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

Customer Reviews

How to get the vegans in your life to love you

I can't stress how incredibly generous the authors are for giving us their best recipes from this wonderful restaurant in NY. This is a great cookbook for people who love to cook vegan food. Whether you are an old-time vegan, new vegetarian or an omnivore that likes to eat some plant based meals, you will find great recipes. Standouts include the innovative sandwiches section (overlooked by many veg cookbooks), the appetizers section and the desserts section. Candle Café makes the best vegan chocolate cake anywhere and they have included the recipe. The grilled tofu club is another winner. The vegan French toast is the perfect item to make for a brunch.

The closest comparison I can make to this cookbook is Millennium. It is great to have cookbooks that you know you can make anything for the first time and it will be great. This book succeeds in the major failing of Millennium: ingredients in this book are easier to obtain by the average person not living in CA.

Minor nits- Water is never on the ingredients list so if you want to ensure that you did not forget any of the ingredients, you have to carefully reread the recipe. Some of the recipes have 22 ingredients which reduces the chances that you will have the ingredients on hand if you have not planned ahead or that I will ever go the amount of trouble to get those ingredients.

If you want to cook up a gourmet vegan feast or just impress the vegans in your life, this is the book for you.

All my wishes come true

Thank you to Joy and Bart for sharing your secrets with us! The Candle Cafe is always my first and last stop in New York, so I'm absolutely thrilled to be able to get a taste of heaven across the seas.

This cookbook is simple to use and the ingredients are easy to find. There is not a single dish I would skip. A wonderful variety and each one delicious (from soups to sandwiches to main dishes and sauces, and much more, ending with mouth-watering dessert). I can now invite my non-vegan friends without them looking the food skeptically. The food itself deserves 5 stars. The simplicity of the recipes another 5 stars. Even an amateur cook would be able to create a delicious meal.

I'll still be back to the Candle Cafe for the pecan chocolate chip cookies though. Maybe in your next book...

Got a job or a life? Skip it.

This cookbook's complicated recipies require you to shop, chop, and cook as though you've got a sous chef. Worse, there are no nutrition or time tables. I'll seldom, if ever, use this book.