The White Dog Cafe Cookbook: Recipes and Tales of Adventure from Philadelphia's Revolutionary Restaurant

It is rare that I feel the need to write a cookbook review. I own quite a few cookbooks, and rarely use so many recipes from any one source that I feel qualified to write a review. The White Dog Cafe Cookbook is a happy exception. I realized lately that I almost feel guilty cooking for friends from this cookbook. I get all kinds of compliments for the meal, but the inventive and clever recipes are easy to follow and difficult to mess up. The book deserves the compliments, and not the chef! The recipes are strongly influenced by classic French cooking, but have a strong American twist to them. Even my snobby European husband allows that this is excellent for an American cookbook. :) It is the fine use of spices and the little inventive twists that make the food so good. I cooked several recipes from this book for my expat Thanksgiving meal, and they were enormous hits. One guest described the mashed potatoes with chevre and roasted garlic as being "food crack". When I lived in Philadelphia as a grad student, I used to go to White Dog every time I could find a few dollars to rub together. They never treated students like second class citizens. They were always happy to let us share a main course and the food was always delicious. I am delighted to say that the cookbook itself is just as accessible and tasty.

I own lots of cookbooks (over 200) and the White Dog Cafe cookbook is one of my favorites. I have tried about half of the book's recipes and have never been disappointed. The recipes are interesting, using ingredients that non-professionals can find easily. The techniques are easy and the food is very tasty. The food is also creative and can be made (even for the first time)without a household staff of 12! The White Dog Cafe's Black Bean Soup is the only version I really like and I have made it several times. The social philosophy of the authors is an added bonus.

I use this Cook Book all the time when I want to prepare a special meal without much effort or fuss. The White Dog Cafe Cookbook has never failed me: all of the recipes I've tried yield yummy food with a bit of a kick.The White Dog Cafe is a progressive and socially-responsible restaurant in Philadelphia. While I've never eaten there, the next time I'm out that way I'm going to give it a try because the recipes here are so excellent. The Soups, Salads and Light Meals, Main Courses, and Desserts sections are the ones I use most often. The Soups are fantastic. I'm a real soup lover, and am always looking for new and (more exciting) soups to try. Our favorites are the Sweet Potato and Lemon Grass Soup with Peanut Pesto (a Vietnamese-inspired dish), the Curried Aplle Bisque, and the French Mushroom Soup. The salads are equally impressive, especially the Warm Mushroom Spinach Salad which always wins great praise at dinner parties. Many of the main courses require demi-glace (kind of a pain) but the Chicken and Mushrooms in Marsala-Sage Sauce is excellent, as is the Rosemary-Mustard London Broil with Wild Mushroom Glaze. In desserts the Apple-Cranberry Deep-dish Streusel Pie has become a Thanksgiving tradition, and the Milk Chocolate Cream Pie will please all chocolate lovers, kids, and kids at heart.I don't think you will be disappointed if you buy this book, but will turn to it again and again.

I love this cook book. I love reading it. I love cooking from it. If you are looking for something different to read or to cook, this is the book for you. The Black Bean soup is the best I have found. The layered meat loaf is wonderful. The authors' commitment to good food and good community is inspiring, and reminds me of the role food - its preparation and its consumption - can play in making the world a better place.

Activist, cook, restaurateur, envisionist, and humanitarian are just a few words that could describe the founder and owner of Philadelphia's White Dog Café, which Conde Nast Traveler called one of fifty American restaurants worth the journey". Judy Wicks, who started the restaurant in 1983 joins with her partner/chef, Kevin Von Klause, to write the White Dog Café Cookbook published by Running Press. I have to be honest, when I first received this book to review my mind wasn't enthusiastic. I had heard of the activism of the owners, and just thought this would be a book pushing their personal philosophies and ideas. In a way, I was right, but in many more I was way off. This book shows compassion and dedication. While I may not understand, right now, where they stand on issues, I do understand that they bring people together with food and not only locally or regionally but globally. The book is more than a cookbook or a journey through incredible lands (which I have to admit, I would love to go on one of their next trips) but it is a story and true and heartfelt book. My biggest problem with restaurateurs, chefs or TV personalities usually trying to write a book for the first time, is that they are put together without much thought or planning, they are publicity gimmicks by the publishers or agents and that the people aren't ready to put a book together. White Dog Café Cookbook has become one of the few exceptions. For those of you that have followed my reviews, you will know that one of my pet peeves about cookbook writers, are the ones (or their editors or publishers) that do not lay their books out properly, and too many times have their readers turning the pages to finish recipes. This book has kept almost every one of them on one page. Each recipe also included a brief introduction. Many of the recipes offered "other ways to do it". And the few that offered hard to find ingredients gave you option for substitution. My only complaint on this book really was that many of the personal photographs throughout the book were a little to dark and the recipe names were long. The recipes included Oysters Stewed in Thyme Cream with Thyme Croutons, Sherried Lobster and Shrimp Crepes, Basil-Dressed melon and Prosciutto with Black Pepper-Orange Mascarpone, Ratatouille Bisque, Desert Garden Gazpacho with Margarita-Scallop Seviche, Creamy Mussel Chowder with Sorrel, Spinach and Fennel Salad with Curried Pears and Gorgonzola, Toasted Brioche with Ham and Brie, Moroccan-Spiced Lamb Burger with Pepper Relish, Smoked Chicken in Rosemary Cream with Bow-Tie Pasta, Spicy Chevre-stuffed Chicken Breasts with Roasted Corn Salsa, Chilled Roast Beef Tenderloin with Horseradish Crème Fraiche, Center-Cut Pork Chops with Gorgonzola-Walnut Stuffing and Ruby Port Glaze, Caribbean Grilled Mahi Mahi with Tropical Fruit Salad, Tomato and Sweet Corn Risotto, White Cheddar and Red-skinned Potato Gratin, Roasted Vegetables Balsamico, Roasted Red Pepper and Sh