Written by adam on Nov 18, 2006
Holiday Gift Guide: Dave's Dinners
Dave Lieberman is not the biggest name in Celebrity Chefs, and that might be exactly what he has going for himself. With a new online food show, and a new cookbook, Lieberman might just be taking a chunk of the Celebrity Chef pie without anyone seeing it coming. There’s Emeril Lagasse, Mario Batali, and Rachel Ray. Lieberman doesn’t have the name power as food’s heaviest hitters, but his food has moxie.
Lieberman’s latest cookbook, Dave’s Dinners: A Fresh Approach to Home-Cooked Meals (aff)
, turns the world of Betty Crocker and Better Homes and Gardens on its head. He is the Yang to their Yin, and still manages to come up with some delcious meals that any home chef could create.
Dave’s Dinner’s is a hardcover cookbook that does something differently than the monstrosities you might see from Lagasse, Batali, or Jamie Oliver. Lieberman has cut the content in half, and put all the best recipes in. It's half the size of the big books which make it cheaper for one, and less cumbersome to the reader. Rather than a giant tome full of mediocrity, Dave’s Dinner’s comes full the brim of quality.
The cookbook is a delightful blend of nouveau American cuisine, paired with a heavy influence of Asian and Middle Eastern faire. Dave’s Dinners is peppered with Mideast food like Chicken Tikka Masala and Moroccan chickpea soup. It also contains some of the basics like creamy shrimp fettucine, baby back ribs, and meatloaf. There’s even a chapter up front featuring some extremely gourmet alcoholic beverages.
All in all a good book. The ingredients are basic, sometimes foreign, but there’s nothing that cannot be purchased at a run-of-the-mill grocery store. Dave’s instructions are simple, clear, and concise, and the recipes all turn out exactly like the book says they should.
Dave’s Dinners is just right; Goldilocks would surely be proud.
If you are looking for an inexpensive gift to give your man or woman this Christmas, you might want to pick up this book. Save your money that you might spend on Jamie's Kitchen, and get a cookbook that's actually usable.
Since winter of 2004, I have been exploring the world of cooking and helping out my fellow men in their quests to better themselves in the kitchen. My name is Adam Byrd, you can learn more about me and my mission on my