How would you like to serve up five-star restaurant food at your next dinner party? QVC personality Hope Fox makes it possible with this one-of-a-kind cookbook, which shares amazing recipes from 100 top restaurants across the country—ten each from ten top food cities. Best of all, Fox has streamlined and simplified all of the recipes so you can easily prepare them in your own kitchen, using basic equipment and supermarket ingredients. The book is brimming with impressively delicious starters and main courses—Braised Duck Legs with Asian Spices from Jean Georges in New York, Seared Scallops with Tomato Beurre Blanc from Restaurant Michael Mina in San Francisco, and Chicory Coffee Lacquered Game Hens from Commander's Palace in New Orleans, to name just three. With dishes like these, plus 97 more from restaurants like Spaggia in Chicago, Jöel in Atlanta, and Lucques in Los Angeles, it’ll be a cinch to impress your dinner party guests—for less! "Impress for Less! is a valuable tool for every home cook; it will transform your kitchen into a 5-star restaurant." --Patti LaBelle 100 Dazzling Recipes from Top Restaurants--Streamlined and Simplified Hope Fox has been appearing on QVC for more than ten years, and she enjoys entertaining and eating at top restaurants. But she's regularly disappointed with cookbooks written by chefs, which often feature hard-to-find ingredients and complicated culinary techniques. Now Hope shows you how to re-create 100 impressive restaurant dishes without all the fuss, using supermarket ingredients and basic kitchen skills. The restaurants and chefs represented--ten each from ten top food cities--are among America's most celebrated, and their retooled starters and main dishes are guaranteed to wow any guest. To make the book even more useful, Hope gives the inside scoop on the chefs' tips and tricks, shares food definitions, and includes a source guide to give you many options to create each dish your way. This inspiring all-star cookbook will be an indispensable kitchen companion. Prepare Dishes from These Famous Restaurants--at Home!Joel (Atlanta)Radius (Boston)Spiaggia (Chicago)Tru (Chicago)Lucques (Los Angeles)Chef Allen's (Miami area)Commander's Palace (New Orleans)Aureole (New York)Gotham Bar & Grill (New York)Gramercy Tavern (New York)Jean Georges (New York)Le Bec-Fin (Philadelphia)Mary Elaine's at the Phoenician (Phoenix area)Michael Mina (San Francisco)Plus 86 more! HOPE FOX is a media personality who works extensively in television, radio, and print. For more than ten years she has been appearing on the world's largest and most successful electronic retailer, QVC, presenting a broad array of products, including cookware, tabletop, and health and beauty to an audience of approximately 90 million households. She is an avid home cook who learned to entertain from her mother, who taught her to cook with love, or not at all. Passionate about food, Fox loves to share her recipes with family and friends. Impress for Less! By Hope Fox Beth D'Addono John Wiley & Sons Copyright © 2007 Hope Fox All right reserved. ISBN: 978-0-7645-9689-6 Chapter One atlanta a dining capital of the new south In the past decade, Atlanta has come into its own as a restaurant town to be reckoned with. Affordability, variety of restaurants, culinary diversity, and award-winning chefs are key ingredients that earn Atlanta a place at the table with other top culinary destinations. An assortment of neighborhoods offers an array of restaurants featuring cuisine that spans the globe, serving something for every taste, from African to Asian, Cajun to Caribbean, Italian to Middle Eastern. Menu selections are inspired by cultures all over the world. "Atlanta has had an influx of high-quality, chef-owned, chef-driven restaurants, which have developed into creative concepts. That keeps dining interesting and exciting," said Pano Karatassos, founder of Buckhead Life Group, a family of twelve restaurants, three of which-Bluepointe, Kyma, and Pano's & Paul's-are featured in this chapter. "As Atlanta grows, it's attracting a very culturally diverse population, inviting new cuisines, with tapas, Thai, Brazilian steakhouses, Greek cuisine, sushi, and the list goes on. It does seem that no matter what the type of food served, it tends to be served with Atlanta's signature Southern hospitality-that's always a huge draw." Like most cities, Atlanta's dining scene is neighborhood driven, with successful restaurants reflecting the development going on downtown. Upscale Buckhead, long a magnet for younger professionals, is home to high-rises, exclusive townhouses, and stately mansions. Buckhead is also the address for some of the city's most popular nightclubs and restaurants, including Seeger's and Aria. Midtown is a neighborhood known for its residential diversity and energetic, young business district. Recognized as the heart of the arts in Atlanta, Midtown is also home to high-profile restaurants,