Top Secret Recipes is a collection of copy cat recipes-or clone recipes as author Todd Wilbur calls them. There are several books in the series and all of them are fun. The Top Secret Restaurant Recipes I have is from 1997 and has recipes from places like Begnnigan’s and Planet Hollywood and Chili’s and Marie Calendar’s. There are over 100 clone recipes from just about every chain restaurant in America.
The fun part of any cookbook is looking at the pictures and thinking about which one you want to make first. For some cookbooks, just thinking is as far as I ever get. The pictures in Top Secrte Recipes are all line drawings by author Todd Wilbur. They are drawings done in the style of blueprints with name and date of orgination.
Part of the idea is that it’s cheaper to make these items at home than it is to go out and buy them. Also, not all restaurants are in all cities, I’ve never heard of Dive! or Ruth’s Chris Steak House, for example. But because of Top Secret REstaurant Recipes I can try making a Dive! Sicilian Sub Rosa or Ruth’s Chris Steak House’s Potatoes Au Gratin.
Of course, the fact of the matter is that we eat out because we don’t want to cook, even if we can make a dish that is very simialr to the one at the restaurant. But I do like the idea of making my own restaurant style food. The Wife makes a very good black bean soup and I think I will see if she’d like to try the Lone Star Steakhouse Black Bean Soup. I think I’ll try Shoney’s Country Fried Steak, chicken fried steak is one of those things that I tend to eat a lot, so making my own would be good.
Top Secret Restaurant Recipes is fun to look at and the recipes are easy enough to follow. The kind of book every sort of foodie should have close at hand.
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