Raclette: The Insider's Guide to the Secret World of Raclette Dining Hardcover – March 30, 2007

When I was showered with gifts this Christmas I received four books on raclette, my new foodie passion. This was one of the four books and by far the best. The others I rate between zero and one only.First up, here are the negative points about the book. While there is a conversion table in the back of the book it took a short while to get used to metrics for the recipes. I have now added the measurements in pencil and all is fine. Some of the pictures are not the best color, but I don't mind as it is the inspiration that counts.And that's all the negative I can find about this book, otherwise it is just an incredibly good book! I was very impressed by the obvious knowledge of the authors and also went onto their website at [...] mentioned in the book to find out more. Very impressive and that they are experts is easily spotted when you browse through those pages.The books strongest point is that it is the only book that talks about everything that raclette is: Yes, it is a cheese, a meal, a grill and a style of cooking, and all this is explained very well in the first part (the information section if you like) of the book. And the recipe section - the second part of this great book - starts with two real raclette recipes that you don't find in any other raclette book on the market today. The recipes are not categorized into starters, dessert or similar, instead they take you on a whirlwind tour of raclette around the world. There is the Swiss and the French raclette, a special Dutch style of using your raclette grill, a Mexican, Hawaiian, Chinese and even Japanese raclette.There is plenty of recipes that will be loved by children such as the raclette pizzas, hamburgers or pancakes. I actually tried them out with children and the result of well supervised raclette interaction was phenomenal. Personally, I love most the Stuffed Mushrooms with Feta recipe, simply the best!If you only want to buy one raclette book in your lifetime, get this nice hard cover copy, it is by far the best book on the market!

My first impression when I opened the package from Amazon was you've got to be kidding. $44.95 for this? It's a smallish book that needs better photographs. All the pictures have a yellow greenish cast that makes the food look unappetizing. I've purchased way better cookbooks for this price. This is definitely not a good value. In fact, I'm finding it hard to want to keep it for the price.

I was very surprised to find the book to only have 90 some pages and was just a little larger than a half sheet of copy paper. The recipies and illustrations are great, however, I would have expected to pay much less for what I received.