Recipes from Restaurant Chains

Sales have been slowing at national restaurant chains like Red Lobster, TGI Fridays, and the Cheesecake Factory due to the increase in gas prices. Not to mention many people’s financial problems of unemployment, foreclosure, and so on. But a lot of us have gotten used to recipes from restaurant chains. I remember how years ago I heard someone say that the highest praise used to be telling a restaurant their meals tasted homemade. “But now the kids praise Mom’s cooking by telling her it tastes as good as McDonalds.”

I recently ran across a complete book of copycat restaurant recipes, America's Secret Recipes, that recreates recipes from restaurant chains. Not only do their recipes taste just like the food served in the restaurants we’ve gotten used to visiting, but they’re an awful lot cheaper than going out to dinner.

According to Zagat, the average family eats out three or more times per week, whereas a generation ago, it was something families would only do on very special occasions or while on vacation. With America's Secret Recipes, you can feed your family at home using these recipes from restaurant chains. You’ll provide the same great tastes they’d get by eating out—and the money that stays in your pocket can help to pay for that roof over your head.

Gourmet Restaurant Recipes

America is increasingly becoming a nation of restaurant chains. Going out to eat in Indianapolis, Indiana, is just like going to eat in San Francisco or New York; you can always find an Applebee’s, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, TGI Friday, or even P. F. Chang.

But what if you want to eat food at a gourmet restaurant? What if you want to eat at Emeril’s, the Four Seasons, the Ritz Carlton, Saks Fifth Avenue, or the Waldorf Hotel? Unless you live in the few cities where these iconic American restaurants exist, you’re out of luck.

Well, you have been out of luck—but no more. All of these gourmet restaurant recipes are included in America's Secret Recipes, where you’ll find recipes that have been painstakingly recreated to let the food you create at home taste just like that served in gourmet restaurants. Discover the ingredient combinations and spices that make these foods taste so good. All the trial and error has been done for you, and you can follow step-by-step instructions to prepare dishes that will amaze your family and friends.

America's Secret Recipes includes recipes from over 200 restaurants, including gourmet restaurant recipes. When will you invite me over for dinner?

Famous Restaurant Recipes

Some thirty-five years ago, I lived in Kansas City. We frequently went to eat at Stephenson's Old Apple Farm Restaurant. I didn’t particularly like their food, but I loved going to eat there. They had huge kegs serving apple cider in the lobby while you waited for your table, and the frozen fruit salad that came as a standard side was out of this world. In fact, I frequently told my boyfriend that I was tempted to someday just have the frozen fruit salad and apple fritters, rather than an entrée. It never came to that, but I did search high and low for the recipe for the frozen fruit salad. I tried numerous cookbooks, but none of them came close to the flavor and consistency of Stephenson’s frozen fruit salad. Perhaps if the Internet had been around then, I could have found a copycat recipe, but back then your only hope of getting famous restaurant recipes was to get them direct from the restaurant. And Stephenson’s turned me down.

Researching now, I find that Stephenson’s closed in the spring of 2007 after a half-century of serving Kansas City. Such a shame! But though I can’t find their frozen fruit salad in the over 200 recipes of America's Secret Recipes, I’ve certainly found lots of other famous restaurant recipes therein. Master Chef Ron Douglas provides step-by-step instructions to prepare dishes you’d swear were served to you at B. B. King’s, Balducci, Bennigan, Benihana, the Brown Derby—and that’s only some of the B’s in the recipe treasury. With America's Secret Recipes, you’ll be able to prepare famous restaurant recipes at home and amaze your friends!

Copycat Restaurant Recipes

The average American family eats out three or more times per week. Of course, part of that is because people don’t have the energy or time to cook at home. But a lot of the reason is because the food you get when you go out to eat just tastes so darn good. Most of us have favorite restaurants that we go to for our birthdays or other celebrations, and we even know what we’re going to order before we get there. That’s because the restaurant has trained us: we want that item fixed that way.

I’m lucky enough that I don’t have to cook at home—my husband does all the cooking. But every January I look forward to my birthday dinner of Capellini Pomodoro or Chicken Marsala at Olive Garden. My husband used to try to duplicate those dinners at home for me, but they never came out tasting the same.

Not until I found a complete book of copycat restaurant recipes! America's Secret Recipes have been developed to taste just like the food served in famous restaurants—and they do! Not only do they taste the same, but they’re an awful lot cheaper than going out to dinner.

My husband’s favorites are Red Lobster’s Shrimp Scampi or P. F. Chang’s Spicy Chicken. He’s trying to get me to cook for his birthday, but believe me, just having the recipes isn’t enough. I am just not a cook! Not even when I have a whole book of over 200 copycat restaurant recipes.