Chef's Night Out: From Four-Star Restaurants to Neighborhood Favorites: 100 Top Chefs Tell You Where (and How!) to Enjoy America's Best - Softcover

From the authors of Becoming a Chef, which won a 1996 James Beard Book Award, comes this clever guide to neighborhood restaurants. Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page interviewed over 100 top chefs in 28 cities across the country, from Miami and Boston to Seattle and Honolulu, with plenty of stops in between, and asked them where they eat when they aren't cooking for themselves.

Chef's Night Out is the fourth book from Dornenburg and Page, and, like their previous work, it was conceived primarily for people in and interested in the restaurant business, aspiring chefs, and food lovers. The basic premise, explain top chefs like Bob Kinkead (from Washington, D.C.), Rick Bayless (Frontera Grill in Chicago), and Suzanne Goin (Lucques in Los Angeles), is that dining out is one of the best ways to learn about food. But whether you're looking to learn or just looking to eat well, this book is great fun to read, and particularly useful for travelers.

Divided into chapters by city, we are introduced to some local top chefs with their own award-winning restaurants who explain their food philosophies and then offer a short list of their favorite local haunts--everything from fine dining to bakeries, coffee shops, and fast food. Sean Kelly (Aubergine in Denver) loves the Vietnamese curried shrimp and potatoes over rice noodles at New Saigon Restaurant and the "great raw bar" and "happening" bar scene at Jax Fish House. Sanford D'Amato (Sanford in Milwaukee) loves the thin, crispy pizzas from Zaffiro's Pizza and Bar. And Tom Colicchio (Gramercy Tavern in New York City) raves about the constantly changing menu at Etats-Unis, the razor clams in a light white bean broth at the Red Cat, and everything at Daniel and Jean-Georges.

Looking for recommendations in your hometown? Planning a trip and want to know where to go? Here's your chance to find out where the chefs go and why they go there. With help from greats such as Loretta Keller (Bizou in San Francisco), Thierry Rautureau (Rover's in Seattle), and Jimmy Schmidt (The Rattlesnake Club in Detroit), you can't possibly go wrong! --Leora Y. Bloom

Chef's Night Out

Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page

James Beard Award-winning authors of Becoming a Chef, Culinary Artistry, and Dining Out

Who better to tell where to get the best pastrami sandwich in New York, or to find the best Creole restaurant in New Orleans, than a chef whose very livelihood depends on his taste buds?

With Chef's Night Out, James Beard Award-winning authors Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page have created the first guide featuring the restaurant recommendations of 100 individual chefs, detailing the places to eat in New York, Los Angeles, San Fran-cisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, DC, and 19 other American cities that best nourish their stomachs and imaginations.

Where do New York's top chefs go for the city's best brick-oven pizza? Or San Francisco's for the best dim sum? Where do chefs in Philadelphia agree you'll find the best coffee? Where do Boston's flock for amazing fried clams? And where do chefs across America believe is a must-stop in New Orleans? From insider chef hangouts to young restaurants flirting with success, you'll discover where many of America's most prominent chefs-including Mario Batali, Rick Bayless, Daniel Boulud, Marcel Desaulniers, Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken, Caprial Pence, Jacques Torres, Charlie Trotter, and Jean-Georges Vongerichten-love to eat on their nights (and days!) off.

Chef's Night Out is also a guide to top chefs' own restaurants, as they share tips on what to order and how best to enjoy the experience. In addition, the book takes a behind-the-scenes look at how to eat like a chef, as they regale us with stories of their "dining epiphanies" along with their secrets for developing one's palate, matching wine with food, ordering in ethnic restaurants, and more.

The ultimate insider's guide to dining out across America, Chef's Night Out is the food lover's bible to some of the best culinary treasures in the United States-as well as a source of inspiration and fresh ideas for culinary professionals.