A Doggie Bag in a Book!

If you want to bring home the taste of your favorite foods from the restaurants you enjoy, you won't need a doggie bag, just this book!

In this book you'll find recipes that mimic food dishes from various famous restaurants. The recipes that I've tried were, in my opinion, exact replicas of the original. While others I can't vouch for since I've never tasted the originals, but tasty anyhow.

Layout
Todd Wilbur has written this book with an easy to follow layout, providing blueprint illustrations for his recipes. Some are quite comical.
All recipes are Step-by-Step and completely explained.
Todd stresses the importance of assembling your creation in the correct order to replicate its original flavor.

For example, The Hard Rock Café's Grilled Vegetable Sandwich when assembled according to the blueprint will taste like its counterpart.
From bottom to top: Bottom Roll, Parsley, Mayo, Zucchini, Yellow Squash, Eggplant, Red Peppers and so on. Should you place the Red Peppers in a different location, it will affect the final taste of the sandwich. This explains why McDonalds assembles their Big Mac's in a certain order. It works. I've tried it!
In the beginning of each recipe, Todd gives an overview of the restaurant and or the history of the dish you are trying to create. Many have interesting beginnings such as Ruth's Chris Steakhouse and Big Boy.

What I Like
Living here in Connecticut, I don't have the opportunity to visit restaurants in other parts of the country, since many are regional. This is a way for me to experience the tastes of many food establishments on the "Left Coast", in the comfort of my own home.
Some of my favorites include, Planet Hollywood's Pizza Bread, Hard Rock Cafe's Grilled Veggie Sandwich and Tony Roma's BBQ Sauce.

His web site http://www.topsecretrecipes.com is well worth the visit since there is an archive of several hundred recipes not found in his books and some include a video of Todd concocting his creations.

What's Missing
I would have liked to see a breakdown on calories, fat content and so on. It's nice to know what we're putting in our bodies sometimes! ;)

When Do I Use This Book?
This is one of those books that I let sit there on the bookshelf until I get the urge to actually do some work preparing a meal. Usually I reserve recipes from this book for the weekends. By this I mean, when I get home from work I don't want to get a cookbook out and follow directions! I'm a man for crying out loud. I can't follow directions. (at least that's what my wife tells me) ;)
I want to cook on the fly! You know what I mean? A pot of water another pot with a can of tomatoes a few spices and Presto! Spaghetti dinner.

Overall
I must admit that before this book came out I spent many hours trying to duplicate foods from restaurants, not to save money but as a challenge, one of them being Kentucky Fried Chicken. My wife is not always a fan of me being in the kitchen, especially when I remove the mixer before allowing the beaters to fully stop. (I hate when that happens!)
I enjoy experimenting in the kitchen, trying different things to enhance the flavor of foods without adding unnecessary fats and cholesterol, so when I saw this book and glanced through it, I found many recipes that were capable of being converted to a lower fat version. Most are not convertible, such as the Outback's Bloomin Onion and others. No way of getting around that Deep Fat Fryer.
This book is by no means a low fat, low cholesterol book, a few recipes are, but for the most part they are good for the taste buds and bad for your body. By carefully substituting fatty ingredients with a suitable substitute, for example egg substitute in place of whole egg, it's possible to create a dish worthy of serving to family and guests.
You won't have to worry about many cookbook reviews from me; I'll stick to computers for now!