The New Irish Table: 70 Contemporary Recipes

Had company over to dinner and used recipes out of book. They all raved about the food.

`The New Irish Table' and `Irish Puddings, Tarts, Crumbles, and Fools' by Irish-American culinary journalist, Margaret M. Johnson who seems to provide low end books covering Irish culinary practice, beginning with her `The Irish Heritage Cookbook', also from Chronicle Books. The middle ground, being the `Julia Child' for Irish cooking is Darina Allen, along with husband, Tim Allen and mother in law, Myrtle Allen, all of the Cork culinary powerhouse, Ballymaloe House and Cooking School. The high end of modern Irish cooking is held by Irish-American culinary academician and chef, Noel C. Cullen. The ethnographic corner of Irish / Celtic foodways is filled out by `Celtic Folklore Cooking' by culinary writer and folklorist, JoAnne Asala of Chicago. There are many more Irish cookbooks to cover between now and St. Patrick's Day, but this pretty much covers most major points on the culinary compass for Irish cooking. `The New Irish Table' and Cullen's `Elegant Irish Cooking' complement one another pretty well, as they both present recipes from modern Irish hospitality centers. The difference is that where Johnson is covering pubs and `bed and breakfast' style eateries, Cullen is covering dishes from Michelin one and two star restaurants in Ireland, as well as many of his own creations as a working chef, before he took up teaching at Boston University. Between these two featured books, Johnson's Desserts book is a much more valuable addition to your cookbook collection, as it includes a lot of fancy and holiday desserts which I have not seen in any other good book on Irish cooking. The best thing about this book and its companion is that like a lot of Chronicle Books, it seems to be on a fast track to the Bargain Book table, both real and on-line. That means that at half price, this book is a real bargain for the cookbook collector with a genuine interest in dessert baking. On the surface, this book seems to feature four basically different kinds of baking. The six chapters are: 1. Puddings 2. Tarts 3. Crumbles and Crisps 4. Fools and Flummeries 5. Tea Breads and Cakes 6. Christmas Treats Anyone familiar with English cooking will recognize in the first chapter a wide range of desserts which the Anglo-Irish all lump together under the name of `pudding'. Actually, most puddings remind me a lot of French Toast, more properly called `pain perdu' by the French. They are all different ways of combining day old bread, custard, dried fruits and the like into a treat for the sweet tooth. Puddings and tarts, together, form a collection of dishes very familiar to those who know English sweets. Crumbles and Crisps and Fools and Flummeries all seem remarkably like a style of dessert which is very popular in the United States and commonly associated with both the Pennsylvania Dutch and southeastern and south central styles of cooking. In Ireland, as in the United States, they are all primarily ways of combining stewed or jellied fruit with oats, milk and perhaps

Margaret Johnson has struck gold again. This book is a wonderful journey through the world of New Irish cooking. The pictures are breathtaking. These are recepies you will want to try out in your own home! Thanks again Mrs. Johnson for keeping us close to Ireland.

Margaret Johnson's latest book is a visual and culinary delight! Through her wonderfully ethnic recipes, Margaret invites all readers into her Irish family. My family usually has an italian course during its holiday celebrations, but Margaret's fare has inspired me so much that I am going to recommend that the red-sauced staples are replaced by the the delacacies outlined in this wonderful work (I just hope my mother-in-law agrees). Margaret--thank you for opening my eyes to this cuisine...you are an emerald jewel of Ireland!

I have been a fan of Margaret Johnson for many years now and her latest publication is her best yet! The beautiful pictorial presentation of this book is bested only by Margaret's poetic descriptions of Irish fare. The irish tastes described by Margaret will transform the reader (and chef) to the emerald isle. It is a journey that anyone with an ounce of irish blood cannot miss! The "irishcook" has done it again!! This book is a must have!!