Food to Die for

I checked the book out from the library because I am a huge Dr. Scarpetta fan. I was hesitant to make the recipies due to the lengthy list of ingredients in most of them, but the 4 recipies I have tried were amazing! I just made one of them tonight and I am still drooling over it. The fresh pasta is the BEST recipie I have tried (and I have tried a lot), and it makes a HUGE difference! The stew was soooo good, granted, it took a while, but it was worth it!!! I love this book, I plan to buy it. Worth the investment for the cook who loves great recipies!

As a Patricia Cornwell fan, I was dubious about buying a spin-off book and possibly destroying my image of Dr. Scarpetta. However, my curiosity (and stomach) finally overcame my reservations. This book is absolutely wonderful! I entertain often and our guests haved raved over every dish we've made from this book. I'm lucky enough to live in a state where fresh ingredients are easy to find, including fresh vegetables and the fresh mozzarella which is so prevalent throughout this book (it really makes a difference!) The tips on what to keep in the pantry are priceless, as are Patricia Cornwell's personal notes and snippets of her novels which pair with each recipe better than a fine wine, and gives the reader not only a recipe but the heart and soul and inspiration to warm your heart as well as your tummy.

The Kay Scarpetta series/books are for readers who like mystery and forensic science. Once I begin, I'll read until the book is finished. I'm Italian and was raised on 'ethnic' dishes. It's wonderful to read about the food Kay prepares throughout these books. I enjoy cooking, but my kitchen cannot compare to the one that "Kay uses"! I cook for joyous events, birthdays, holidays; I cook when I'm feeling down, angry, or need to let off some steam. As I read about the dishes being prepared by Kay, I can almost smell them simmering on her stovetop or baking in her oven! FOOD TO DIE FOR: SECRETS FROM KAY SCARPETTA'S KITCHEN; is a cookbook for the true Scarpetta fan. Dividing the sections of this cookbook based on the individual Scarpetta books; taking the paragraphs and dialogue from the individual book chapters and placing them alongside the recipie is a refreshing way to reminiscence about the prior books I read. Some of the recipies involve more ingredients and preparation time than what I am used to, but I'm going to give them all a try. Throughout the cookbook are notes written by the author, Patricia Cornwell. It gives her readers a little more insight into her books, characters, recipies; and of course for me - I still think Kay Scarpetta is Patricia Cornwell!

This book will be primarily of interest to those who have read and enjoyed the Kay Scarpetta novels, like to cook from scratch, and do not know much about how to make high quality Italian pasta dishes. I suggest you buy the book for yourself and try it out before giving it as a gift. For many people, this will not be an appropriate choice because of aversions to the death and danger themes in the novels, their own cooking interests, or their current level of cooking knowledge. For example, if I gave this book to my favorite Italian aunt, she would chase me out of the house with a pan in her hand, feeling that I had insulted her wonderful cooking! If you are like me, you enjoy the stories about Ms. Patricia Cornwell's fictional heroine, Dr. Kay Scarpetta, chief medical examiner of Virginia. While trying to save the lives of Virginia's citizens, her own life and those of her friends and family are often at risk. Where Shakespeare had his clowns and fools to relieve the tension, food helps in these novels. "After Scarpetta puts her hands on death all day, she needs to come home to abundant beauty, wine, and delicious food with family and friends." Ms. Cornwell reports that "like Scarpetta, I cook intuitively and sometimes whimsically." For example, she found that pizza crust turns out better with olive oil and honey. As a result, she thinks that "people should approach cooking with the heart and not as technicians." "Many of my signature dishes, such as my Scarpetta Stew, never come out the same way twice." "But I am all of my characters, so I can cook like Lucy and Marino, too." The restaurant recipes come from actual restaurants mentioned in the books. In some cases, the restaurants made up the recipes to respond to requests from patrons who are Cornwell fans. You get the addresses for the restaurants, as well, in case you would like to visit any of them. This unique cookbook combines several interesting and tasty elements: Excerpts from 11 of her novels referencing food (Postmortem, Body of Evidence, All that Remains, Cruel and Unusual, The Body Farm, From Potter's Field, Cause of Death, Unnatural Exposure, Point of Origin, Black Notice, and The Last Precinct); recipes of dishes mentioned in those books cooked by Dr. Scarpetta, her family or friends, and the restaurants the fictional characters visit; sidebars on how to prepare and store many basic Italian and French food ingredients and sauces; and gorgeous full-color photographs of each dish displayed on beautiful colored plates and printed on fine quality glossy paper. Almost all of the dishes can either be prepared quickly or by using advance preparation, completed quickly. So they are good for a person who wants a tasty meal after working all day. As an example of how this works together, each book's section opens with two pages of quotes. Unnatural Exposure includes the quote, "A shadow passed over her face as she opened a jar of horseradish." This section has Kay

This is a very special and unique cookbook. Many of the recipes are based on a dish that can be found in the Kay Scarpetta novels. As fans of the series know, the chief medical examiner of Virginia likes to relax by cooking in her very fancy kitchen and the results are always mouth watering. Her creator also likes to cook and the recipes that can be found in this book are easy to follow and the results are undeniably good. The table of contents is broken down in two ways. The first one is by the book the dish appears in and the second is by the different courses which include soups, appetizers, side dishes, dinner entries and desserts. This beautifully illustrated cookbook will be appreciated by anyone who likes to cook not just Scarpetta readers and is the perfect gift for the holiday season.Harriet Klausner