Reviews & Recipes

LIBRARY JOURNAL– April 2015
Vanilla Table: The Essence of Exquisite Cooking from the World’s Best Chefs. Jaqui Small: Quarto. 240p. photos. index. ISBN 9781909342866. $40. COOKING

Thirty-three chefs—including Yotam Ottolenghi, Sherry Yard, and Gina ­DePalma—contributed recipes to this elegant collection of sweet and savory recipes flavored with vanilla. Dividing restaurant-worthy dishes into nine course-based chapters, chef and former ballerina MacAller highlights a variety of applications for the popular fragrant pods. Beautifully photographed recipes such as steamed barramundi and fregola salad, crunchy cornflake chicken, and creamy butterscotch pudding list ingredient quantities in three units of measurement and include instructions that assume some basic cooking knowledge. MacAller’s efforts to translate potentially confusing terms (e.g., cornflour/cornstarch, shrimp/prawns) are mostly successful, if occasionally unnecessary. VERDICT With its wealth of savory recipes and intermediate to advanced preparations, this vanilla cookbook will complement sweet titles such as Shauna Sever’s Pure Vanilla.

BOOKLIST (American Library Association) - April 2015
Vanilla Table: The Essence of Exquisite Cooking from the World’s Best Chefs. 240 p. Quarto/Jacqui Small, hardcover, $40. (9781909342866). 641.6382.

Never again will these three words be linked—plain, Jane, and vanilla—after falling in love with all foods  vanilla-touched as shown in MacAller’s first culinary collection. A former ballerina seeking a new livelihood, McAller—and her cooking career—soon began trotting around the globe, organizing food extravaganzas and consulting on recipes along the way. She begins her paean with a short treatise on the vanilla bean: where it comes from (Madagascar, Mexico, Tahiti, and Indonesia) and its various formats. The more than 100 recipes follow, separated by starter, main, blue, brunch, and sharing plates, with dessert, cake, cookie, bevvie, and bar-snack dishes taking up the rest of her book. Originally published in New Zealand two years ago, it’s a wondrously photographed and detailed assemblage; determined to make her recipes truly global, she includes metric and avoirdupois weights as well as identifies ingredients by common names in different countries. She’s joined in this vanilla craze by such well-known names as Gale Gand in Chicago, Jonathan Waxman in New York, Nancy Silverton in L.A., and 30 others (all listed and dutifully biographed in one of her appendixes). The dishes are intermediate to advanced; such offerings as fennel flan with orange gelée, cashew foam, and vanilla oil; vanilla lacquer duck leg; the plum study (three different types of plum desserts); and even coronation chicken on squashy poppy buns should probably not be attempted by the novice.

KITCHEN DELIGHTS - 2015
Review: Vanilla Table by Natasha MacAller

Vanilla Table, the essence of exquisite cooking from the world’s best chefs, is a culinary celebration of all things vanilla. Read more

FARMERSGIRL KITCHEN – 2015
Creamy Butterscotch Pudding from Vanilla Table

Do you remember Butterscotch Angel Delight?  Well this is nothing like that, it is rich, creamy and sweetly caramel flavoured, a really indulgent treat. Read more

MAKE IT SHABBY– 2015
From the Bookcase: Vanilla Table by Natasha MacAller

If you thought vanilla was boring it’s time to think again. In her new book Vanilla Table, Natasha MacAller proves that vanilla is anything but. Read more

REVIEW FROM THE HOUSE - 2015
Natasha MacAller: Dancing Chef author of Vanilla Table

A professional ballerina turned professional chef, who has just authored a cookbook in which Vanilla is the star! Read more

CREATE AMAZING MEALS- 2015
Vanilla With Fish? Yes, Please!

Natasha MacAller’s Vanilla Table was born out of her passion for the singular flavor and fragrance of the fruit of the Vanilla Orchid. Read more

POPSUGAR – 2015
This is What Gives Vanilla its Iconic Flavor

Vanilla extract adds that extra something-something to our cookies, cakes, muffins, and vanilla beans taste great in ice cream and cocktails, but how much do we really know about the spice other than it’s delicious and classic? Read more

THE TAOS NEWS LIFESTYLE - 2015
Cookbook is a feast for the eyes

The cookbook “Vanilla Table” by Natasha MacAller arrived recently in the mail.  Read more

MIAMI HERALD, COOKS CORNER- November 2015
Vanilla is more exciting than it gets credit for

I once scorned vanilla, made fun of those who chose vanilla ice cream over more-exciting flavors, even referred to the blandest person I ever met as Mr. Plain Vanilla. Read more