Chef Harry Friends Sharing the Joys of the Table

Fresh and flavorful, Chef Harry & Friends features a tremendous variety of fabulous menus, from Thai to Italian, from seafood to Southwestern, from down-home cooking to creative creations, and including vegetarian delights and low fat, healthy choices.

The television chef is a phenomenon of our age and one is tempted to ask if Julia Child should be commended or cursed for starting the whole thing years ago! Certainly, Chef Harry is no Julia and his food preparation may be fun to watch but his recipes are run of the mill. His philosophical asides are best set aside and his use of lots of cream and butter show lack of imagination rather than generosity of spirit. The hints for specific menus may be helpful, particularly those regarding the timing of the preparation and alternative uses of the dishes. I was delighted to find he uses dental floss to slice mozzarella, a technique much appreciated when one needs presentable slices of this most easily shredded cheese. The indexes are useful as they are divided first by course and then again by specific ingredients. There are so many better cookbooks on the market, though this one should appeal to those who are regular watchers of Chef Harry's program and want to recreate his meals in their own homes. -- From Independent Publisher