`bill's open kitchen' is the third book from young Australian (Sidney) restaurateur and chef, Bill Granger, whose dust jacket blurbs, including one from the very distinguished New York Times columnist, R. W. Appel seems to want to paint Granger as Australia's culinary counterpart to Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman. This lavishly produced trade paperback from high-end publisher William Morrow does everything it can to attract your eye. And, while I believe almost all the dishes produced from these recipes are a delightful fusion of classic European cuisine with the tastes of Southeast Asia, I think people with little kitchen experience should be warned away from this book.This is a celebrity chef book heavy on eye candy and light on technique in the service of making sure the recipes look like they are very easy to do. Yet, in almost every recipe, I found some little potential pitfall for the inexperienced.The most common pitfall is the fact that chef Granger very properly thinks and works in metric, and all metric measurements have been given Imperial measurement equivalents, except that the equivalents are not too friendly to American cooks. In the second recipe in the book, for one of Granger's specialities, scrambled eggs, the conversion of 80 milliliters of cream is effectively converted to 1/3 cup; however, the 10 grams of butter is converted to ¼ ounces. Unfortunately, my handy Land-o-Lakes quarter pound of butter is marked off in tablespoons and fractions of cups, not in ounces. This same recipe for `scrambled' eggs includes a sample of some of the very peculiar directions sprinkled into the recipes. The odd statement is `It is important to fold the eggs, not SCRAMBLE them'. Eggs are something of a speciality for Granger's restaurants, and yet each of the four egg recipes on the first page of recipes contains something quirky to this American amateur cook. In fried eggs, the author suggests adding a cover to the saute pan of cooking eggs only if you want your yolks `harder'. My Pennsylvania eggs need a little help from a cover to harden up the albumin even if you want a liquid yolk. For boiled eggs, raw eggs are lowered into boiling water and simmered for 5 to 6 minutes. This agrees with neither of the two expert methods I know for boiling eggs, and my Pennsylvania eggs are prone to cracking if they are dropped, unpricked, into boiling water. The quirk in the poaching instructions may be more of my quirk than that of the author, but he suggests dropping eggs into simmering water and covering them with a tightfitting lid until the egg whites are opaque. No directions on whether or not the lid needs to be removed or if it needs to be a glass lid.Some of the difficulties are due to the use of British culinary terms as when the author calls for 8 long thin rashers of streaky bacon. Now is rasher more like an American strip or a French lardon? My favorite is the recipe for fresh baked beans where the Imperial (American friendly?) unit is `1 punnet' of cherry tomatoes. One will be lucky if they realize that the metric 250 grams is roughly 9 ounces, or about what you get in one of those cute little produce jewel boxes which hold about 10 ounces of small fruits.Other difficulties for the amateur are when the author leaves out some information. A recipe for breakfast potatoes does not specify starchy, waxy, or general-purpose potatoes. As the author does specify potato type in another recipe, one can conclude that the type of potato is not important. But, in our Food Network enlightened mind, not having a spud of choice in hand can lead to an Adrian Monkish paralysis of indecision. Another breakfast recipe for a five grain porridge gives a general suggestion to use `mixed grains' with a suggestion of five grain preparations, most of which are probably not available in the average American supermarket. I would have offered more suggestions with some more common grain forms. I can imagine that there are some grains that may actually not work in porridge. Does wheat germ work in porridge?The section on luncheon recipes gives me something positive to say about this book. Granger's influences seem to be equally divided between Mediterranean and Southeast Asian recipes, techniques, and ingredients. His very nice recipe for Thai fried rice uses Thai jasmine rice and Asian and Mediterranean greens, the Thai technique with a mortar and pestle to create the sauce, and a Lebanese cucumber. I get the really strong feeling that these are the things that are in ample supply at his greengrocer down the street from his restaurant. Even this very nice recipe has two puzzles. The first is a call for a lime cheek! Unfortunately, the full-page photograph of the dish does not show enough of the lime to enable me to tell if a lime cheek is half a lime (hemisphere) or a lime cross-section (circle). My vote is for the hemisphere. The second problem is just a bit more serious in that he instructs us to heat a non-stick frying pan over high heat in the same way as you may do for a wok. Every American culinary celebrity, including science nerd Alton Brown, warns against heating a nonstick pan with nothing in the pan. At best, this will cause excess wear and tear on the Teflon coating. At worst, it will degrade the Teflon and give off some nasty fluorocarbons. Ouch.Throughout the book, Granger has several good, simple egg dishes such as his spicy omelette sandwiches. Unfortunately, his directions for making an omelet are simply too sparse for the omelette uninitiated.Overall, the book gives many excellent, simple recipes, if you know your way around the kitchen in the first place. Mr. Granger is surely a talented chef, but not a great cookbook writer or editor with knowledge of American cooking practice.Bill Granger's fresh perspective on good, honest food has inspired me to alter my culinary approach to every meal I prepare. His recipes are a bit novel to me, and very refreshing. They remind me, a somewhat experienced cook, that meals don't have to be a complicated or fussy to be appealing and delicious.I own three of his books, his Bills Food DVD, and I watch him on TV whenever his other series' air. I am very glad he is on the Cooking Channel. Even here in the US I get to watch and learn from this self-trained, perky chef.I heartily recommend all of Bill Granger's books and videos. He is definitely my new favorite chef.This is a delightful cookbook. Something of the author's joy and enthusiasm for good food come through the pages. The recipes are straightforward and yet very tasty, mostly using fresh ingredients and featuring coloured pictures of every dish. Not surprisingly, fish and seafood feature prominently in the collection, given that the author has much easier access to fresh seafood than those living in say in the American Midwest, but his food learning experiences have taken him all around the world, so it there is a real blend of cuisines represented. He writes inspiringly at the start of each section about food's important place in the home and community.i was so pleased to secure a copy of this cookbook. It is worth it. The recipes were is by sections, breakfast, lunch and dinner. If you are having trouble with getting into the habit of eating at home and having some wonderfully elegant but simple recipes, this may be the book for you. All of the ingredients are easy to obtain and are not expensive.Im a huge bill granger fan. I love his show and own 2 of his cookbooks. I have tried several recipes and they turn out to be amazing. My favorite section of this book is thhe afternoon treat because i love to bake cakes. But all of the recipes are simply perfect and easy to make. If you have doubts on buying this book, you should get it because its worth it.Saw a reference on Heidi Swanson's 101 Cookbooks blog, and it was worth pursuing. Simple recipes with quality food, accessible and nutritious. Can't wait to work my way through it, from eggs to desserts. Worth the price, and the pictures are glorious which adds to the desire to just dive in.There are very few cookbooks I have used that I have LOVED every recipe I've tried - this is one of them. Bill Granger hits the mark every time with recipes that are easy to prepare and simply delicious. I've made almost every dish in this book and Bill's Food and have never been disappointed.Not quite the book I expected, but very nice anyway. Most recipes are extremely easy and require few ingredients. Book is well laid out and beautifully illustrated. Nothing really ground breaking or original, but well designed simplicity is always a good thing. Would have gone 5 stars, but was hoping for something more challenging.Great recipes, very nice photos. The true spirit of Australia with rich recipes full of different influences! Absolutely loved it!everthing fresh good for you food love itBought this as a gift so there isn't much I can say. Ideal for bubbling chefs and anyone that loves cookingVery good. So good that other copies to give as presentsbills open kitchen ist ein Kochbuch vom australischen Fernsehkoch und Autodidakten Bill Granger. Es ist strukturiert nach Mahlzeiten (breakfast, lunch...) und ist gefüllt mit interessanten und schön bebilderten Rezepten, die keine besonderen Kochkenntnisse erfordern und meist auch recht schnell gehen. Besonders die Kuchen- und Dessertrezepte sind mal was anderes und machen Lust auf mehr, sind aber nicht schwer zu machen. Es gibt viele vegetarische und Salatrezepte, zudem ist für verschiedene Fleisch- und Fischarten etwas dabei. Die Rezepte lassen sich auch gut variieren, außerdem gibt Bill am Rand teilweise zusätzlich Tipps zur Zubereitung oder Infos zu den verwendeten Zutaten. Es ist zu beachten, dass das Kochbuch für den australischen Markt gestaltet wurde - nicht alle Zutaten sind in Deutschland leicht erhältlich oder zumindest sehr teuer, beispielsweise Maracujas.Teilweise sind die Rezepte etwas sehr einfach, beispielsweise gibt es im Kapitel "breakfast" Rezepte für Rührei und gekochte Eier sowie für Müsli. Zudem habe ich den Eindruck, dass die Mengenangaben teilweise ziemlich knapp bemessen sind - ich bezweifele, dass vier Erwachsene von je einem halben Hummerschwanz und 120 Gramm Bohnensalat satt werden. Leider fehlen mir bei vielen Rezepten auch Hinweise zu weiteren "Sättigungsbeilagen". Für einen etwas erfahreneren Koch sollte es dennoch einfach sein, die Rezepte an seine Vorstellungen anzupassen und zu ergänzen.Da die Rezepte aber - mit Ausnahme der genannten Frühstücksrezepte - typisch australisch, einfach zu machen und auch teilweise neuartige, leckere Zusammenstellungen sind, gibt es trotzdem vier Sterne.