What the Critics Say

Critics have said flattering things about Cooking to Beat the Clock, named as one of the top 10 cookbooks of the year by Amazon, and Low-Fat Cooking to Beat the Clock, nominated for best book in the Health and Fitness category by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. 
Some quotes from reviews of both books are listed below. But perhaps even more important is what readers have said. Click here for their comments.

  • Amazon.com Top 10 Cookbooks: If your idea of fixing a weeknight meal is using the speed dial to call your local pizza shack, we've got just the book for you! Journalist, restaurateur, and cookbook author Sam Gugino comes to the rescue with Cooking to Beat the Clock. Too good to be true, you wonder? Well, okay, our 15 minutes often stretch to 20--but when was the last time you put delicious bouillabaisse on the table in 20 minutes? This book's a keeper.
  • USA Today In the time it takes his less fortunate friends to have a pizza delivered, Sam Gugino can whip up a saffron-scented bouillabaisse -- complete with homemade croutons and garlicky mayo -- wash a pot, open the wine and dazzle a table of four......Beat the Clock is perhaps the most appetizing in a wave of recent titles that promise to speed up and/or greatly simplify meal preparation.
  • Contra Costa Times (His) insatiable curiosity and passion for cooking is on full display …Reading the book made me want to try cooking everything in it.
  • Bergen Newspaper Group Sam Gugino's book is in a class by itself.
  • New York Daily News: The solution to the dinnertime dilemma doesn't have to be ordered-in Chinese food or frozen pizza. Sam offers a wealth of recipes that are ready in a flash-including carefully thought-out favorites, like jambalaya, which usually takes far longer.
  • Chicago Sun Times,Cookbook of the Week "Many of the dishes are elegant enough to appear on a restaurant menu, yet they're all a snap to make at home."
  • Westchester Journal News More than inspired recipes like cassoulet and Moroccan chicken soup, Gugino offers concrete, relaxed strategies for pleasureful and satisfying cooking.
  • Philadelphia Inquirer He has found solutions to a daily meal-making dilemma: How to put together in a hurry a meal that's easy to prepare, and delicious and nutritious as well. It's all laid out with workable precision in Beat the Clock.  
  • Scripps Howard News Service Sixteen minutes later there was a simple but tasty stir-fry of chicken strips and red pepper, and a really lovely salsa of mango, jalapeno, cilantro, onion and lime juice. I would serve (it) to company.
  • Publishers Weekly ....60 tasty and imaginative dishes .... inspired one-pot or one-platter meals...
  • Pennsylvania Gazette Sam Gugino demonstrates that it doesn't take much time to produce a delicious meal…He has devised a host of secret strategies for getting organized so cooking dinner is quick and painless...
  • ActiveDayton.com The quick-cooking Moroccan Chicken Soup uses the exotic flavors of Moroccan cuisine to become a flavorful and filling meal in a bowl that's ready in 15 to 20 minutes.   
  • Sunset Magazine Gugino lets big flavors speak in his Asian-spiced salmon with braised bok choy. We liked the results.
  • Mimi’s Cyber Kitchen My husband will be home in a half an hour and I have dinner to get out on the table. With Cooking to Beat the Clock, it’s a snap.
  • The Happy Cook What makes Cooking to Beat the Clock different from most other quick meal books is that the recipes are geared to the way we eat today, and what a relief it is to know that Gugino’s recipes are not dependent on cooking vast quantities of food ahead.
  • Miningco.com The recipes are just terrific. Any of these would be appropriate in a fine restaurant, but you can have them on your own table.
  • Cosmopolitan When your guy has the munchies after a night on the town, be a dream girlfriend by whipping up one of these superquick way-better-than-pizza meals.
  • Canadian Parents Online Boost flavour and trim fat - All in just 15 minutes with Low Fat Cooking to Beat the Clock. Author Sam Gugino's proven techniques and no-fail recipes will get you a delicious, satisfying, and healthy dinner on the table - fast.
  • Charleston (SC) Post and Courier Former restaurateur, restaurant critic, food journalist and columnist for the Wine Spectator, Sam Gugino uses his successful time-saving techniques from "Cooking to Beat the Clock" to produce whole dinners with less than 12 fat grams per serving. Gugino masterminds the steps necessary to produce the 15-minute meal and carefully leads the cook through them. He has super shortcuts.
  • Kansas City Star If you worry that your waistline is expanding but your free time is shrinking, you might find some recipes and tips you can use in Low Fat Cooking to Beat the Clock. As in Gugino's earlier book, Cooking to Beat the Clock, recipes are given for complete meals, not just dishes. That format is, in itself, a great time-saver.
  • Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Sam Gugino is my kind of guy…Not only are his recipes quick and easy, but they are targeted to no more than 12 grams of fat per serving or 30 percent of calories from fat.
  • Worchester (Mass.) Telegram Sam Gugino has the solution to making meals in 30 minutes or less.
  • Bergen News: My old recipe for Paella was time-consuming to make and not quite as healthful as Gugino’s version, which is now my recipe of choice.
  • Portland Oregonian Low-Fat Cooking to Beat the Clock blends what most cooks want today: recipes for quick, easy and low-fat entrees that are meals in themselves.
  • Chicago Tribune We found that Gugino’s claims of low-fat content true, the ‘delicious’ adjective was pretty accurate, and even the ‘inspired’ held up for most dishes.
  • Fit magazine Time is no longer an excuse to eat junk—all the recipes in Sam Gugino’s Low-Fat Cooking to Beat the Clock are less than 30 % fat and half contain less than 20%. Fifteen minutes is all you need to invest before one of these dishes can be on your table. It takes a half hour for Domino’s to deliver, right?
  • Jim Coleman, A Chef’s Table, National Public Radio The fastest cook in America.