The Golden Door Cooks Light & Easy: Delicious Recipes from America's Premier Spa

Some cookbook's, such as Shirley O. Corriher's excellent Cookwise, focus on teaching; the recipes are merely there to aid each of the lessons. The Golden Door Cooks takes a more traditional approach focusing on the recipes themselves. The introductions to each recipe are generally short and usually involve a story about how much guests enjoy that particular recipe - and it is quite easy to see how they do. All of the recipes I've tried so far in this book have been delicious. It is a clear demonstration that for certain dishes you don't need loads of oil or cream to make them work (though Shirley will teach you that for some dishes they are!) The soups are a particular favorite of mine both in terms of flavor and ease of preparation. While the recipes of a cookbook like this one should weigh heavily in the grading, they are not the only thing. Organization and information architecture matter too, and here the book falls down. The Golden Door Cooks misses on some basic information like the time to prepare a recipe. The reader is left to sort through the various instructions in the recipe to try to add up the time for different steps and guess which ones can be done in parallel. Trying to do this for multiple recipes at once might require MS Project. The book also focuses on healthy cooking but doesn't make some of the calorie data clear. For example the Salmon with Dill Yogurt Sauce recipe is listed at 130 calories per serving, but the ingredient list includes the Parsnip Potato Puree that is listed at 200 calories per serving. So is the serving size for the puree different when served with the salmon? Does the calorie count for the salmon not include this one ingredient? The book leaves us guessing. While one might be able to intuit the answer in this case, the answer is not so clear when it asks us to drizzle Multi-Pepper Puree on top of the Creamed Corn Soup. Overall I can heartily recommend this book, but a little more care would have made it 5-stars.

Michel Stroot is a Belgian-born Chef with culinary experience from his life in England and the South of France. In The Golden Door Cooks Light & Easy he explores the fantasy spa life through beautiful descriptions and recipes you can make at home. He also gives advice on how to create a spa experience at home by eating outside or creating a sacred space for relaxing meals. The pictures of Zen gardens, ancient temple bells and natural surroundings give an additional cozy atmosphere to this cookbook. It is one of those books you'd like to jump into and I'm sure this cookbook has inspired many visits to San Diego, CA or the closest spa that could be found. Recipes you might find intriguing: Miso Soup with Tofu, Scallions and Enoki Mushrooms Vegetable, Chicken and Barley Soup Cabbage Hand Rolls with Gingered Wild Rice Apple Spice Muffins - Chef Michel Stroot uses applesauce and yogurt in place of butter and oil and also uses wheat flour and rolled oats. Curried Leg of Lamb with Currants, Mango and Deborah's Basmati Rice Broiled Lamb Chops with Whole-Grain Mustard and Belgian Root Vegetable Mash Seared Duck Breast with Cherry Sauce and Butternut Squash-Orange Risotto Each recipe is well organized with the ingredients listed in the order they are used. If you need to make a chicken stock, the page number is given for easy reference. The chicken stock recipe in this book is almost exactly how I've been making chicken stock since forever except now I've been using a leftover rotisserie chicken and the results seem to be about the same, if not more delicious. It works and it beats any stock paste mixed with water. You can freeze the stock and the flavor in soups will surprise you if you are used to using a bullion cube or stock paste. ~The Rebecca Review

The Golden Door Cooks Light & Easy: Delicious Recipes From America's Premier Spa by Michel Stroot (Executive Chef at the luxury southern Californian spa "Golden Door", is a one-of-a-kind cookbook featuring genuine "spa cuisine", with recipes that do not require butter or unnecessary fats, but rather rely on the seasonal freshness of ingredients. Easy-to-follow instructions for cooks of all skill levels offer professional level techniques for creating scrumptious and healthy dishes such as Vegetable Terrine Provencale; Turkey Basil Mozzarella Pizza; Rose Hip and Cranberry Tea; and many more appetizing dishes. An excellent and delectable compilation, the Golden Door Cooks Light & Easy is a welcome addition to any personal or professional cookbook collection.