A Booze Hound’s Guide to Gourmet is the September selection for the Left Coast Culinary Book Club. As the president, one of my practices is to let the host select the book/theme for the meal. This one came up in July but we had already set our plans in motion for the month and I try to get things solidified as early as possible so that people have time to find it at the library or order it or whatever the preference for obtaining the book.

I heard that the host selected the book because he was a local author. While trying to substantiate that, I found it rather difficult. I found an Australian, children’s author. I also found drug kingpin as well as the lead singer of Creedence Clearwater Revisited. Who knows.

I suspect that based on the book, this is the author’s seminal work. The website that is attached is still operational albeit very simple and dated. The typeset and formatting of the book looks like it was written in Microsoft Publisher and amateurish. Many of the photos that accompany the recipes have a low resolution and even sometimes un-appetizing look to them.

But let’s not pick at the man, at least he has published a book. To tell you the truth, I look at some of the photos that I take and sort of hold my mouth. Then I rationalize my poor work by saying, ‘hey, it’s free. I am not making a cent on any of this.’ The real truth is that that I get in the heat of the moment and snap a picture. Later when I get ready to write, I look at past history (my pictures) and say to myself that I wish I had done more when I had the chance.

Any man that has fought through formatting hell to get to a publishable book state has my respect. There have been many a document that I have spent thirty minutes to an hour trying to get a page break or text wrap to look correct. I do have to say that technology has come a long way in my career and lifetime since I have been working with it.

The most fascinating part of the book is the backstory. According to McGuiness, he spent twenty years as a charter captain in the Caribbean. While the book doesn’t go into this aspect extensively, I imagine that he is sailing a small group of wealthy people around for a week or more. Part of his duties is to produce the meals and this book is a reflection of what was on the menu as well as meeting expectations by this group of clients.

Informally, I would say that about fifty percent of the recipes contain alcohol. It is not as forward as the title would lead. Alcohol is largely relegated to marinades, sauces and deserts. They are certainly not the featured components of the recipes. The foreword even suggests that they can be omitted if desired.

One interesting thing that McGuiness did was that there was a section of entire meals. In that, he put a Gantt chart for all of the events to plan the meal. If you don’t know what that means it would be like saying twenty minutes in you should be doing x, y and z. That looks like browning the meal, chopping the vegetables and warming the oven. Instead of single recipes that you have to figure out, he has mapped it all out. I like that and I think that restaurants would do better by just telling you how it is going to go rather than the other way around.

I will be honest, I haven’t made anything out of the book. Even for the LCCBC dinner I hadn’t had a chance to finish it or look close enough to make a proper decision on what to make. Now that I have finished the book, I probably will not make anything from it. I just didn’t have a compelling dish that I felt inspired to make. There were a few recipes that peaked my interest, but honestly when would I make a Turducken? Thanksgiving is the only time for the three of us. I asked my wife about risotto and lobster stuffed Cornish game hens, she said too many competing flavors and I have to agree.

End Your Programming Routine: The final verdict on this one is a no. The title is misleading from a novelty standpoint. I am positive that the recipes are fine but I already have a plethora of cookbooks that I could pick out any number of dishes to make a fine meal. It might be worth considering if you timing is terrible and you just want a whole meal already laid out that might be semi-fancy. But that is as far as I can go with this one.