FRIEDMAN, Andrew 1967-

PERSONAL: Born in 1967; married. Education: French Culinary Institute, "La Technique" program graduate.

ADDRESSES: Home—New York and Chatham, NY Agent—c/o Author Mail, Wiley Publishing, 111 River St., 5th Floor, Hoboken, NJ 07030

CAREER: Cookbook author and publicist for restaurants and corporations, including Starbucks and Gotham Bar and Grill.

WRITINGS:

(With Alfred Portale) Alfred Portale's 12 Seasons Cookbook, photographs by Gozen Koshida, Broadway Books (New York, NY), 2000.

Chef on a Shoestring: More Than 120 Delicious, Easy-on-the-Budget Recipes from America's Best Chefs, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2001.

(With Silvano Marchetto and Scott Haas) Da Silvano Cookbook: Simple Secrets From New York's Favorite Italian Restaurant, foreword by Nick Tosches, photographs by Robert DiScalfani, Bloomsbury (New York, NY), 2001.

(With Tom Valenti) Welcome to My Kitchen: A New York Chef Shares His Robust Recipes and Secret Techniques, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2002.

(With Tom Valenti) Tom Valenti's Soups, Stews, and One-Pot Meals: 125 Home Recipes from the Chef-Owner of New York City's Ouest and 'Cesca, Scribner (New York, NY), 2003.

(With Pino Luongo and Marta Pulini) La Mia Cucina Toscana: A Tuscan Cooks in America, photographs by Michele Tabozzi, Broadway Books (New York, NY), 2003.

(With Laurent Tourondel) Go Fish: Fresh Ideas for American Seafood, John Wiley (Hoboken, NJ), 2004.

(With Bill Telepan) Inspired by Ingredients: Market Menus and Family Favorites from a Three-Star Chef, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2004.

(With Alfred Portale) Alfred Portale Simple Pleasures: Home Cooking from Gotham Bar and Grill's Acclaimed Chef, Morrow (New York, NY), 2004.

(With Michael Lomonaco) Nightly Specials: 125 Recipes for Spontanious, Creative Cooking at Home, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2004.

(With David Walzog) The New American Steakhouse Cookbook: It's Not Just Meat and Potatoes Anymore, Broadway Books (New York, NY), 2005.

(With Terrance Brennan) Artisanal Cooking: A Chef Shares Hiks Passion for Handcrafting Great Meals at Home, John Wiley (Hoboken, NJ), 2005.

(With Kimberly Witherspoon) Don't Try This At Home: Kitchen Disasters and Memorable Mishaps from the World's Greatest Cooks and Chefs, Bloomsbury, 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Andrew Friedman is best known for the many cookbooks he has co-authored with well-known chefs, such as Michael Lomonaco, Bill Telepan, and David Walzog. Friedman wrote two books, including his first, with the celebrated chef and restauranteur Alfred Portale, owner of Gotham Bar and Grill in New York City. Despite Portale's reputation for haute cuisine, the books had a down-to-earth tone. Publishers Weekly wrote of Alfred Portale's 12 Seasons Cookbook that "many recipes are simple, yet sublimely accented." Some of the recipes, the reviewer wrote, are complex, but "not beyond the reach of enthusiastic cooks." All in all, the review called the book "a winning, personal take on seasonal cooking from a Northeastern perspective." The authors' other joint effort was Alfred Portale Simple Pleasures: Home Cooking from the Gotham Bar and Grill's Acclaimed Chef, which according to Publishers Weekly focuses on "home-style foods rather than dishes that require a team of [assistant] chefs to be executed properly."

Friedman also wrote two books with New York chef Tom Valenti, who is recognized "for hearty, flavorful cooking," according to Judith Sutton in a Library Journal review of Welcome to My Kitchen: A New York Chef Shares His Robust Recipes and Secret Techniques. Sutton wrote that the authors "have adopted a relaxed tone, suitable for the comfort food Valenti likes so much." The pair's second effort, Tom Valenti's Soups, Stews, and One-Pot Meals: 125 Home Recipes from the Chef-Owner of New York City's Ouest and 'Cesca, is a "uniformly tight and well-written" work, according to a Publishers Weekly critic who, nevertheless, believed some of the dishes themselves disappointed.

A more recent work by Friedman goes beyond recipes and food. Published in 2004 with chef Bill Telepan, Inspired by Ingredients: Market Menus and Family Favorites from a Three-Star Chef, also offers "portraits of some of the farmers and other purveyors" that Telepan has used, according to Judith Sutton in Library Journal. Sutton praised the book's "engaging, personable style.". But Sutton, in the same periodical, said "the recipe headnotes and text" in Friedman's other 2004 effort, Go Fish: Fresh Ideas for American Seafood, "are somewhat pedestrian."

Aside from the dozen cookbooks Friedman coauthored, as of 2005 the only title for which Friedman is credited as the sole author is his second book, Chef on a Shoestring: More Than 120 Delicious, Easy-on-the-Budget Recipes from America's Best Chefs. In a way, however, this 2001 publication is also a collaboration. Chef on a Shoestring is based on a series of television appearances by noted chefs shopping for and cooking a three-course, four-person meal for $20 or less. Friedman worked with the chefs before translating their segments into print. "The book," according to Michelle Moran in Gourmet Retailer that "captures the essence of the show, providing readers with shopping tips, recipes, and personalities."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, October 1, 2004, Mark Knoblauch, review of Alfred Portale Simple Pleasures: Home Cooking from the Gothan Bar and Grill's Acclaimed Chef, p. 291.

Gourmet Retailer, January 2001, Michelle Moran, review of Chef on a Shoestring: More Than 120 Delicious, Easy-on-the-Budget Recipes from America's Best Chefs, p. 164.

Library Journal, September 15, 2000, Judith Sutton, review of Alfred Portale's 12 Seasons Cookbook, p. 107; December 2000, Judith Sutton, review of Chef on a Shoestring, p. 178; February 15, 2002, Judith Sutton, review of Welcome to My Kitchen: A New York Chef Shares His Robust Recipes and Secret Techniques, p. 173; October 15, 2003, Judith Sutton, review of Tom Valenti's Soups, Stews, and One-Pot Meals: 125 Home Recipes from the Chef-Owner of New York City's Ouest and 'Cesca, p. 93; October 15, 2004, Judith Sutton, reviews of Inspired by Ingredients: Market Menus and Family Favorites from a Three-Star Chef and Go Fish: Fresh Ideas for American Seafood, pp. 82 and 83.

People Weekly, November 10, 2003, review of Tom Valenti's Soups, Stews, and One-Pot Meals, p. 68.

Publishers Weekly, August 21, 2000, review of Alfred Portale's 12 Seasons Cookbook, p. 67; July 7, 2003, review of La Mia Cucina Toscana: A Tuscan Cooks in America, p. 68; September 1, 2003, review of Tom Valenti's Soups, Stews, and One-Pot Meals, p. 81; September 27, 2004, reviews of Inspired by Ingredients and Alfred Portale Simple Pleasures, p. 51.*