Eater: 100 Essential Restaurant Recipes from the Authority on Where to Eat and Why It Matters

by Eater, Hillary Dixler Canavan, Stephanie Wu (Foreword)

All the must-eat recipes from the most popular and influential restaurants across the country, brought to you by Hillary Dixler Canavan, the restaurant editor of the food and dining culture brand Eater and its dedicated team of experts

Foreword by Stephanie Wu, Editor-in-Chief of Eater

Eater’s dedicated team of on-the-ground experts live to drink, dine, and let you know what’s great, and the leading media brand’s debut cookbook includes the dishes that diners can’t stop thinking about, from the chefs and restaurants that have shaped our food culture. Sourced from the best street carts to pillars of fine dining and everywhere in between, this diverse, powerhouse collection features recipes that have been carefully adapted for home cooks.

You’ll be able to make lobster rolls like those from the quintessential Maine seafood shack McLoons, master the best migas in Austin care of Veracruz All Natural, perfect your pizza-making skills with help from Jon & Vinny’s and Una Pizza Napoletana, sip a martini as good as the one from iconic New York piano bar Bemelmans, bake Birmingham pastry chef Dolester Miles’s legendary cobbler, and much more.

Also packed with expert advice from chefs, bartenders, and sommeliers on easy ways to level up your meals at home—whether it’s building a celebration-worthy seafood tower, using a jar of chili crisp to quickly add depth of flavor to your cooking, sourcing game-changing ingredients and tools, or pairing sake with any kind of food— 100 Essential Restaurant Recipes From the Authority on Where to Eat and Why It Matters is a must-have for anyone who loves to dine out and wants to bring that magic home.

Includes Color Photographs and Illustrations

Genres: Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Cooking, Food

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2023

Reviews

[dessertcomes1st · Rating 5 out of 5]

A compilation of selected US restaurant recipes, this is a great book. Firstly, every recipe has a photo which is vital, and the text encourages the reader to interpret the ideas and flavors to try something that feels true to one’s skills and preferences.

Arranged in chapters from Brunch to Snacks and starters, Noodles, Mains, Sides, and Dessert, there are also helpful sidebars - i.e., how to make a great aperitivo: how to make your own coffee bar for a dinner party; how a tin of fish can be a good appetizer, etc.

For someone who doesn’t live in the US, this was an interesting snapshot of today’s restaurants and the food that everyone is eating right now. Most of the recipes seem doable and I am excited to try my hand at some of them.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was not inspired to try any of these recipes. Okay, maybe the strawberry cobbler - but even then I’d need 6 pounds of strawberries (8 pints)! These are NOT recipes for average cooks. Additionally they require some ingredients that are not readily available and some ingredients are quite pricy.

[E · Rating 1 out of 5]

So uninspiring! Back to the library.

[Erin Vasicek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the recipes tried so far seem to have been incorrectly portioned down from the full scale restaurant recipes or were missing minor steps. The filling for the delicata squash could have easily filled 4 not 2, the wedge salad was super spicy from too much cayenne/black pepper, and the strawberry cobbler doesn't ever say to cut them, etc. Hence the 3 stars. However, if you are comfortable with experimenting a little in the kitchen, these failures of the cookbook can be remedied by critical thinking. It was easy to gauge that the filling for the squash would be too much for 2 so I had already bought more. Before adding the cayenne and black pepper it did seem a bit excessive if you thought about it. And it made sense to slice the strawberries to help them macerate and to chill the dough before topping/baking. In the end, I actually did buy this cookbook (partly because it was steeply on sale) and plan to prepare other recipes, annotating the changes needed, as I think they are good starting points for deliciousness.

The passion fruit coconut tart? Incredible. No edits.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the perfect book if you ate something that you love and can't get back to the restaurant quickly enough, or want to share it with people. The recipes are close to the original (from what I could tell) in taste. They definitely skew to the West Coast (CA in particular), and Cali-Mex. And it was interesting to see what went into everything, to build all those layers of flavor. I also appreciated the entertaining and drink/service tips.

Most of these recipes are pretty involved. Whie the instructions are clear and there is a photo for each recipe, these are not easy recipes. This isn't an everyday cookbook, but worth it if there is something you have to try or have to recreate.

[Myria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this cookbook and there were more accessible recipes than I thought there would be. The Eater staff did a fantastic job of choosing and testing the recipes so that they could be recreated at home. I have about 25% of the recipes bookmarked to try out. I also liked all the helpful lists and pairings they included. This book is everything I’ve come to expect from the Eater brand.

[CSC · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engaging jaunt around the US, if not as comprehensive of all the country’s culinary offerings as I might have expected. Cities like NY and SF getting a disproportionate amount of space. Also sobering to see how many featured restaurants have closed just since this was published in the past year or so.

[Bill Rand · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of recipes from some of your favorite restaurants with additional detailed notes about the hospitality industry. They did a great job of adapting these for the home chef, but I feel like some indication of how complex the different recipes are would have been useful since it's hard to tell at a glance.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book. For me, it was the kind of cookbook I read for ideas and miscellaneous knowledge, rather than specific recipes.

[Damla E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A dream book to have! Favorite recipes from some of today’s best restaurants and chefs across the U.S. are collected and bound in this exquisite catalog that is accompanied by mouth-watering food photography. Dinner parties will never be the same🥂