Charlie Trotter's

The dynamic follow-up to the bestselling Charlie Trotter, this sensational celebration of vegetables presents some 100 seasonal vegetable recipes. Each dish is pictured in the same lavish style that so distinguished Trotter's first book. Organized by month, each chapter offers four or five savory dishes and one sweet course. Full color.

This is the book that helped to launch a thousand taste sensations. By now widely acknowledged as one of the hottest chefs of the nineties, Chicago's award-winning Charlie Trotter is noted for his inventiveness and imagination in the preparation and presentation of food. This stunning feat of culinary artistry first presented Trotter's unique cuisine in what has become his trademark opulent style.

Publishers Weekly

Chef Trotter's fancy, multi-ingredient, almost-vegetarian dishes are as rich and extravagantand as fussy and specializedas those featured in his renowned Chicago restaurant and presented in his first book, Charlie Trotter's (1994). The 82 recipes here are arranged by month, and in name alone, the recipes are a mouthful: January leads off with Baby Carrot Terrine with Shiitake Mushroom Salad, Carrot Juice Reduction, Dill Oil, and 50-Year-Old Balsamic Vinegar. The preparation of Arugula Noodles with Smoked Yellow Tomato Sauce, Black Olives, and Roasted Garlic Pure requires the cook to make arugula pasta and arugula oil and, for the sauce, to smoke the tomatoes over hickory chips lit with a propane torch. Wine Notes for each recipe are helpful, as is a glossary that defines terms like "kashi" (it's the mixture of seven specific grains called for in Cold Kashi Salad with Dried Cranberries, Celery, White Pumpkin, Pumpkin Seeds and Pumpkin Seed Oil). While a few suggestions for substitutions would have allowed the home cook some welcome flexibility, flexibility is not in the exacting spirit of this chef. Trotter offers highly specific instructions (even to calling for hazelnuts from a certain farm in Oregon) for constructing complexly flavored, architecturally beautiful dishes. So long as readers are not misled, this volume, which is expensive in both in price and effort, delivers.(July)

CHARLIE TROTTER is the author of 14 cookbooks and three management books and is an eight-time James Beard Award winner. He is the chef and owner of the legendary Charlie Trotter's, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, as well as Trotter's To Go in Chicago. He recently founded C in Los Cabos, Mexico, and Restaurant Charlie in the Palazzo Hotel at the Venetian Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.