The Bottom Line
This book would make a lovely gift for any fan of the Michael's restaurants in Santa Monica or Manhattan. It captures the spirit of the book's namesake while making it possible to recreate the recipes at home.
Pros
- An excellent tribute to a chef and restaurant that has been a long time favorite of the celeb set.
- Beautiful book with luscious food photography.
- Recipes are very instructive.
Cons
- Ingredients for some of these recipes may be hard to find locally.
- Many of the recipes require expensive ingredients.
Description
- Cookbook with recipes for greens and herbs, seafood (and lots of it), meat, desserts, breads and more.
- Fabulous color photography of recipes and ingredients.
- Photos of the restaurants, guests, and Michael.
- Many quotations from celebrities.
- A reference section with sources for difficult to find ingredients.
Guide Review - Welcome to Michael's: Great Food, Great People, Great Party!
One part cookbook, one part tribute, and one point textbook, "Welcome to Michael's" is a little bit of everything wrapped in a beautiful package. Chef and restaurateur Michael McCarty has a proven track record of nearly 30 years, so the celebrity praise that is abundantly sprinkled throughout the book is well-deserved, while a bit distracting. But the heart and soul of this cookbook, namely Michael's easy to follow recipes and advice on choosing the key ingredients for them, turn this into more than a tribute piece. Michael's philosophy about ingredients, entertaining and cooking clearly takes center stage making this a good read as well as a good cookbook.
