Gastronomy Books - Page 17

Starting with Ingredients

Aliza Green

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Biggest cookbook I've ever seen! 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

While I'm certainly no gourmet, and very few of the recipes would be feasible for me to try, it's a lot of fun to read. It goes into detail about histories of various foods as well as how they're raised, grown, slaughtered, used, etc. in various parts of the world.

I got it from the library but was astonished at the low price for a book exceeding 1,000 pages.

Most interesting cook book in my kitchen 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is a must have for anybody who enjoys cooking, history, and trivia. This book is organized by ingredient and includes a short essay on the history of each one. Who knew that orange carrots were developed to honor Dutch royalty?! The recipes in this book are good and numerous, but there are plenty of places to find good recipes. The best part of this book is the commentary that surrounds each recipe. This is a true gem for anybody who enjoys reading their cookbooks.

Editorial Review:

Starting with Ingredients - Quintessential Recipes for the Way We Really Cook by Aliza Green"The revolutionary approach of Starting with Ingredients will transform the way we shop, prepare, cook, and even think about food. Each chapter focuses on a single

A Moveable Thirst: Tales and Tastes from a Season in Napa Wine Country

Rick Kushman, Hank Beal

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Fun Reading 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is a fun book to read. Part personal story and part tasting room reviews, it combines interesting information about wine making, the stories behind the people and the wineries, and details about each tasting room. It is well-written but in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way. It's very approachable and teaches about the wine business without making you feel like you are an idiot. One of the authors is a professional in the wine industry, the other (the primary author) is a journalist with little experience other than he likes to drink wine. After reading this book, and knowing something about wine, I still learned a lot and was greatly entertained. I now want to plan another trip to Napa Valley as there are many new places that I want to check out! I have recommended this as a must-read to many friends as they plan their own trips or are just looking for a good book.

Editorial Review:

A rollicking wine country travelogue paired with the only comprehensive guide to Napa’s public tasting rooms

Hank Beal is a wine pro–the executive wine buyer at an upscale supermarket chain. Rick Kushman is an ordinary joe–a guy who enjoys wine but doesn’t know a lot about it. Together, Hank and Rick set out to visit all 141 public tasting rooms in Napa during the course of a year. The result is A Moveable Thirst–an engaging, often hilarious book that’s one part Sideways, one part Frommer’s. The first part recounts their uproarious adventures on the road as Rick learns to sniff and spit like a true oenophile (but never stops asking stupid questions). The second part offers the most complete and detailed guide ever published to Napa’s wine rooms. For wine lovers and the more than 5 million people who visit Napa every year, A Moveable Thirst is a great read and an indispensable guide.

The United States of Arugula: How We Became a Gourmet Nation

David Kamp

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 35 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

One day we woke up and realized that our “macaroni” had become “pasta,” that our Wonder Bread had been replaced by organic whole wheat, that sushi was fast food, and that our tomatoes were heirlooms. How did all this happen, and who made it happen? The United States of Arugula is the rollicking, revealing chronicle of how gourmet eating in America went from obscure to pervasive, thanks to the contributions of some outsized, opinionated iconoclasts who couldn’t abide the status quo.

Vanity Fair writer David Kamp chronicles this amazing transformation, from the overcooked vegetables and scary gelatin salads of yore to our current heyday of free-range chickens, extra-virgin olive oil, Iron Chef, Whole Foods, Starbucks, and that breed of human known as the “foodie.” In deft fashion, Kamp conjures up vivid images of the “Big Three,” the lodestars who led us out of this culinary wilderness: James Beard, the hulking, bald, flamboyant Oregonian who made the case for American cookery; Julia Child, the towering, warbling giantess who demystified French cuisine for Americans; and Craig Claiborne, the melancholy, sexually confused Mississippian who all but invented food journalism at the New York Times. The story continues onward with candid, provocative commentary from the food figures who prospered in the Big Three’s wake: Alice Waters and Jeremiah Tower of Berkeley’s Chez Panisse, Wolfgang Puck and his L.A. acolytes, the visionary chefs we know by one name (Emeril, Daniel, Mario, Jean-Georges), the “Williams” in Williams-Sonoma, the “Niman” in Niman Ranch, both Dean and DeLuca, and many others.

A rich, frequently uproarious stew of culinary innovation, flavor revelations, balsamic pretensions, taste-making luminaries, food politics, and kitchen confidences, The United States of Arugula is the remarkable history of the cultural success story of our era.

Scotland and its Whiskies: The Great Whiskies, the Distilleries and Their Landscapes

Michael Jackson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Truly magical insite to Scotland and her Whiskies 5 out of 5 stars.
14 of 16 people found this review helpful.

A couple of years ago I was blessed by being given one of the best, if not the best job in the world. "Brand Ambassador" for one of the finest and best known Scotch Whisky Brands. After an all too brief trip to Scotland, I have dedicated most of my free time to reading everything about Scotland and her Whiskies that I can get my hands on.
Mr. Jackson's wonderfully poetic description of the land that now owns my heart has served to make a return trip much more than a wish.
I so loved this book that I made a gift of it to the library of Cardhu Distillery.
Thank you Mr. Jackson for making Scotland come alive to Whisky lovers everywhere.
Slainte bha
Charles Swett

Editorial Review:

In his Malt Whisky Companion, Michael Jackson—past winner of The Glenfiddich Trophy and no fewer than five Glenfiddich Awards—was the first writer to describe in detail the aromas and flavors of Scotland’s most famous product. Now he goes even deeper into the world of whisky, discussing the terroir that shapes the taste of this classic liquor. Jackson’s passion for Scotland and its whiskies comes through clearly and deliciously, and photographer Harry Cory Wright (Strand: The Shifting Sands of the Outer Hebrides) beautifully captures the landscape’s magnificent colors and textures. Whether studying the ancient forms of barley in the Orkneys, drinking tea with peat-cutters while a storm brews over Islay, or preferring the finished product by the shore at sundown, they bring a personal understanding to the magic of malt.

Food: A Culinary History (European Perspectives)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 2.5 of 5

Disappointing 2 out of 5 stars.
13 of 16 people found this review helpful.

I tend to really enjoy books on culinary history; unfortunately this one left me wanting more. The chapters are disjointed, with no true unifying theme. The prose is stilted, though I suspect alot of this is due to poor translation. The information itself is good, but badly presented; overall a boring mess of a book. Pick up Tannahill's "Food in History" instead.

Editorial Review:

At what point in history did people start serving meals at regular hours? Would we still be eating communally today if the Black Plague hadn't forced diners to eat at a safe distance from each other? What's the real story behind the origin of pasta? These are just a few of the tantalizing questions that are answered in this fascinating history of food from prehistoric times to the present. This comprehensive work explores the culinary evolution of cultures ranging from Mesopotamia to modern America, and explores every aspect of food history, from the dietary rules of the ancient Hebrews to the contributions of Arab cookery. Written by leading world authorities, this volume gives a unique perspective on the social and cultural mores of humankind through the ages, offering cooks, culinary scholars, and food lovers a banquet of information on which to feast.

The Measure of Her Powers: An M.F.K. Fisher Reader

M.F.K. Fisher

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Perhaps it is the title, The Measure of Her Powers, that is the organizing principle behind this collection of writings lifted from the incredible oeuvre that M.F.K. Fisher left behind. A measurement, then, a means of finally understanding what all the noise may or may not be about. There are 27 books attributed to Fisher on the cover flap. Her writings pretty much cover a life lived full throttle from 1908 to 1992; The Measure of Her Powers pretty much covers her life as it has been written.

It's kind of like peering at a fascinating woman in different times in a long life through a ViewMaster, clicking right along: the girl at school, the young woman in France and Switzerland, the widow and mother in California, and so on. All of it is "seen" through a strong, gentle, steady voice. Clicking right along.

She was a better writer when exploring food and passion in her early works than she was later when reflecting. Exactly when any given piece was actually written is left off, though the original title from which any piece of text was drawn is included. The truly vigilant and curious could assemble the publishing dates and explore the times of this writer's life, comparing the one to the other.

The Measure of Her Powers is a grand excuse, really, to discover and to rediscover so unique an American writer as M.F.K. Fisher. For those who have never had the thrill of hearing that fluid voice of hers extolling the pleasures of a good meal and good company, it is here and waiting. For those who have forgotten that thrill, the reminder can be found between these covers. This is a text that points back to original volumes, where the writer may be more fully explored and appreciated. In some of those volumes the power of Fisher has no limits. In other volumes a certain tiresomeness and pointlessness creeps in. The Measure of Her Powers deftly maps the territory. --Schuyler Ingle

The Saucier's Apprentice: One Long Strange Trip through the Great Cooking Schools of Europe

Bob Spitz

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Very Disappointing 1 out of 5 stars.
4 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Knowing one of the people he cited, as well as her wonderful place, I found several instances of misinformation. We spent 2 weeks there - he spent 3 days. One wonders about the remainder of the book. Food/travel books are my favorite reads, and I have an extensive library to prove it. This one is not a keeper.

Editorial Review:

The education of a barbarian in the temples of haute cuisine.

In the blink of an eye, Bob Spitz turned fifty, finished an eight-year book project and a fourteen-year marriage that left him nearly destitute, had his heart stolen and broken on the rebound, and sought salvation the only way he knew how. He fled to Europe, where he hopscotched among the finest cooking schools in pursuit of his dream. The urge to cook like a virtuoso, to unravel the mysteries of the process, had become an obsession.

Spitz hit the fabled cooking-school circuit in a series of idyllic European villages, and The Saucier's Apprentice is a chronicle of his exploits. Combining an outrageous travelogue with gastronomic lore, hands-on cooking instruction, hot-tempered chefs, local personalities, and a batch of memorable recipes, Spitz's odyssey recounts the transformation of a professional writer—and lifelong kitchen amateur—into a world-class cook. 30 illustrations.

Amarcord: Marcella Remembers

Marcella Hazan

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Editorial Review:

The food publishing event of the season: Beloved teacher and bestselling cookbook author Marcella Hazan tells how a young girl raised in Emilia- Romagna became America’s godmother of Italian cooking.

Widely credited with introducing proper Italian food to the English-speaking world, Marcella Hazan is as authentic as they come. Raised in Cesenatico, a quiet fishing town on the northern Adriatic Sea, she’d eventually have her own cooking schools in New York, Bologna, and Venice. There she would teach students from around the world to appreciate—and produce—the food that native Italians eat. She’d write bestselling and award-winning cookbooks, collect invitations to cook at top restaurants, and have thousands of loyal students and readers—some so devoted they’d name their daughters Marcella. Her fans will be as surprised and delighted by how this all came to be as Marcella herself has been.

Marcella begins with her early childhood in Alexandria, Egypt, where she broke her arm. After nearly losing the arm to poor medical treatment, she was taken back to her father’s native Italy for surgery. There the family would remain. Her teenage years coincided with World War II, and the family relocated temporarily to Lake Garda— not anticipating that it would be one of the war’s greatest targets. After years of privation and bombings, Marcella was fulfilling her ambition to become a doctor and professor of science when she met Victor, the love of her life. They married and moved to New York City. Marcella knew not a word of English or—what’s more surprising—a single recipe. She began to attempt to re-create the flavors of her homeland. She took a Chinese cooking class in the early ’60s with women who asked her to teach them Italian cooking, and she began to give them lessons. Soon after, Craig Claiborne invited himself to lunch, and the rest is history.

Amarcord means “I remember” in Marcella’s native Romagnolo dialect. In these pages Marcella, now eighty-four, looks back on the adventures of a life lived for pleasure and a love of teaching. Throughout, she entertains the reader with stories of the humorous, sometimes bizarre twists and turns that brought her love, fame, and a chance to change the way we eat forever.

The Fifth Taste: Cooking with Umami

Anna Kasabian, David Kasabian

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Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Fifth Taste: Cooking with Umami

See how easy it is to make the most appetizing, delicious and satisfying food ever by including ingredients with umami, the fifth taste.
What is umami? It's another basic taste, like sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. But it's not an ordinary taste. Umami is that rich, savory, extra-satisfying taste of mushrooms, steak, cheese, oysters, and red wine — just a few of the many foods loaded with umami. Umami is a quick and easy way to boost flavor dramatically by waking up taste buds you never knew you had.
Science only recently proved its existence, and the world of food and cooking is catching on fast. In the last year, reports on umami appeared in the New York Times, Saveur, Wine Spectator, Food and Wine, The New Yorker, and numerous other publications. And every day more chefs and home cooks are wowing guests, family and friends with fabulous-tasting umami-rich food.
The Fifth Taste: Cooking with Umami is the first book ever to tell what umami really is, which foods have it (and which don’t), and how to use umami every day for some of the best meals you’ve ever had.
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With more than 50 umami-rich recipes from 25 top American chefs.

Advance Praise for The Fifth Taste: Cooking with Umami

“Anna and David Kasabian have not only written a scientific tell-all book about this mysterious ingredient, but they have also included amazing recipes - revealing a new genre in cooking and exciting new tastes for the palate.”
Mario Batali, chef and author

“Great cooks throughout the centuries have spontaneously understood the essential quality of individual ingredients and have instinctively combined these to create superlative concoctions. In this fascinating book, the Kasabians argue convincingly that this intuitive knowledge of cooks has a name: Umami.”
Jacques Pepin, chef, author and educator

“Finally a cookbook I've been waiting for-one that explains the elusive qualities of umami. Anna and David Kasabian are trailblazers. Not only do they explain and describe this mysterious element of flavor, they show us how to use its power in our cooking. An important and original book."
Michael Ruhlman, author, The Making of Chef, The Soul of a Chef and Charcuterie

“I found the book to be an excellent synthesis of what umami IS with its practical use in cooking. I believe it will be a milestone in the deliberate incorporation of umami  into western gastronomy.”
Dr. Robert L. Wolke, author, What Einstein Told His Cook and What Einstein Told His Cook 2, The Sequel

“As exciting and intriguing a read as you’ll find in any cookbook published this year. Then there are the recipes. If umami is a good taste — and it is — what better than a cookbook to showcase it?
Mark Bittman, author, How to Cook Everything (From the Foreword)

Over 50 delectable umami recipes, for every occasion and for every level of cooking skill, such as:
·Spicy Chipotle Pork Tacos with Sun-Dried Tomato Salsa from Rick Bayless
·Sea Scallops with Mashed Potatoes and Red Onion Confit from Daniel Boulud
·Cornish Game Hens Braised in a Pot with Summer Vegetables from Bradley Ogden
·My Father’s Famous Shrimp Hors d’Oeuvres from Lydia Shire
·Lamb Shanks with Tomatoes from Christopher Kimball
·Spicy Sour Botan Shrimp from Nobu Matsuhisa
Plus more everyday umami recipes, including
·Maxed-Out Meatloaf
·Ragumami Tomato Two Meat Pasta Sauce
·Asparagus Frittata
·Coq au Vin Nouveau
·Please-Pass-the-Umami Toasts
·Vegetarian Muffaletta Roll-Ups
·And more

Consider the Oyster

M. F. K. Fisher

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Consider it a classic 5 out of 5 stars.
37 of 38 people found this review helpful.

I am not a great fan of oysters, but I am a very great fan of M.F.K. Fischer, and she makes an extraordinarily convincing case for the humble bivalve. In her sensuous, intelligent, witty and charming prose, she tells tales and relates recipes and historical trivia that will have even the most hardened anti-oyster reader craving the savor of oyster stew, or good old-fashioned oyster stuffing, or hang-town fry. This is a perfect paean to a food men of almost every culture have enjoyed throughout history. Whether you like the things or not, you will love this delicious, funny, warm book--and you, like me, may decide to give oysters another chance!

Editorial Review:

M.F.K. Fisher, whom John Updike has called our "poet of the appetites," here pays tribute to that most delicate and enigmatic of foods---the oyster. As she tells of oysters found in stews, in soups, roasted, baked, fried, prepared à la Rockefeller or au naturel--and of the pearls sometimes found therein--Fisher describes her mother's joy at encountering oyster loaf in a girls' dorm in he 1890's, recalls her own initiation into the "strange cold succulence" of raw oysters as a young woman in Marseille and Dijon, and explores both the bivalve's famed aphrodisiac properties and its equally notorious gut-wrenching powers. Plumbing the "dreadful but exciting" life of the oyster, Fisher invites readers to share in the comforts and delights that this delicate edible evokes, and enchants us along the way with her characteristically wise and witty prose.