Deadly Shade of Gold (Travis McGee Mysteries)
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • THE Definitive Travis McGee Novel
  • Growing pains...
  • MacDonald was a master & McGee was his masterpiece.
  • Extreme McGee
  • A bit dated
Deadly Shade of Gold (Travis McGee Mysteries)
John D. Macdonald
Manufacturer: Fawcett
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0449224422
Release Date: 1996-02-20

Book Description

Sam Taggart drops in from the past--and then drops dead. He leaves McGee with an ancient Aztec idol and a woman who leads him on a wild chase. Reissued with new cover art. 2 cassettes.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars THE Definitive Travis McGee Novel.......2004-10-23

It's curious to read some of the other opinions written about this incredible yarn. Obviously most other reviewers enjoy MacDonald and the McGee series. But the concerns posited by others represent some of the nuance and fabric of MacDonald's genius which yield his works of fiction, and the McGee series in particular, for what they are: GREAT LITERATURE. I believe MacDonald is the best novelist of the twentieth century.

The Deep Blue Goodbye, the first of the series, is typical of the first efforts of genius. The next books leading up to Gold are shorter stories with less convoluted, though quite satisfying story lines. Gold is my favorite (along with The Green Ripper for totally different reasons) because of its detailed and deeply diverse story line.

As in the entire McGee series Trav is narrating the adventure from his first person perspective with wit, self-certain insight and all-knowing and sometimes humble introspection. Yet overlaying his views is his basic flaw; the 60's existential man's man. Travis believes in himself, his abilities and the basic correctness of his philosophy for living. He lives and dies by them and they serve him well personally, though the dying always rubs off on those around him.

In one book he states he is 'wary of all earnestness'. That is a theme of his early and mid years. Later in the series he becomes more open to examinng his shortcomings, his mortality and wonders about his own self-serving motives in a way that suggests change is ultimately on the way, if he lives that long. His buddy Meyer is instrumental in moving Trav toward a more realistic and longer view of living and reality. The story of Travis ends aptly in the Lonely Silver Rain with real change unavoidable and much life still looming ahead. Of course at this point we lost the genius that was MacDonald in his early death, and left the real McGee fans to speculate about Travis' future.

But Gold is the story where Travis peaks in his physical strength and intellectual ingenuity. He is bullet proof and invisible when necessary. He is the great savior of shattered women, and deftly justifies himself in that role (as he does throghout the series, and is never adequately called on that self-delusion except by Jean in Silver Rain). In Gold the woman in need of saving is Nora. Of course like all the true "keepers", (which are legion in Travis' life), her lifespan is shortened tragically though Travis justifies his inocence in her fluke death.

As usual Travis makes his recovery of the treasure in an incomplete way at a cost that leaves him pondering the worth of the project. But also as usual his lack of insight into things other than the tangibilities of having life his own way cause depression and regret but no sense of repentance, loving more the dance to the drum-beat of his personal demon's rhythm. His belief only in the here and now and his professed agnosticisms help him justify the real mess his lifestyle and actions inflict upon him and his numerous true loves one book at a time. The result is periodic self-medication for his bouts with depression in alcohol overuse and intentional whoredoggery; the ying and yang of his beach bum life choice.

One of the fascinating aspects of Gold and the early books is the dialog in the vernacular of the era of the early 60s. MacDonald did us a great service in preserving the way people really talked in those days. Just as Shakespeare wrote in the language of his time, so did MacDonald. This is a strength of the series, seeing the changing American zeitgeist as Trav adventures through the early 60s to mid 80s.

One last interesting point of Gold (and there are many more; a lengthy dissertation could be written on the joys and convolutions of this brilliant novel) is the perspective we get of Travis' flawed yet upflappable morality. In the prologue chapters of Gold we learn that Sam and Nora were the real deal; for Travis a picture of what a life-mate connection should be. Trav's honey at the time was one Nikki, with whom he tried to immitate the passion and potential permanence that he saw in Sam and Nora's relationship. Later in Mexico Trav finds that he is heading the same way with Nora, and indeed she was a keeper. But Travis' fatal flaw (always fatal to the keepers) rears it's ugly head. Of course to Travis it is just the on-going poker game of life, playing the hands he is dealt and sometimes overbetting a hand he should have folded. But to Trav life just never stops being poker. And as in all games of chance, eventually the good run runs out.

Read this book. I do about once a year. I never tire of the brilliant mystery, the heart-racing action, the incredible characters, the just-like-you-are-there sense of place. Gold is the perfect vacation read at the beach or the book to study and understand the philosophy that lead us to the culture clash we see even today in 2004.

3 out of 5 stars Growing pains..........2004-09-04

A Deadly Shade of Gold is the 5th book in John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee series. In number 5, the gold in question is actually 28 ancient gold idols. An old friend from McGee's murky past gives McGee a call asking for help. Sam Taggart has disappeared for three years, and has been in some trouble. Taggart also has in his possession 28 gold idols from various ancient civilizations including Incan and Aztec cultures. But before McGee can render any assistance, Taggart is brutally murdered and all but one of the idols goes missing.

McGee goes on a quest to discover not only who killed his friend, but also to unearth the mystery of Taggart's 3 missing years. He also looks for the stolen idols. He gets assistance from Taggart's former fiancée, Nora, and this case takes him from Florida to Mexico and then to Los Angeles.

While I really enjoyed MacDonald's first four books, I found A Deadly Shade of Gold harder to read. This novel is double the length of his first four books and I wonder if MacDonald was experiencing some growing pains in trying to expand on this series. I found the plot extremely cumbersome in spots. It definitely lost momentum about two thirds of the way through. Also, it was hard to keep track of the many characters, and I found the Cuban connection a little confusing. Still, I would not discount MacDonald and will continue to read the rest of this series (21 books in all). His mastery of observation is nothing short of brilliant.

5 out of 5 stars MacDonald was a master & McGee was his masterpiece........2004-03-24

McDonald was a master & McGee was his masterpiece.

I was cleaning out some bookshelves not long ago and came across this book. It's been years since I'd read a Travis McGee novel so I decided to reread this one. That proved to be one of the best decisions I've made so far this year reading-wise.

Back in the 1960's John D. MacDonald wrote 21 Travis McGee books (along with a large number of stand alone books as well). They were among the most successful thriller/suspense books of the times and remain, in my opinion, one of the very best thriller suspense series of all time.

MacDonald utilized a very Hemingway-esque writing style-terse, to the point, very abrasive and macho. His characters were first rate across the board, whether they be a series regular or a bit player. Even inanimate objects came to e serious characters, as in Travis' car and houseboat. Also the series is easily distinguishable as all McGee novels titles use the name of a color in the title.

The books are dated in the sense that they use language and mannerisms common to the time. This is an observation, not a criticism. They are authentic to their time in every way and therefore are, essentially, timeless.

A Deadly Shade of Gold is a pretty standard McGee thriller. The story involves McGee's dual purpose of finding and avenging the killer's of an old friend who suddenly reappears in South Florida asking McGee for help while trying to recover a hoard of pre-Columbian gold figurines his friend says were stolen from him. The action moves from Florida to Mexico to LA and involves the usual MacDonald elements-exotic locales, unique, dangerous characters, unleavened greed, lots of action, romance and lots of explicit violence.

If you're tired of the run-of-the-mill, politically correct factory produced mysteries that seem to proliferate these days and want an authentic suspense/thriller experience, give Travis McGee a try-you won't be disappointed.

4 out of 5 stars Extreme McGee.......2002-04-12

"A Deadly Shade of Gold," the 5th in the Travis McGee series is bawdy and brutal; a bloody chase novel taking McGee from Florida to Mexico to LA. MacDonald has a wondrous sense of place and you can feel the sensuous breezes and see the spectacular sunsets he creates for you. There are a few creaky spots: Nora, Travis's love interest, is so `50's lady-like, you expect her to be white gloved and hatted even in the shower; -- all characters are super sun worshippers while the reader uneasily thinks about skin cancer. Be that as it may, it's a fine rousing tale with careful characterizations and Travis's philosophies served up painlessly.

Old buddy Sam Taggart, a three-year missing person, contacts Travis in dire need of his services as a salvage consultant. The deal sounds shady at best as Sam claims he is the rightful owner of 28 crude golden idols dating from pre-Colombian times. The hitch is 27 of the 28 have been stolen from him, and he wants them back. Sam is down on his luck and appears to be on the run. When he took off three years ago without a word, he left the beauteous Nora high and dry. Now he is back to redeem himself. Before Trav can get Sam and Nora together, or even decide whether he wants to accept Sam's offer, Sam is brutally murdered. Nora hires Trav to find the killer, but insists on accompanying him (natch) when the trail leads to Mexico. The action is fierce, retribution is swift and oh-so-well-described, and Trav and Nora find something more in common than Sam.

"A Deadly Shade of Gold" at 434 pages is long for a Travis McGee novel, but moves swiftly. MacDonald takes great care in setting up his locales, which makes for lovely reading. Though Sam exits early, he is with us throughout the book, and gradually an entirely different Sam emerges posthumously. This is handled cleverly by friend's ruminations, and we are allowed to derive our own conclusions. Travis is not yet fully formed; he's still pretty rough around the edges, but this novel sets the course for the future.

3 out of 5 stars A bit dated.......2000-12-29

A Deadly Shade of Gold was my first John MacDonald novel. It was written in the mid - 1960's, and read like it. The dialogue, metaphors and characters were terribly dated - think Sam Spade meets Jimmy Buffet in 1965 Ft Lauderdale and you've got the picture: the chauvinism, the Hemingwayesque machismo, the budding "youth culture" and of course the tropical south Florida sunshine. With that said, however, the book was a remarkably entertaining read. The plot twists kept me rivited to the story line (in spite of the by-now cliched characters). The occasional diatibes against the development of south Florida and the damage to the eco-system also made for entertaining asides - as well as a haunting foreshadowing of what was to come. But I think this will be my last John MacDonald novel. For my money, Randy Wayne White's south Florida sleuth "Doc Ford" is better. If you enjoy John MacDonald, you are sure to love Randy Wayne White.
A Deadly Shade of Gold
Average customer rating: Not rated
    A Deadly Shade of Gold
    John D. MacDonald
    Manufacturer: Fawcett
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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    ASIN: 0449142213
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    A deadly shade of gold (A Fawcett Gold medal book)
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      John D MacDonald
      Manufacturer: Fawcett
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Unknown Binding

      MacDonald, John D.MacDonald, John D. | ( M ) | Authors, A-Z | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
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      4 Titles in Travis McGee Series - A Tan and Sandy Silence - The Scarlet Ruse - A Deadly Shade of Gold - Darker Than Amber
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        Manufacturer: various
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        Product Description

        Multiple books shipped as one item. Save on Shipping/Handling charges.
        A DEADLY SHADE OF GOLD
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          A DEADLY SHADE OF GOLD
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          Manufacturer: A FAWCETT GOLD MEDAL BOOK
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Mass Market Paperback
          ASIN: B000OMO4IS
          A Deadly Shade of Gold
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            A Deadly Shade of Gold
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            Manufacturer: Gold Medal Books, 1949
            ProductGroup: Book
            Binding: Paperback
            ASIN: B000K5SFCK
            A Deadly Shade of Gold
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              A Deadly Shade of Gold
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              Manufacturer: Fawcett Gold Medal
              ProductGroup: Book
              Binding: Mass Market Paperback
              ASIN: B000GUDU6K
              Deadly Shade of Gold
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                Deadly Shade of Gold
                John D. Macdonald
                Manufacturer: Macmillan
                ProductGroup: Book
                Binding: Paperback
                ASIN: B000OILMX2
                a Deadly shade of Gold
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                  a Deadly shade of Gold
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                    Legends of Valor (Enchanted World)
                    Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
                    • Beautifully illustrated mythology
                    Legends of Valor (Enchanted World)
                    Brendan Lehane
                    Manufacturer: Time Life Education
                    ProductGroup: Book
                    Binding: Hardcover

                    Folklore & MythologyFolklore & Mythology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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                    ASIN: 0809452200

                    Customer Reviews:

                    5 out of 5 stars Beautifully illustrated mythology.......2004-12-09

                    This book is one in Time Life Books' The Enchanted World series. Each of these books covers a different aspect of folklore and mythology, and they are an excellent set. They tell stories in a similar format and complement each other well without repeating the content. Each is about 140 pages. This is a beautifully illustrated well printed volume. There is artwork both old and modern on almost every page.

                    Each chapter contains a section with general background on that theme and then a fairy tale that illustrates it. Stories are retold in a style that makes for a good read. These stories come from all over the world. Often there will be smaller illustrations and captions in the margins to the main story. These tell variations of the story and related stories from other cultures.

                    This is a beautifully bound and printed book. The binding is just cloth to collectors, but it is printed to look like a wizard's book. The cover shows a dragon holding a picture of a two knights locked in battle. I think it was the cover that got me reading this when I was child.

                    Chapters:
                    Lords of the Chariot and the Spear: A champion's schooling in another world
                    The Cruel Demands of Honor: Treachery of the Niebelungs
                    Brotherhood of the Round Table: Warriors on a world of wonders
                    The Noblest Quest of All: The great king's final battle

                    This is a well researched nicely produced series. For me one book in the series had me hooked. If you are interested in mythology and all things magic then it is definitely worth trying out the series. High school and middle school libraries should consider the series. This is an excellent companion to Time Life's The Fall of Camelot. These two fill in the gaps in one another, and the King Arthur legend comes to its end here. (As you can see from the contents this book covers other myths too.
                    Legends of Valor : The Enchanted World Series
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                      Legends of Valor : The Enchanted World Series
                      By the Editors of Time-Life Books The Enchanted World Series
                      Manufacturer: Time-Life Books
                      ProductGroup: Book
                      Binding: Hardcover
                      ASIN: B000QXWOR8
                      The Legend of Valor DC Annual 1991 #2 (Legion of Super-Heros DC Comics)
                      Average customer rating: Not rated
                        The Legend of Valor DC Annual 1991 #2 (Legion of Super-Heros DC Comics)

                        Manufacturer: DC Comics
                        ProductGroup: Book
                        Binding: Comic
                        ASIN: B000B6VR14
                        Legends Of Valor - The Enchanted World
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                          Legends Of Valor - The Enchanted World
                          Brendan and the Editors of Time-life Books Lehane
                          Manufacturer: Time-life Books
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                          ASIN: B000S16B9K
                          Valor;: The story of a dog,
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                            Valor;: The story of a dog,
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                            Replicant Night (Blade Runner, Book 3)
                            Average customer rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
                            • Not Free SF Reader
                            • Series killer
                            • A Really Bad Read
                            • Very Disappointing
                            • Mediocre read for those with a casual interest in BR
                            Replicant Night (Blade Runner, Book 3)
                            K.W. Jeter
                            Manufacturer: Spectra
                            ProductGroup: Book
                            Binding: Hardcover

                            United StatesUnited States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books | 18th Century | 19th Century | 20th Century | African American | Asian American | Classics | Collections & Readers | Drama | General | Hispanic | History & Criticism | Humor | Jewish American | Letters & Correspondence | Native American | Poetry | Short Stories | Women Writers
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                            5. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

                            ASIN: 0553099833
                            Release Date: 1996-10-01

                            Book Description

                            The Blade Runner adventure continues in this dark and stylish novel of nonstop futuristic suspense as ex-blade runner Rick Deckard must cross the most dangerous line of all--the line between human and android.

                            Rick Deckard had left his career as a blade runner and the gritty, neon-lit labyrinth of L.A. behind, going to the emigrant colony of Mars to live incognito with Sarah Tyrell.  But when a movie about Deckard's life begins shooting, old demons start to surface.  The most bizarre and mysterious is a talking briefcase--the voice belonging to Deckard's most feared adversary.  The briefcase tells Deckard that he's the key to a replicant revolution back on Earth.  Deckard must deliver the briefcase--the secret contents--to the replicants of the outer colonies before he is tracked down and killed.  Is the briefcase lying?  Who is really after Deckard?  And who is the little girl who claims her name is Rachael?  Once again Deckard is on the run from a sinister force determined to destroy him--and already closing in.


                            From the Paperback edition.

                            Customer Reviews:

                            3 out of 5 stars Not Free SF Reader.......2007-09-03

                            I suppose you could say this is bleak and getting bleaker. Replicant Night starts off with making a movie of Deckard's replicant hunting adventures, of all things.

                            Bizarre. Then there is the whole Tyrell woman love me or kill me scenario.

                            Presumably it is trying to bring into question whether anyone in the book, or even the reader, has any idea what is going on.


                            1 out of 5 stars Series killer.......2005-01-07

                            I enjoyed the moive, and the original and the blade runner 2 book. However, this book 3 is not worth the read. Once you start the book, it gives you teasers, and deckard the information but not you. So you wait and read to find out what deckard knows. Then when you do, it was not much. It reads more like a crime drama that takes place in a movie set than anything to do with science fiction. The author must have been hanging around movie sets at the time of writing. The book basically makes deckard look lame, he does nothing on his own, he only reacts to all these people feeding him different information. The story does not even make a good case for why he is picked for this information. Some author's write a private bible of the world they are writing about, then they write the book based on that world they created in their bible. However I get the feeling that this book is lacking so much information because the author never took the time to write a bible before the book and doe not know any of the answers himself to this world in the book. My advice is to stop at the second book. Don't let this book ruin the series for you. Too bad someone like Kevin Anderson did not write this.

                            1 out of 5 stars A Really Bad Read.......2002-05-06

                            There is little to recommend for this book. The only way I finished reading it was by reading only the first and last sentences of a paragraph. Near the end of the book, I was only reading the first and last paragraph of a chapter.

                            This book is really bad.

                            1 out of 5 stars Very Disappointing.......2001-01-25

                            Jeter's "Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human" was a fairly good read that captured most of the feel of the movie Blade Runner. (It's important to realize that these books are sequels to the film, not the Phillip K. Dick Book "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?") I got the feeling that Jeter's intention of his first sequel was to provide closure to what happened after the events of the film and would create new adventures in the Blade Runner future. Instead, in "Replicant Night", he goes right back to Los Angeles 2019 and revisits scenes that were done in the film. I felt I did not need those scenes embellished any further, I wanted something fresh. Unfortunately, there was nothing fresh about this book at all.

                            3 out of 5 stars Mediocre read for those with a casual interest in BR.......2000-06-25

                            The book could be condensed and made more enthralling without Jeter's constant references to the first two installments of the trilogy. This is especially true in the beginning of the book.

                            I wouldn't recommend it to die hard BR (movie) fans as it lacks the depth of the original. While the movie embellished existing technology and explored moral and philosophical questions surrounding it, this book is more of a fantasy/action story.

                            Nor will it be of much interest to someone new to the BR universe. Despite Jeter's constant references to past events, you really need to know the original story and how the characters fit into it.

                            That said, it's a decent read with some interesting plot twists towards the end. So, if you like sci-fi and have a casual interest in BR, this book may be of some interest to you.
                            Blade Runner, Replicant Night
                            Average customer rating: Not rated
                              Blade Runner, Replicant Night
                              K.W. Jeter
                              Manufacturer: Putnam
                              ProductGroup: Book
                              Binding: Hardcover

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                              ASIN: 185798420X

                              Book Description

                              Follow up to the bestselling sequel to Blade Runner the movie for fans of the movie and the Philip K Dick original story alike.
                              Blade Runner: Replicant Night
                              Average customer rating: Not rated
                                Blade Runner: Replicant Night
                                K. W. Jeter
                                Manufacturer: Bantam Books
                                ProductGroup: Book
                                Binding: Mass Market Paperback
                                ASIN: B000JBZMXA
                                Replicant Night :Blade Runner 3
                                Average customer rating: Not rated
                                  Replicant Night :Blade Runner 3
                                  K W Jeter
                                  Manufacturer: UNSPECIFIED VENDOR
                                  ProductGroup: Book
                                  Binding: Mass Market Paperback
                                  ASIN: B000PKRCYC

                                  Craft of Cooking: Notes and Recipes from a Restaurant Kitchen
                                  Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
                                  • Bad Title for this book. Should be Cooking of Craft
                                  • Puzzling with Possibilities
                                  • A Good Restaurant Cookbook, still a bit undercooked
                                  Craft of Cooking: Notes and Recipes from a Restaurant Kitchen
                                  Tom Colicchio
                                  Manufacturer: Clarkson Potter
                                  ProductGroup: Book
                                  Binding: Hardcover

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                                  ASIN: 0609610503
                                  Release Date: 2003-10-28

                                  Amazon.com

                                  Curing duck breasts and hanging them like hams in your refrigerator for three weeks may not be your particular pail of blueberries. Or brining a whole, 30-pound piglet as a precursor for making porchetta. But how about grilling a hangar steak and slathering it with a bordelaise sauce? Mind you, this is a sauce that calls for a bottle of dry red wine and three quarts of veal stock as well as the requisite vegetables. But that's the point here: the best imaginable ingredients and a lot of focused work leading to a sublimely simple outcome. Simple in this case being an ultimate grilled steak experience. The kind of experience dished up at Tom Colicchio's restaurant Craft. Craft of Cooking is Colicchio's way of making that same experience available in your own home.

                                  The author of Think Like a Chef is betting that if he shows you what he does in a commercial kitchen, it will have an impact on your home cooking. Because what he does in his kitchen is what he likes to eat at home. It's not about speed, and it's not about convenience. It's about making food taste great without fanfare or pretension. The book breaks out in major ingredient sections, meat, fish, vegetables, and the like. Subsections in meat, for example, include charcuterie, roasting and grilling, and braising. Some of the recipes, like the one for baby lamb, are simply too big for the home kitchen. But Colicchio wants you to see what he's up to. He wants you to think about it. There are long asides about various products--the hangar steak, mesclun, beurre fondue--called ingredient portraits. And there are notes that detail how all the elements of a restaurant from prep to wine service fit together.

                                  For anyone who simply loves to read delicious recipes, this is an elegant book. For those home cooks with some experience--skilled amateurs--Craft of Cooking is a challenge as well as a portal to a whole new realm of fine cuisine. --Schuyler Ingle

                                  Book Description

                                  From Tom Colicchio, chef/co-owner of New York’s acclaimed Gramercy Tavern, comes a book that profiles the food and philosophy of Craft, his unique restaurant in the heart of New York’s Flatiron district, and winner of the 2002 James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in America. From its food to its architecture and menu design, Craft has been celebrated for its courageous movement away from culinary theatrics and over-the-top presentations, back to the simple magic of great food.

                                  Realizing that his own culinary style had grown increasingly unembellished, and gambling that New York diners were experiencing that same kind of culinary fatigue (brought on by too much “fancy food”), Colicchio set out to prove that the finest food didn’t have to be the most complicated. From its opening in March 2001, Craft offered diners simple, soulful dishes centered around single ingredients that went on to shake up many people’s ideas of what “restaurant food” should be like.

                                  Craft of Cooking leads you through Colicchio’s thought process in choosing raw materials—like what to look for in fresh fish, or how to choose the perfect mushroom—to show that good food is available to anyone with access to a good supermarket, farm stand, or gourmet grocery. The book also features “Day-in-the-Life-of-Craft” portraits, which offer a fascinating, behind-the-scenes glimpse at areas of the restaurant beyond the dining room. These segments allow the reader to peer into the fast-paced prep kitchen, to witness the high drama of reservations, and to get a taste of the humor and empathy necessary to serve New York’s colorful visitors and foodies.

                                  And then there are the recipes. Craft of Cooking presents 140 recipes that range from the simplest dish of spring peas to roasted fish; from lush but effortless braises to complex brining and curing of meat for homemade charcuterie, included to give the reader a “fly-on-the-wall” experience of visiting the Craft kitchen for themselves. Dishes are divided–like the Craft menu itself–into categories of meat, fish, vegetables, potatoes, grains, desserts, and pantry, and then further delineated by technique–roasting, braising, sautéing, etc.–with abundant suggestions and technical tips. Using Tom’s straightforward and friendly voice, Craft of Cooking offers recipes suited to any purpose—from a quick family meal to a festive dinner party for twelve.

                                  As he did in his James Beard award-winning book, Think Like a Chef, Colicchio uses Craft of Cooking to teach, tell his story, and offer inspiration to cooks of any skill level. With more than 100 full-color and black-and-white photographs, Craft of Cooking is destined to become a staple of home cooks everywhere—the one “restaurant cookbook” they can’t live without.

                                  Customer Reviews:

                                  2 out of 5 stars Bad Title for this book. Should be Cooking of Craft.......2004-03-02

                                  I was very let down by this book. This book is mainly about how the cooking is done at Craft and has little to do with the "Craft of Cooking". I really doubt that I will ever need to know how to cook a 150 LB. lamb. Even at that the instructions are so basic as to be usless on how to break down the lamb. I would do like I think most would and leave this in the hands of my very valuable butcher.
                                  The book has an arrogance that I find very annoying and will not buy any other books by this author.

                                  4 out of 5 stars Puzzling with Possibilities.......2004-01-06

                                  Teetering between 3-6 stars, this cookbook causes that reaction, even if among one reviewer. It is simple, plain yet sophisticated and intricate. It smacks of the intensity of French Laundry, yet doesn't have the sizzle of ingredients and new process.

                                  Here, Colicchio submits what he cooks at home in order to teach us what to become as home wanna be chefs. Same old, same old --- best of ingredients prepared with correct technique and walla --- crafted food.

                                  Some truly inspires --- Sturgeon wrapped in proscuitto, Lemon Steamed Pudding, Braised Striped Bass.

                                  Yet, disappointing in that so much is likely never to hit my menus. Maybe more towards five/six for others.

                                  4 out of 5 stars A Good Restaurant Cookbook, still a bit undercooked.......2003-11-14

                                  I anticipated many good things in this new Tom Colicchio cookbook, based on the title and the author's excellent first book, `How to Think Like a Chef'. My first surprise was that the title mislead one to think it was a general book on cooking skills. Instead, it is an exposition on the cooking at Colicchio's Manhatten restaurant Craft and the title was really a play on words. A much more accurate title would have been `Cooking of Craft'. The author does not hide this fact. In the `How to use this book' section, Colicchio states clearly that the audience for the book is `a skilled amateur or enthusiastic hobbyist' where `speed and convience are probably not your first focus here'. As the content `this is a book that sets out how things are done in one restaurant, Craft'. My second surprise was based on the fact that Colicchio's stated goal for the cuisine of `Craft' was to make the kind of simple, well prepared food he makes at home. Well.... When you throw in the `...prepared well...' qualifier with a bunch of extremely talented, obsessive corp of chefs working in the Manhatten restaurant market, you get something which no home cook in their right mind would consider `simple'. I'm exaggerating a bit, since, as I will cite below, there is much of value for simple fare, but there is no evidence of this simplicity in the opening section on meats. In fact, the opening section in the meats chapter is on `charcuterie', a term which the author does not even bother to explain. This IS rough going for newbies, especially since charcuterie is one of the fussiest and most time consuming of classic cuisinary techniques. But, it does get better.

                                  The book is divided by eight simple sections, in which there are rewards for the skilled amateur. These are:

                                  Meat - This section answers a question I have always had about restaurant food. How does the restaurant kitchen handle preparing braised dishes, when most braises worth their salt often take hours to achieve the fall off the bone tenderness. The solution is obvious, based on the fact that braisees often taste better the next day. Viola, they are prepared a day ahead and reheated. These recipes show you how.
                                  Fish - Very sound. Nothing ground breaking. The usual litany on using fresh ingredients.
                                  Vegetables - Here is where the objective of simplicity starts paying off. Very good, truly simple recipes here, as long as you have a good supply of stock preparations at the ready.
                                  Mushrooms - This section and the next are worth the (discounted) price of admission. Well done fussiness.
                                  Potatoes - Actually found some reasonably simple recipes I have not seen before, and the compulsive obsessive twist on the classics.
                                  Grains and beans - A few oddities. Sound stuff.
                                  Dessert - A rather nicely large selection of recipes, highlighted by the large number of fruit compotes.
                                  Pantry - The usual stock in trade. The recipes for fumet and ramp butter are interesting, and the classic French term and technique buerre fondue is new to me.

                                  I am a compulsive book buyer, and my only criteria for being satisfied in a purchase of a technical book is if it had one idea I have not found anywhere else. In this book, it would be the restaurant kitchen's techniques for preparing braises. On the other side of the coin, there is a fair amount of material which may be only for the armchair, unless you wish to make your own puff pastry or roast you own whole baby lamb. Tony Bourdain is alive and well at craft, it seems.

                                  The cuisine is based in the recipes of Italy, probably northern Italy, although I am sure Mario Batali would sneer at all of the frenchified stocks and techniques. No simple brodo here, thank you.

                                  In this mixed bag of eye candy and practical advice, there are a few problems which are not worthy of the care the author and his staff devotes to the food of craft.

                                  First, there are misspellings. I found, for example caul fat misspelled in a head note.
                                  Second, there are erroneous page references. Things on page x weren't there. They were a page later.
                                  Third, the recipe writing style was inconsistant. Some prep steps accompanied the list of ingredients and other prep steps were in the body of the method. When I saw Danny Meyer and Michael Romano of Union Square Café make a point of putting all prep work with the ingredients list, I thought it was trivial. It aint.
                                  Fourth, there are mistakes in simple kitchen chemistry. For example, a recipe says that one applies heat to a mixture of sugar and cream and wait for the sugar to melt. Please. The proper term is dissolve.
                                  Errors of this type lost this book it's fifth star.

                                  I noticed this same type of carelessness in the copy editing of Diana Kennedy's new book, also published by Clarkson Potter. I would expect better from a company with such a large presence in the cookbook market. On the plus side, I do notice that Clarkson Potter binds their books to lay flat on the table and be bound very securely to take a lot of wear. The photographs seem to be a wash. They are no better than what one would expect.

                                  This book is truly for the food hobbyist and cookbook collector. It does nothing for people who want easy, fast, cheap, or low calorie. It's secrets require some work and some experience to mine.

                                  Books:

                                  1. Dearly Devoted Dexter: A Novel
                                  2. Death of a Dentist (Hamish Macbeth Mysteries)
                                  3. Death of a Prankster (Hamish Macbeth Mysteries)
                                  4. Death of a Snob
                                  5. Designer Knockoff: A Crime of Fashion (Crime of Fashion Mysteries)
                                  6. Elvis, Jesus and Coca-Cola (Kinky Friedman Novels)
                                  7. Fool's Puzzle
                                  8. Gaudy Night: A Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane Mystery (Mystery Masters)
                                  9. Hotel Paradise (Random House Large Print)
                                  10. In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner

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