I have been using the cookbook for about 6 or 7 years now. It is by far the most used cookbook on my rather stocked cookbook shelf. There are so many things to love about this book, especially the way it is divided by seasons so you can easily choose a recipe made with ingredients that are in season, which, of course, is what has made Alice Waters a legend. Since I don't have hours to spend in the kitchen, I do not make my own pasta as the recipes suggest. That cuts down significantly on the time involved, and, although I imagine that well-made fresh pasta is a delight, I have found every dish I've tried utterly delicious -- not lacking in flavor, texture, or excitement despite the use of your ordinary dried pasta. I absolutely love the linguini with cherry tomato vinagrette, and during tomato season we eat this almost every week. It's easy and delicious, and you can make most of it ahead of time, just cooking the pasta at the last minute and tossing it all together. The only drawback is that some of the recipes are just way too involved for your average person, but for a cookbook inspired by such a legendary restaurant and chef, there are many recipes that are simple enough for just about anybody to make.

I've made many of the recipes here, and have had some great successes. For my birthday I made three pans of mushroom lasagne and people were floored. The chicken and ricotta ravioli are a staple. There are times I feel a little limited by its specificity and taste, but then this isn't supposed to be a general purpose cookbook. In that regard, I find the dessert cookbook to be the most consistently useful.

(A little off topic: too bad the previous reviewer resents the restaurant for having changed with the times. I've had fantastic meals there recently. Alice is an icon now rather than a restaurateur, but the institution still commands respect.)

First the good: great illustrations, printed on fine quality stock.

Now the rest:

AW's addition to America's favorite bedtime reading, but best not to use it as a cooking text (perhaps ideas are interesting for adaptation)

Sorry, like the restaurant, all marketing, little substance.
The restaurant was good, when you paid $7.95 (all you can eat) for its experiments, but for $100 with expensive wine-list (few ready for drinking) it's an insult.

I do appreciate the charge that Alice Waters has given to the stature of cooking, and the new restaurants she's inspired, but her's is not a star.

Back to the book. Interesting read, with some original ideas, but the book seems to have been released before it was field tested. I had one of the original copies, and even some of the basic recipes just didn't work chemically e.g., hand-made pasta had the wrong proportions (perhaps they've fixed this.)

So if you want to read how Alice tells us how Waters changed the face of cooking in America, it's entertaining. The reality is that all that she invented was out of ignorance, as all of it is found in escoffier's turn of the century Ma Cuisine (hyper-reduced sauces, fresh ingredients, etc..) Better, buy Escoffier's book instead (though assumes that you know how to cook.)

If you know how to cook, buy a good cookbook, if you don't by a basic cookbook, if you want to buy a present for somebody impressed with marketing, this is the one for you!

Beautiful book, great recipes...except for one: the pizza dough recipe is nothing like what they use at the Chez Panisse Cafe. After several frustrating attempts to try and duplicate the pizzas that I have eaten so many times, I called the restaurant, and they admitted that the recipe in the book was not the real McCoy. Without it, what's the point? Side note: there is a pizza dough recipe in Rogers and Gray's The Cafe Cookbook that is much closer to the original...

This book, originally published in 1984 was a major influence on the way I cook. It not only gave me the knowledge to try new and fresher ingredients, but it's writing enabled me to visualize that I could really improvise in the kitchen. Every recipie I have made from this book has been fabulous, and the roasted new potatoes with pesto are the absolute bomb. For the recipies, and the creativeness that Alice Waters encourages, no serious cook should be without this book.