The Idea: Ron Douglas was working as a finance manager for J.P. Morgan Chase when his wife challenged him to make Kentucky Fried Chicken at home. He turned to the Internet, but found only incomplete or not very accurate recipes. He did discover a whole group of people, who like him, were trying to clone recipes, so he decided to create an online community for them. Ron says, “Each week, I would try to clone a new restaurant recipe and share the results with my members….Members of the website would also try the recipes and add their feedback and recommendations.”
The Book: Douglas, Ron. (2009). America’s Most Wanted Recipes. New York: Atria. ISBN: 978-1-4391-4706-1
The Great American Taste Test: When I head that Atria Books and epicurious.com were challenging bloggers to try the recipes in Ron Douglas’ cookbook, America’s Most Wanted Recipes and compare them to the actual restaurant dishes, I was eager to participate. I have tried a few times in the past to make cloned recipes at home. In high school, my sister brought home a xeroxed copy of a recipe for Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits. We tried them and deemed them almost like the real thing (A similar recipe is included in the book.) Many years later, I tried to recreate Macaroni Grill’s Penne Rustica, with some success, using a recipe found online. The dish was good, but took forever to make. My husband and I don’t eat out much, because we are aware of how the cost adds up and because I love cooking at home, but there are still restaurant dishes we enjoy.
For the taste test, I decided that I wanted to try several recipes to see how they compared to the original. I also wondered about the cost of making these recipes at home, how healthy they are, and the ease of following and cooking the dishes, as these are some of the points mentioned in the front of the book.
Panera Bread Company’s Broccoli-Cheese Soup (p. 168): This was fairly simple to make, although it did involve a bit of cooking time. A few simple ingredients combine to make a soup that looks and tastes awfully close to that at Panera and it looks like an exact copy, from the color to little bits of carrot floating around. I’m a little lazy, so instead of using fresh broccoli, I used a box of frozen. I couldn’t tell that it made any difference. I did think it had too much nutmeg, so when I make it again, I plan to cut the amount in half. There is nothing too healthy about 2 cups of half and half, 5 tablespoons of butter, and 2 cups of cheddar cheese. I think that I might try using fat free evaporated milk or a combination of half and half and milk to cut back on the fat. (Sorry, no lowfat cheese here, it wouldn’t melt properly.) It probably doesn’t help a lot, but you can also cut a tablespoon of butter by melting the butter for the soup base and sauteing the onions in that before adding the flour, which also saves a step or two. I estimate I made this for $6.46. The recipe specifies four servings, but I got more like six, which comes to $1.08 a bowl. 
Outback Steakhouse Honey-Wheat Bushman’s Bread (p.161): This recipe says to use a bread machine, which I do not have. However, I REALLY wanted to try this recipe, so I made it by hand. I thought it was pretty simple to do, the only thing I struggled with was shaping the loaves. I do think that next time I will dissolve the coffee into the water before adding the yeast, as I could see that it didn’t all mix in the dough. I ate this right out of the oven with lots of butter. The color was not as dark (but it never will be without adding food coloring, as the recipe lists.) The flavor was excellent, but it didn’t seem as sweet as the bread in the restaurant. However, I think this might be due to the butter rather than the bread. I would almost bet that the butter at the Outback has been sweetened in some way. And for my personal taste, I like it a little less sweet. As far as good for you, this has a combination of wheat and white flours, which ups the fiber. I don’t think the flvor would be changed much by using more wheat and less white flour. I was actually thinking to make it as a full size loaf for toast and sandwiches. I estimate that it cost me $3.18 to make this bread at home, which if you divide by 8 for each little loaf comes to about $0.39 each. It is the equivalent of 2 16 ounce loaves.
TGIFriday’s Sizzling Chicken and Cheese: Of all the recipes, this one was the best. It tasted exactly like the restaurant version, maybe even better. (Hard to explain what I mean, but freshest vegetables and really good quality chicken plus adding as much seasoning as you want really make this stand out.) I found it very simple to make, from marinading the chicken to slicing the vegetables to cooking it all in the skillet. The only question I had was where would I get chihuahua cheese? At the local grocery store, they only had queso fresca and queso blanca. I choose queso blanca because it was soft, not crumbly, and it worked well. Everything sauteed beautifully, and made a beautiful (and delicious) finished product. This dish is pretty good for you. One thing you could do is use a very good nonstick skillet and cut back how much oil you use. I think you need some, or otherwise you won’t beautiful browning on the vegetables and chicken. I estimated that it cost about $6.41 to make this at home.
The Bottom Line: These recipes are very close to the originals, and in some cases, I think as good if not better. I like the idea making them at home where you can control exactly what goes into them as far as salt and fat. Maybe this book will inspire me to try and clone some of my own restaurant favorites.
