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Emeril's Delmonico: A Restaurant with a Past
For more than 100 years, Delmonico has embodied the spirit of New Orleans. First opened in 1895, Delmonico Restaurant and Bar in New Orleans reopened its doors a century later to tremendous acclaim as Emeril's Delmonico. In his latest cookbook, America's favorite celebrity chef presents a collection of recipes that are adapted and simplified for home cooks, featuring a combination of Creole classics and Emeril's kicked-up creations. Emeril's Delmonico is full of recipes for hearty, innovative food steeped in New Orleans style. Illustrated with both contemporary full-color and vintage black-and-white photographs, Emeril's Delmonico paints a lively, evocative portrait of Emeril's classic cuisine and the rich culinary history of New Orleans.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2005
About the author
Emeril Lagasse
57 books41 followersEmeril John Lagasse is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur, television personality, and cookbook author. A regional James Beard Award winner, he is perhaps most notable for his Food Network shows Emeril Live and Essence of Emeril as well as catchphrases such as "kick it up a notch" and "BAM!" He is a 1978 graduate of Johnson & Wales University's College of Culinary Arts. The "Emeril Empire" of media, products and restaurants generates an estimated USD$150 million annually in revenue.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 6, 2016
I've had such success with Emeril's recipes, unlike many other celebrity chefs, that I begin one of his cookbooks expecting it to be good. His chocolate bourbon pecan pie is my go-to for pot lucks. My husband makes his rosemary garlic turkey every Thanksgiving and his horseradish crusted beef tenderloin every Christmas. This is just a tip of all his recipes that have now become standards I make frequently. In other words, I'm a fan. So when I saw this cookbook at the used book store for a whopping $1.33, I couldn't give the clerk my money fast enough.
The original Delmonico's in New York closed after a few decades, but it's sister restaurant in New Orleans thrived. The original NOLA version mimicked the NY menu until it changed hands to an Italian family keeping many of the original recipes but adding some Italian flavor. Three generations of that family kept it going until 1997 when Emeril bought it, keeping many of the original recipes but now adding some Cajun/Creole options. This cookbook links all three versions by including recipes popular through all three phases from the original house salad and steak Diane to two versions of gumbo, turtle soup, and a bananas foster bread pudding. The history of the restaurant is included in the beginning, and each recipe has a description discussing its place on the menu, creation, or other interesting information.
I didn't make any of the drink recipes, choosing to focus on the food for this month. Despite a few of the recipes with hard to find ingredients (there is a handy source guide in the back for unique ingredients), I found all the ones I made to be relatively straight forward. I don't know that I would recommend any for beginning cooks, but only a mid-range of cooking knowledge is needed for most recipes as the instructions are incredibly detailed. These aren't recipes you can throw together in 30 minutes for regular weeknight dinners but found most could be made in under 2 hours if you have some extra time to make something fancy. As always with my cookbook reviews, I made all the recipes as written - except for one exception this time. Many call for homemade chicken or veal stock (recipes in the "Basics" section at the end of the book), and I bought mine. Yes, I bought stock instead of making it. The recipes came out great and I recommend you doing the same.
A few of the dessert recipes were almost too simplistic - i.e. a simple chocolate sundae - but the bananas foster bread pudding and the chocolate torte were big winners. Both will get made again and frequently. I've never before had much luck with making lamb, but the lamb chops with parmesan rosemary crust and Barolo syrup (a red wine sauce) came out amazing. I credit the detailed directions as much with this as the recipe since lamb can be finicky to get done but not dry. The best thing I made, and I seriously mean the BEST, was the spicy cream sauce as part of the crawfish appetizer. I can't get crawfish, so I made it with shrimp (a book recommended substitution) over puff pastry. The recipe details suggest trying the sauce in a variety of ways. Since making it the first time, I've made it again with shrimp over pasta, with sautéed chicken over cheese grits (grits recipe also from this cookbook), and as a sauce for one of the fish dishes in this book. I haven't yet tried it over ice cream, but I might. It is that good - the best cream sauce I've ever had much less made.
Well worth the price I paid. Every recipe I made was delicious even if at times complicated. I took off a star because there are several recipes I will never make such as smoking a whole duck (cost and sourcing) or turtle soup (love it in NOLA but aren't going to attempt to source it). Many of these recipes are available for free online from legitimate sources making the cookbook superfulous unless you just like having books like me.
The original Delmonico's in New York closed after a few decades, but it's sister restaurant in New Orleans thrived. The original NOLA version mimicked the NY menu until it changed hands to an Italian family keeping many of the original recipes but adding some Italian flavor. Three generations of that family kept it going until 1997 when Emeril bought it, keeping many of the original recipes but now adding some Cajun/Creole options. This cookbook links all three versions by including recipes popular through all three phases from the original house salad and steak Diane to two versions of gumbo, turtle soup, and a bananas foster bread pudding. The history of the restaurant is included in the beginning, and each recipe has a description discussing its place on the menu, creation, or other interesting information.
I didn't make any of the drink recipes, choosing to focus on the food for this month. Despite a few of the recipes with hard to find ingredients (there is a handy source guide in the back for unique ingredients), I found all the ones I made to be relatively straight forward. I don't know that I would recommend any for beginning cooks, but only a mid-range of cooking knowledge is needed for most recipes as the instructions are incredibly detailed. These aren't recipes you can throw together in 30 minutes for regular weeknight dinners but found most could be made in under 2 hours if you have some extra time to make something fancy. As always with my cookbook reviews, I made all the recipes as written - except for one exception this time. Many call for homemade chicken or veal stock (recipes in the "Basics" section at the end of the book), and I bought mine. Yes, I bought stock instead of making it. The recipes came out great and I recommend you doing the same.
A few of the dessert recipes were almost too simplistic - i.e. a simple chocolate sundae - but the bananas foster bread pudding and the chocolate torte were big winners. Both will get made again and frequently. I've never before had much luck with making lamb, but the lamb chops with parmesan rosemary crust and Barolo syrup (a red wine sauce) came out amazing. I credit the detailed directions as much with this as the recipe since lamb can be finicky to get done but not dry. The best thing I made, and I seriously mean the BEST, was the spicy cream sauce as part of the crawfish appetizer. I can't get crawfish, so I made it with shrimp (a book recommended substitution) over puff pastry. The recipe details suggest trying the sauce in a variety of ways. Since making it the first time, I've made it again with shrimp over pasta, with sautéed chicken over cheese grits (grits recipe also from this cookbook), and as a sauce for one of the fish dishes in this book. I haven't yet tried it over ice cream, but I might. It is that good - the best cream sauce I've ever had much less made.
Well worth the price I paid. Every recipe I made was delicious even if at times complicated. I took off a star because there are several recipes I will never make such as smoking a whole duck (cost and sourcing) or turtle soup (love it in NOLA but aren't going to attempt to source it). Many of these recipes are available for free online from legitimate sources making the cookbook superfulous unless you just like having books like me.
August 27, 2009
I have come to enjoy Emeril Lagasse's Food Channel show. "Kick it up," "Bam," and "Oh, yeah, Babe" are some of his familiar remarks. The audience cheers as he adds essence or garlic to his works-in-progress.
The premise of this cookbook is interesting. The long-time grand restaurant in New Orleans, Delmonico, shut down in the late 1990s. If you're curious, yes, it had a strong tie to the original New York Delmonico. Emeril Lagasse decided to keep the restaurant going.
This volume begins by telling the story of this restaurant over the years--now well over 100 years old. The cookbook portion is organized in a fairly standard way--Drinks, Hors d'oeuvres, Soups, Salads, Brunch, Seafood, Poultry, Meat, Side dishes, desserts. The final segment provides recipes of the basic foundations of cooking, such as stocks, how to make clarified butter (I've never done it, but Emeril makes it easy for me to understand how to make this), and, as one might guess, Emeril's own spice mix, "Essence."
Some of these recipes are too much work for me. But others are interesting and dishes that someone like me can actually make. There is the old Delmonico House Salad (a specialty before Emeril took over the restaurant): broccoli, carrots, lettuce, beets, tomato, and the Delmonico dressing (itself comprised of mustard, A1 steak sauce, Worcestershire sauce, red wine vinegar, etc. Lots of ingredients, but fairly simply to make, if you have measured out all ingredients beforehand. I look forward to making this delicious sounding dish in the next few weeks.
One poultry dish that seems enchanting: Chicken Delmonico. As with many other recipes, the hardest work is up front, measuring out ingredients and having them ready when the time comes to deploy them. Boneless chicken breasts (what the French call "supreme de volailles," I believe), Essence, artichokes, egg, onions, garlic, mushrooms, chicken stock, heavy cream, and so on (the list of ingredients is dizzying and exhausts me). But the end result sounds absolutely delicious. Another recipe that I intend to take a crack at.
Steak Diane is a tasty dish! This cookbook has one recipe for this classic. There is also a nice recipe for a side dish--roasted garlic smashed potatoes that is pretty straightforward. And so on and so on.
Again, there is a lot of preparation needed for the recipes, but many of them--once those first steps have been completed--are not terribly difficult. So, it looks to me like some patience and preparation can translate some of these recipes into delicious meals.
The premise of this cookbook is interesting. The long-time grand restaurant in New Orleans, Delmonico, shut down in the late 1990s. If you're curious, yes, it had a strong tie to the original New York Delmonico. Emeril Lagasse decided to keep the restaurant going.
This volume begins by telling the story of this restaurant over the years--now well over 100 years old. The cookbook portion is organized in a fairly standard way--Drinks, Hors d'oeuvres, Soups, Salads, Brunch, Seafood, Poultry, Meat, Side dishes, desserts. The final segment provides recipes of the basic foundations of cooking, such as stocks, how to make clarified butter (I've never done it, but Emeril makes it easy for me to understand how to make this), and, as one might guess, Emeril's own spice mix, "Essence."
Some of these recipes are too much work for me. But others are interesting and dishes that someone like me can actually make. There is the old Delmonico House Salad (a specialty before Emeril took over the restaurant): broccoli, carrots, lettuce, beets, tomato, and the Delmonico dressing (itself comprised of mustard, A1 steak sauce, Worcestershire sauce, red wine vinegar, etc. Lots of ingredients, but fairly simply to make, if you have measured out all ingredients beforehand. I look forward to making this delicious sounding dish in the next few weeks.
One poultry dish that seems enchanting: Chicken Delmonico. As with many other recipes, the hardest work is up front, measuring out ingredients and having them ready when the time comes to deploy them. Boneless chicken breasts (what the French call "supreme de volailles," I believe), Essence, artichokes, egg, onions, garlic, mushrooms, chicken stock, heavy cream, and so on (the list of ingredients is dizzying and exhausts me). But the end result sounds absolutely delicious. Another recipe that I intend to take a crack at.
Steak Diane is a tasty dish! This cookbook has one recipe for this classic. There is also a nice recipe for a side dish--roasted garlic smashed potatoes that is pretty straightforward. And so on and so on.
Again, there is a lot of preparation needed for the recipes, but many of them--once those first steps have been completed--are not terribly difficult. So, it looks to me like some patience and preparation can translate some of these recipes into delicious meals.
January 3, 2010
A faithful compilation of the dishes at Delmonico's.
May 11, 2008
Beautiful cookbook! Right now I am collecting more for the autographs than actually cooking from them! :) Have autographed cookbook and autographed picture.
June 5, 2009
This is a more intereting read than it was a cookbook. Most of the recipes were not to my taste.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews