Cook Like a Rock Star: 125 Recipes, Lessons, and Culinary Secrets: A Cookbook Hardcover – Illustrated, October 4, 2011

Bought it for my wife as she is a huge fan of Anne! She loves the beginning where she talks about kitchen must-haves, and cannot wait to get cooking!

This is my first review and I own several hundred cook books so this endorsement does not come lightly. When I say I own a lot of cookbooks.. I really do. I have How to cook everything, On cooking, professional chef, professional cooking, modernist cuisine, martha stewart cooking school, etc.. just to name a few. While all okay books, none compare to Anne's. Now, I will say this, it does help to have basic cooking knowledge, but Anne has kind of eliminated the need when she does her recipes. For example, a recipe might call for 2 tbsp of flour and butter (which is of course a roux) and then add it to chicken stock (which of course is now a veloute). But Anne doesn't use any of these terms. Instead, you might add the flour and butter until its like wet sand and then add the chicken stock. This makes it more friendly for most audiences. If you know the side knowledge, great, if not, it really doesnt matter. You get to see how it works first hand.I agree with other people how it makes you feel like you CAN cook. My friend used it to finally make home made chicken stock. They were always way too intimidated before. But with Anne's way, it just seemed so easy. There is no actual recipe for chicken stock in the book, but there is a recipe for chicken noodle sooup, so they used the quantities from that to make it and it came out reeeaaallly good.I have seen other people say that some of the recipes did not come out well. To that, I say they should be on the worst cooks in america because so far, I have had zero issues. Everything comes out great.Keep in mind of what you're buying. This is not a how-to-cook book. Its an actual cook book that has a lot of techniques and tips along the way. Its the perfect book to go along with any simple how-to book because you can see how you'd use techniques in real life for real meals.

I really enjoy watching Ann on THE FOOD NETWORK, she seems to have things under control in the kitchen and she's empathetic towards people she's working with. I like the layout of the recipes in this book and the photos are great. The one recipe that I've already tried, Chicken Thighs With Mushrooms And Almond Puree turned out very tasty and aromatic. I didn't have blanched almonds so I tried using roasted almonds instead. I tried to blanch them after setting them in boiling water for one minute but I couldn't peel them. I guess they needed to be raw to be able to blanch them so I pureed them with their skins on. I want to try the recipe again with blanched almonds and will then decide whether to use almond puree at all or thicken the recipe another way. Might also be better to know how much salt to add instead of just saying kosher salt. I usually use sea salt but I was trying to follow the recipe as close as possible. Maybe kosher salt is easier to use too much of because I usually don't have a salting problem. Anyway, mine came out just a tad too salty. The only other thing was that she doesn't recommend using dried herbs and I have a hard time always finding fresh herbs. The closest big city is more than an hours drive away and even then I can't always find the fresh herbs that I'd like to use. I do prefer the fresh herbs as well. Luckily I did have fresh thyme for this recipe but I didn't have the Butcher's Twine so I wrapped it in cheese cloth instead and it worked great. Maybe an alternative to using Butcher's Twine could have been helpful but all in all I think it deserves five stars. Thank you Ann!!

MUCH lower price than I could find anywhere else (with prime free shipping as well, although shipping took a few extra days)

have been a fan of Anne Burrell's, ever since I spotted her on Food Network as Mario Batali's Sous Chef. I've watched her pave her way to Chef Rock Star success, when Food Network gave her own TV Show "Secrets of a Restaurant Chef". I love Anne's quirkiness, and she is definitely a chef. I've made MANY of her recipes, and blogged about them. I received this cookbook, yesterday, and I'm thoroughly enjoying Mario Batali's intro, and her introduction. She says that "the purpose of this book is to teach you how, in a fun way, to cook-- or to help you expand your skills and our repertoire if you're already comfy in the kitchen." I've read the first two categories, and I've already bookmarked quite a few recipes I cannot wait to try! I love Anne's little sayings, and she's shared some excellent tips. for example, (page 49) she shares that polenta is a "salt eraser" and if you don't salt abundantly in the early step (adding salt when bringing to a boil), you'll never recover. Who knew?!I'm not a classically trained chef, but I feel very comfortable in the kitchen. Anne's recipes are unique, some have an interesting twist to classics (such as Cipolline Tempura p. 52)-- as an option to onion rings. The photography is beautiful, as are Anne's "Mis En Place" lists, rather than ingredient's listings. I'm big on Mis En Place, and Anne really emphasizes that this is key in successful cooking. I will update my review, as I begin to make her recipes. I'm ready to start on one right now!