"Tyler Florence Inside the Test Kitchen" Book Review

I do a lot of cookbook reviews.  There's two reasons for that: 1.) I love to cook, and 2.) I collect cookbooks.  So whenever I see an interesting looking cookbook for review, I jump on it!  I will admit, when I first saw the cover for "Tyler Florence Inside the Test Kitchen," I wasn't very impressed.  It wasn't what I normally look for in a cookbook cover - a cover with beautiful food.  Instead, it looked kind of like a school notebook.  I though, "Tyler, what were you thinking?"  Then I opened it up and my opinion completely changed!

So what changed?  Well, I figured out why the cover looked like a notebook.  It was supposed to! Here's an excerpt from the back of the book:

"For years, while shuttling between his restaurants and TV shoots, Tyler's kept a notebook of ideas to push his own recipes out of their comfort zone. Now, for the first time in his career, he’s established a culinary lab where he can dive deep into the hows, whys, and why-nots of his cooking. He brings you Inside the Test Kitchen to see his experiments, the wins and the fails, and of course, the delicious, foolproof, and surprising recipes that come out of it."

Brilliant!!!  Most famous chefs publish their best recipes, but how many of them give you a sneak peek into how they came up with them?  And the inside of the book looks like a notebook as well - which is super creative.  I love the little hints and tricks that Mr. Florence passes along to us.  For example, in his recipe, "Stretchy Mac and Cheese," he explains how he and his test kitchen staff discovered that, in order to get really good, stretchy mac & cheese, you need to fold in cubed cheese instead of shredded cheese.  Brilliant!

Its safe to say that I'm enjoying this cookbook.  But my husband loved it as well!  I showed it to him after dinner the night that I received it and he was very impressed.  He was flipping through the book and picking out recipes he wanted me to make.  So, I guess I'd better get off the computer and start cooking!  ;)

I received a copy of this book, free of charge, from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review.