564820 Tue Oct 14 17:19:55 -0700 2008 1 31 Home Cooking 0 4104598 I just received my preordered Alinea book today and wanted to see if anyone else had it. I've only skimmed it, but there's a lot of beautiful food there. It's organized by the four seasons, and there are a couple dozen dishes for each. Each dish has numerous components. I probably wouldn't find the time to make entire dishes, but I can definitely see making some of the sub-recipes. In some cases, it seems like the recipes must have been rewritten for home users -- for example, there were some frozen elements where it seems as if Achatz could have used an anti-griddle, but in the book they're put on sheets and put in the freezer. There's very little foam and a lot of gelatin. That's a quick reaction based on a skim, anyway. I notice a juicer and a dehydrator being used frequently. There's a lot of gelées and leathers. The recipe that jumped out at me as being relatively easy to make is the "salad" with a lettuce/spinach ice (slushie) topped with red wine vinegar ice. It's going to take me ages to get through this in detail... What do you think? Tue Oct 14 17:19:55 -0700 2008 231368 Pengale 1 4105869 Are you familiar with Carol from French Laundry at Home? http://carolcookskeller.blogspot.com/ She's going to be starting on Alinea soon: http://alineaathome.com/ Wed Oct 15 09:03:30 -0700 2008 4104598 87249 katecm