follow
Review: The recipes in this book are wonderful, some of the most creative and inventive cooking I have ever seen. The book seems to be aimed at someone who is a confident cook, but by no means an expert. Your Mom could probably handle anything in this book. I have made Sea Bass with Port Wine Sauce, which is not only delicious, it has a fabulous sauce that does not start out by using fish stock. In fact, many of the sauce recipes do not require first having some sort of home made stock, and that is a great time saver. Another wonderful recipe, Chicken with Shallots and Endive, also did not require making a stock. I have also had the best soup I've ever tasted from this book - Shrimp Soup with Roasted Corn. Just wonderful! The book does not have many desserts, but the warm chocolate cake is fabulous. I also find that the instructions are written in such a way that it requires more thinking than seems necessary. Not that the recipes are tricky or anything like that. Its more that they exist in lots of separate parts and trying to imagine what the whole effect will be is sometimes difficult. On the whole, though, this is a great cookbook, one of the most fun I have seen. And the illustrations and visual design add to the pleasure of using it!
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