Secret Restaurant Recipes
from the World's Top Kosher Restaurants
By Leah Schapira and Victoria Dwek
Artscroll/Mesorah Publications
Another "can't put it down" cookbook from the pair we all have grown to love and admire, Leah Schapira and Victoria Dwek. This time, they have taken us behind the scenes in some of the world's best kosher restaurants and shared some techniques, tricks and amazing recipes from internationally acclaimed chefs. Each recipe is recreated for the home cook, and accompanied by a full color photo.
Leah Schapira and Victoria Dwek are co-authors of the popular "Made Easy" cookbook series. Leah is a self-taught cook, and co-founder of Cookkosher.com. Victoria is a busy journalist and managing editor of Whisk published weekly by Ami magazine. They have once again put the "wow" into a cookbook publication. The recipes are globally sourced –New York, Chicago, LA, Boston, Canada, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Mexico, Italy, Panama and Israel. There are 288 pages, 65 restaurants and 80 recipes to devour. Each has been adapted to accommodate and inspire a home cook, accompanied by ingredient and technique explanations, and even pantry product advice. (They have inspired us! We are going to finally relent and buy the pricey but "magical" ingredient- truffle oil.)
As we have shared before, Leah and Victoria, seem to have boundless energy, evident in their creative, contemporary, and diverse cookbooks.
We asked Leah and Victoria: Was it difficult and time consuming to motivate so many chefs to share their recipes?
V: If it were easy, someone would have done this a long time ago! The difficult part wasn't convincing them...for the most part, restaurants are happy to be part of a project like this. The difficult part was getting them to actually sit and write the recipes down. Chefs aren't the type of people who are in front of the computer. Let's just say we were extremely persistent. No one was able to forget about us for too long.
L: I think the American Chinese recipes we received were the hardest to understand, probably because the chefs don't speak English, or their English is hard to understand. So I headed down to the restaurants to watch the chefs prepare those recipes live. I ended up videoing the chefs preparing the dishes and watching it and rewatching it until I got the recipe down pat.
KosherEye is certain that you will want to try many of the recipes in this book, especially because they have been "secret" up until now. We think that you will enjoy the simplicity, yet sophistication of Secret Restaurant Recipes, and your journey through the world of kosher restaurant dining.
Here are two recipes from Secret Restaurant Recipes by Leah Schapira and Victoria Dwek - reprinted with permission from the copyright holders: ArtScroll/Mesorah Publications:
Eggplant Chicken in Garlic Sauce
Segal's Oasis Grill, Owner Daniel Gilkarov, Phoenix, AZ
Rockport Salad
Milk Street Café, Boston, MA
Owner Marc Epstein; Chef Laura McDaniel
Cookbook Giveaway: A randomly chosen winner will receive a copy of Secret Restaurant Recipes from the World's Top Kosher Restaurants
Giveaway limited to continental U.S. only. If not living in continental U.S, you can still enter and, if selected, "gift" your prize to a continental U.S. friend or relative. The winner will be notified by email. Once notified, the winner must respond within 48 hours or the prize will be awarded to the runner-up.
If you just can't wait to see if you are the winner, you can order online at Secret Restaurant Recipes From the World's Top Kosher Restaurants
This fabulous giveaway ended at 11:59PM, January 7, 2015. The lucky winner is Susie Bensoussan, Rochester, NY.