Louis WeberCooking with Philly

It is a good book and there is nothing wrong with it except it is very American. Perhaps I should have expected that.

Lots of the reviews say it is very American, though I have found it increasingly easy to use these recipes with a dash of common sense and an odd substitution with no adverse effects to the resultant dish. There are a few brand names in there like a 'branded' parmesan cheese, or a marshmallow fluff but these are easily replaced with items that can be found here in the UK. I use this book most weeks, and love the easy no fuss recipes.

This is kind of a very nice book.... but which I regret having bought even if I didn't pay much for it! Why???? Very simple... most of the ingredients are not sold here in the UK. I suppose that this was a book that was supposed to be for the American market and somehow The Words decided to sell it in the UK without even looking at the ingredients. I suppose they don't care... as long as they manage to sell it is ok with them. Mind you, I am very thankful The Works exist because together with Amazon they make sure that I can go on buying books at great prices but this one was a disaster. True, you can replace ingredients by other similar but my interest in cooking is to try out recipes and to see if the result is what they promise or not. If I start changing everything what is the point? At least this book should come with a warning. Some other ingredients that are not Philadelphia Cream Cheese and which have odd names are just American brands so you can probably find similar stuff here, as far all the kind of Philadelphia… no, we don't have them! A very frustrating book. By the way, Philadelphia does have a book for the UK market with different recipes, so buy that one instead! That is the Philadelphia Cookbook, which I have reviewed a while ago. To give you an example… If you go to the Creamy Cheese Bacon Crescents and look down at the sweet variation you will see that you can use the Philadelphia Strawberry Light Cream Cheese Spread but…. Does anyone know where to find it here in the UK????Their obsession with light products is amazing, coming from a Cream Cheese manufacturer… they just want to step on the bandwagon, that's all because as a rule light products are much worse for your health and anyway, we need our fats!