Alfred Portale Simple Pleasures: Home Cooking from the Gotham Bar and Grill's Acclaimed Chef

by Alfred Portale, Andrew Friedman

When you imagine the quintessential New York City restaurant, one name comes to Alfred Portale's Gotham Bar and Grill. The same is true when you think of the top American has been one of our most cherished culinary institutions for two decades. Led by executive chef and co-owner Alfred Portale, Gotham has been honored with four consecutive New York Times three-star reviews and has resided among the Zagat Survey's top five New York City restaurants for more than ten years. Known for Portale's defining modern American cooking, impeccable service, and soaring space, Gotham was recently named "Most Outstanding Restaurant" in the nation by the James Beard Foundation. But what does Portale cook when he's not working? In Alfred Portale Simple Pleasures , one of our most accomplished chefs invites you to taste the sublime and surprisingly easy-to-prepare, restaurant-quality dishes he serves to friends and family at home. The 125 recipes include home versions of Gotham classics as well as new recipes straight from Portale's home kitchen. They're all simple enough for any home cook, and spectacular enough to impress anyone who tastes them. At the center of Alfred Portale Simple Pleasures are elemental main courses such as Roast Cod with a New England Chowder Sauce, Filet Mignon with Madeira Sauce, and Sautéed Chicken Breasts with Button Mushrooms and Sage. Pick one, then build a meal by pairing it with recipes from the chapters of salads, starters, and small plates; soups, sandwiches, and pizzas; pasta and risotto; side dishes; and desserts. Along with the recipes, Portale offers pairing suggestions for building a menu, variations for adapting recipes according to season and personal taste, and flavor-building instructions on how to accent a dish with extravagant extras such as caviar or everyday additions such as flavored oils. In other words, home cooks will learn how to add a Gotham-inspired twist to their own favorite recipes. The supermarket-friendly dishes include modern classics such as Spicy Shrimp Salad with Mango, Avocado, and Lime Vinaigrette; Pumpkin and Caramelized Onion Soup with Gruyère and Sage; and Sautéed Spinach with Garlic, Ginger, and Sesame Oil. Alfred helps you transform everything from ordinary weekday lunches to Saturday night dinner parties into anything but ordinary. Of course, no meal is complete without dessert, and Portale delivers sweet and sophisticated send-offs, including Lime Meringue Tarts, a simple Summer Plum Pudding, and an elegant Chocolate-Grand Marnier Cake. Alfred Portale Simple Pleasures -- nothing could be simpler or more pleasurable.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food

272 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2004

Reviews

[Heather Gibbons · Rating 4 out of 5]

My aunt is a chef and turned me on to this one. Portale is a fancy pro, so his attention to detail, and his prescriptions for high-quality (and often expensive) ingredients is a bit of a turn-off. However, for special occasions, this has some excellent recipes. And as the title suggests, most are rather easy to make. For example, the watermelon, cherry tomato, red onion, and cucumber salad is heavenly in summer, especially with a little feta cheese crumbled on top. And I recall the roasted halibut with lemon-caper butter was incredible, though halibut is so expensive these days I haven't been eating it much.

[Kimberly Ann · Rating 1 out of 5]

#132

Acknowledgements; Introduction; "How to Use This book" (seriously?); The Modern Pantry (good tips here); Modern Equipment; Salads, Starters & Small Plates; Soups, Sandwiches, & Pizza; Pasta & Risotto; Main Courses; Accompaniments & Side Dishes; and Desserts

Recipes are in a not too small sized font & easy to read: Ingredients are sans-serif & instructions are serif. Then on the same page which are almost impossible to read, are: Pairings (Red), Variations (light almost invisible Red) and Flavor Building (light gray). The photos, for the most part, are very nice & clean looking.

Recipes (although they really didn't catch my interest)

Shaved Fennel, Green Apple, & Pecorino Romano Salad
Endive Salad w/ Tangerines, Golden Beets, & Hazelnut Vinaigrette
Frisee Salad w/ Smoked bacon, Shitake, & Aged Goat Cheese

Preserved Tuna (which is good, but expensive) w/ Potatoes, Arugula, & Scallions
Mussel Soup w/ Saffron, fennel, & White Beans
Pumpkin & Caramelized Onion soup w/ Gruyère & Sage

Fettuccine w/ Preserved Tuna, Capers & Olives
Farfalle w/ Smoked Salmon, Snow Peas & Lemon-Herb Vinaigrette
Risotto w/ Pancetta, Bibb Lettuce, Peas, & Mint

Steamed Clams w/ Chorizo, Chiles, & Cilantro
Seared Atlantic Salmon w/ Arugula & Horseradish

Curried Cream Corn
Creamed Spinach Custards w/ Extra Virgin Olive Oil & Parmesan Cheese
Pan Roasted Zucchini w/ Cilantro-Mint Gremolata
Baby Turnips w/ Apricots & Pistachios

Cranberry Poached Pears w/ Ginger & Tea Infusion
Italian Prune Compote w/Ginger & Star Anise
Yogurt Mousse w/ Red Berry Compote


Do not get me wrong..... There were many good down-to-earth recipes which I would happily eat (and maybe even make); But, yes I only noted the weird ones, because I found this difficult to read (thus use) and I wouldn't pay full price for this.

Good News: If you really want it; Amazon has this:
Hardcover
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Paperback
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[Kristen Northrup]

More user-friendly than a lot of my restaurant cookbooks. There's a nice chapter in the beginning describing some of the more exotic ingredients, complete with photos of the most common brands and information on where you're most likely to find them in the supermarket (or not). There are plenty of substitution options if the original ingredient is too difficult to find (or too expensive, sometimes). Most of the salads would make a lovely light meal all on their own. Only about 1/3 of the recipes have photos, and sometimes the dish in the photo used different prep techniques than what is given in the recipe. There are no wine pairing suggestions. Many of the desserts will conveniently last several days, allowing you to either make them ahead or to be able to eat them more than once, but somehow none of them really grabbed me.

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite cookbooks. The dishes are really easy to make and combine unexpected ingredients for delicious results. Not all recipes have photos, but I really like that he suggests other dishes that would pair well (like braised lamb with pappardelle would pair well with fennel apple salad, which it really does) and many recipes offer suggestions of ways to pep up or vary the dish. I make dinners from (or inspired by) this book at least once or twice a week.

[Darrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

a coffee table cookbook that looks at home at a table in an Anthropologie store which is to say handsome and slightly forbidding

[Susan Ciliberti · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book that uses many fresh ingredients. I made several of the meat dishes and they all were delicious. I plan to keep on cooking my way through the book!