The Candle Cafe Cookbook: More Than 150 Enlightened Recipes from New York's Renowned Vegan Restaurant

The short short version: I agree 100% with the reviews that say that this book is very mixed and clearly was not test-kitchened nearly enough.The longer version:If you buy this book, the reasons to do so are some of the flavor and ingredient combination ideas, and _some_ of the recipes. But without reading through all of the Amazon reviews, you won't know in advance which recipes work well and which, well, fail pretty miserably. But there are some gems and some *great* ideas, too.The reason not to buy the book: You're a cook who wants to grab a recipe, cook it precisely, and have it turn out well. Half the recipes don't work. That doesn't mean they can't be made to work - but you have to experiment with them and trust your own experience and intuition over the recipes... in the right places.Some examples might help illustrate:The borscht with cilantro lime sour 'cream' (tofu, etc.) was really outstanding: But we're wise to the ways of this book now, and knowing that the recipes often come out pretty bland, used 4C vegetable stock and 2C water instead of 2C vegetable stock and 4C water.The grilled seitan skewers with chimichurri citrus-herb sauce: The seitan and marinade is *the* best preparation of seitan we've ever had. Hands down. But the sauce - first, it's too strong and overwhelms the delicious flavor of the seitan. Second - too much OJ. Third - the quantity! The recipe makes about 4x too much sauce for the quantity of seitan. You're far better making the seitan, throwing it on a pita with some hummus and tabbouleh, and calling it a delicious vegan middle-eastern sandwich. But overall, I'm moderately disappointed. If you want a day-to-day cookbook, "Veganomicon" is a much better choice - save the money you'd have spent on this book and go for a meal at Candle 79 instead. (It's a fantastic restaurant.) On the other hand, if you want a cookbook to read for inspiration, not details, this is actually a reasonable book.

I have a total of 11 vegan cookbooks, and the candle cafe cookbook is the one I always use. I have been so disappointed in other vegan cookbooks because they either have hard-to-find ingredients, are too time-consuming to make, and are bland and boring. This cookbook is none of that! Almost every ingredient can be found at your local supermarket so it's not too expensive to purchase these items. Secondly, being a mom to a toddler gives me very little time to spend in the kitchen, and this book offers delicious meals that are easy and quick to prepare. And most of all, everything I have made from this book has been just like eating a gourmet meal! This is a MUST HAVE for everyone who is vegan or is even thinking about trying a vegan meal. I made the lemon tofu cheesecake with blood-orange glaze, and gave some to my carnivorous husband. He is the type of person who won't touch tofu with a ten-foot pole. And he ate every bite of it and thought it was great. I also made the chocolate cake with chocolate ganache frosting, and everyone LOVED it! Also, recently I prepared the seitan piccata with white wine and caper sauce. I only had the "chicken-style" seitan and used that instead. I have to tell you that it tasted like fried chicken in a wonderful brown gravy sauce! It was excellent! This cookbook is one of those "everyday" cookbooks, but with gourmet flavor. I am not a woman who likes to cook much, and I do not have much experience in the kitchen, but being vegan I have to cook my own meals once in a while, and I have been using this book every day, and every day I have a new favorite dish! I have been writing disappointing reviews on every cookbook I've tried, but this one I would give 10 stars if I could. If you are even thinking of buying this book, please do. You will not be disappointed!

I've never had the pleasure of eating at the Candle Cafe or Candle 79, but I hear it's stupendous, and I have a few cookbooks with recipes that give credit to those restaurants and those recipes have turned out amazing. So I purchased this expecting it to become one of my favorite cookbooks; and while I admit that I use it frequently, this book was actually pretty disappointing.I think that most, if not all, of these recipes are the actual recipes the restaurant uses, but I think they mathematically scaled down the recipes and then didn't test them. It's either that, or there are some major typos. I also think that many of the recipes need further instruction for home cooks who might not be familiar with certain techniques or methods of cooking.I would never give this book to a brand new vegan OR someone who doesn't know much about cooking. For example, as a new vegan I didn't know to steam my tempeh before using it, and there are recipes in here that won't instruct you to do that. And as an experienced cook, I recognized that some recipes called for too much of an ingredient, but again, there might be persons who wouldn't catch that and follow a recipe blindly, rendering their food inedible.Like I said earlier, I do use this cookbook frequently, but I've learned to follow my gut when something doesn't seem right with the recipe. I would love to see this book republished with some heavy editing, because when I make some tweaks the food turns out amazing.

This book is great. I met the chefs in person they are amazing. Can’t wait to go to their restaurant in NYC for my Birthday

I had the good fortune to eat at the Candle Café while holidaying in New York. It was one of the most interesting meals I had there and something of an eye-opener for the possibilities of vegan food.I bought the book on the strength of the two meals I had at the restaurant. The book, like the restaurant, is full of inspiration and it certainly gives the information to recreate the food.However, to follow these recipes you will need to be able to get hold of some ingredients which you won't find on the supermarket shelves. If you're in the UK you'll also have to put some thought into where you can make substitutions when it comes to specific sauces and spices. While tempeh is becoming more widely available in health food stores, seitan is a trickier proposition. You can make it, but you will need some dedication.This isn't a "quick and easy" book, but put in the effort and you'll be rewarded with good food.

A delicious selection of vegan recipes, properly sorted. I wish it had more illustrations, 'cause I'm food photography addicted and the high quality recipes deserved a luxurious illustrated book :)

Das Buch bietet viele tolle Ideen was die vegane Küche und Ernährung angeht. Allerdings sind viele der Zutaten schwer zu bekommen, daher kann man nicht alle Rezepte so nachkochen wie sie im Buch zu finden sind.Wer einfallsreich ist und schwer zu findende Zutaten durch andere ersetzen möchte, wird an diesem Buch seine Freude haben,Ich benutze es nicht so oft... und wenn dann mache ich die Saucen (Mango Ketchup) oder Salate nach.Für Ungeübte oder diejenigen die neu sind, wenn es um vegane Ernährung geht, eher ungeeignet.

I have had this book for awhile now. Recently I have used it for a number of different recipes. They are fantastic. Everything I make from this book gets rave reviews. The recipes are well designed and the ingredients are not obscure - I have everything in my pantry already.

Very happy with this book. I do wish there were more pictures , but the recipes are pretty easy so it's not necessary. Really yummy recipes!