Chicago Chef's Table: Extraordinary Recipes From The Windy City

A fabulous cookbook with many recipes by renowned chefs that are easily replicable by people who cook as a hobby. An added plus is that numerous recipes offer a taste of my home town Chicago!Highly recommended.

I recently visited Chicago and ate REALLY well there. This book provides a way to relive that great eating and try som ne ideas from the farm-to-table movement. I look forward to some wonderful meals.

It was a gift.

nice book

If you're looking for a sampler of recipes from big name chefs in Chicago, this book fits the bill. It contains over 50 recipes spanning a range of cuisines and types of dishes. I've picked up similar styles of cookbooks from other cities and what I liked about this book is that it is a good compromise between how food is prepared in a restaurant and the way food is prepared by a home cook. Yes, the recipes are still more complicated and have more components than the average cookbook aimed at home cooks, but the steps don't seem overly complicated or require equipment or skills that are unreasonable for a home cook. It's still more suited towards an intermediate to advanced home cook, but that is still an improvement over many cookbooks written by chefs. I also appreciate that the yields for the recipes are appropriate for a home setting, recipes seemed to serve between 4-10, with many recipes for 4.That said, there are a couple things worth noting. This is likely personal taste, but I didn't care for the paragraphs of detail on each restaurant with background. I'm picking up this book because I already know about these restaurants so I would have preferred more recipes over so much background. I might have liked this content better if there were more anecdotes and stories I hadn't read elsewhere, but it all seemed like pretty standard stuff. Also, I thought the recipes in here were delectable, but most weren't signature dishes I would associate with a the restaurants featured. It's not a huge deal, but it is worth noting if you are planning to buy this with a specific recipe in mind. It does make the book a little less distinguishable from other cookbooks by chefs (though the approachability of the recipes and their home cook friendly yields does give this book a little bit of an edge). It's also a book that focuses more on the higher end cuisine in the city vs. neighborhood restaurants. If you're looking for recipes from the latter, you'll probably be disapointed.Overall, it's a good book. It isn't one of the best I've come across but it is above average and certainly has its strengths.

This is one of the most comprehensive books on Chicago restaurants to come out in years. It's filled with great history and interesting bio's of some of Chicago's best restaurants. The range of restaurants covered is vast. From mainstays (Gibson's, Spiaggia) to neighborhood gems (Yoshi's, Socca) to cool new scenes (Girl & The Goat, Sepia) there is something for everyone. With each bio of chef and restaurant comes a recipe of one of their signature dishes so you can take a part of the restaurant home with you. The author, Amelia Levin, is not only a great writer, but she obviously has an innate sense of food and dinning. For anyone living in the Chicago area this is a must have. Even for those not in Chicago the recipes stand on their own and make the $17 purchase price well worth every penny. I'd recommend it for yourself or for a gift, and I can't wait for Levin to put out the next one!

It had fewer recipes than I expected. The serving sizes were very large and some of the ingredients were too expensive,

Really expected some great Chicago recipes from this book, but found none. Re-wrapped it for an appropriate gift to a casual friend.

Amazing book saw it in Chicago for double the price, everything I've cooked is completely delicious! The recipes are easy to follow and I've had some great compliments. Very authentic