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Title: The White Barn Inn Cookbook: Four Seasons at the Celebrated American Inn by Susan Sully, Jonathan Cartwright, Philippe Schaff, Laurence Bongiorno ISBN: 0-7624-1595-9 Publisher: Running Press Pub. Date: 11 November, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 2 (1 review)
Rating: 2
Summary: An Attractive Picture Book and Advertisement with Recipes
Comment: 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.
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Title: Best Recipes from American Country Inns and Bed and Breakfasts by Kitty Maynard, Lucian Maynard ISBN: 1401600980 Publisher: Rutledge Hill Press Pub. Date: February, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.99 |
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Title: Williams-Sonoma Collection: Christmas by Carolyn Miller ISBN: 0743253353 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 17 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Arrows Cookbook : Cooking and Gardening from Maine's Most Beautiful Farmhouse Restaurant by Clark Frasier, Mark Gaier, John Kernick ISBN: 0743236734 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 03 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
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Title: Aquavit : And the New Scandinavian Cuisine by Marcus Samuelsson ISBN: 0618109412 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 02 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $45.00 |
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Title: The Williams-Sonoma Collection: Cookies by Marie Simmons ISBN: 0743226836 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 17 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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