Are You Hungry Tonight?: Elvis' Favorite Recipes

Rating:
Summary: Share A Meal From the Heartburn Hotel
Review: Elvis Presley may have been the King, but he ate like a common man---and this book is filled with common Southern fare that will stick to your ribs (and probably hips!) I particularly enjoyed trying Elvis' signature dish, the fried peanut butter and banana sandwich, as well as the banana pudding which was prepared daily at Graceland so it would always be available for late-night snacking. Also getting high marks from me are the recipes for biscuits and red-eye gravy, potato cheese soup, heavenly mashed potatoes and more. The book features great pictures of Elvis including one of he and Priscilla cutting the Royal Wedding Cake. And yes, the recipe for that six-tiered mountain of a cake is included (serves 500 so do invite a friend over). A delightful romp in the kitchen for fans of Elvis and a great cookbook for those who like down-home cooking.

Rating:
Summary: Silly, Grease-laden, and Fun
Review: I received this book during a tongue-in-cheek, Elvis-themed Christmas Eve gift exchange with my family. Expecting the worst, I was very pleasantly surprised by this kitchy, useful volume.

The book contains a collection of Elvis's favorite recipes interspersed with candid photos from his movie shoots and concerts. Almost all the pictures feature Elvis snacking away with a gorgeous starlet by his side.

The recipes are homestyle, country cooking. Heavy on grease, light on nutritional value, the delicacies include everything from pie to fried peanut butter sandwiches.

Chefs/Elvis-philes will be delighted by the last section of the book which gives step-by-step instructions on how to make the Elvis/Pricilla wedding cake. The recipe comes complete with cake patterns and dimensions. Therefore, if you are planning to have an Elvis-themed wedding, this book is a necessity.

While the recipes are good (especially the deserts), one should keep in mind that this is more of a silly romp than a full-fledged cookbook. Also, the book is on the short side. (Think quality over quantity, in this case.) However, it is so clever and nicely done that it is worth your pennies and your time.

Rating:
Summary: Great concept
Review: What a great time to be buying cookbooks! While we have for a long while had access to recipe collections and representations of the cuisine of various nationalities and popular restaurants, recently there has been a growing library of culinary tomes that give us the skills for producing creations of our own minds. Titles such as Sauces by James Peterson, the 1-2-3 series by Roxanne Gold, Culinary Artistry, Great Wine Made Simple, and now this book provide us with the information about tastes and combinations of flavors and textures to deconstruct, reconstruct, and just plain construct familiar and novel dishes.

Are You Hungry Tonight provides a brief introduction to the celebrity subject's theory of flavor. Editor Butler broadly groups flavors into four categories based on the purpose they serve in a dish. Thus, Tastes That Push represent the well-known seasonings that we use to balance sauces, for example: Salty, Sweet, and Picante. Tastes That Pull represent those taste elements that highlight underlying flavors. The authors include here Tangy, Vinted, Floral/Herbal, Spiced Aromatic, Funky (pungents or musky flavors), and Bulby (what have commonly been called Aromatics such as onions and garlic). Taste Platforms represent the textures upon which dishes are built. These include Garden Platforms, Starchy ones, Oceanic ones, and Meaty ones (what the Japanese call umami). Finally, the fourth category is Tastes That Punctuate, basically bitters that stop tastes and cleanse the palate.

This model is very useful one. Ms. Butler seems not to have done her research in examining precursors to this model, and makes little reference to other cuisines than the one Elvis constructed during his lifetime. She neglects to include several important items, especially in the Platforms section (breads, pastries, soy products, seitan, and mushrooms as a basis for other flavors, for example). There are similar, usually less complex models, already in the literature. Butler and Presley's model is more extensive than most, however. Surprisingly, there is little space given in the book to theory. The majority of pages is devoted to recipes that demonstrate their combining philosophy. Butler does not describe how Presley took the elements of taste and mixed them to concoct these dishes. (A reader must refer to Culinary Artistry for such guidelines.) She does, however, provide tasting notes after each recipe that dissect the elements used in the dish.

The recipes are very complex, involving multiple steps and sub-recipes. Even a cook enjoying kitchen challenges would be hard pressed to prepare a full meal using this book alone-- one would run out of burners and pans before the dishes were complete. For example, the Honey Glazed Celeriac involves making the glaze, which is a reduction of wine and acids with sauteed aromatics sieved and kept warm, plus Celeriac slices baked and then broiled, plus a garnish of sauteed zucchini with chives, plus Ginger Curry Sauce, a mayonnaise of reduced wine and aromatics whisked with other ingredients.

The writing is an interesting, not entirely successful juxtaposition of aw-shucks, down-home attitude, sophisticated epicurean philosophy, and fancy foods. The recipes are heavy on the Meaty and Oceanic food platforms, making this definitely a carnivore's cookbook. Produce usually stands as garnish and accompaniment to the flesh. In the end, the most special part of the book represent a few precious pages and is underdeveloped. Perhaps a follow-up volume will expound on this interesting culinary model.