Essays Books - Page 4

Julia's Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking

Julia Child

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

What would you give to see the notes Julia Child keeps in her handwritten loose-leaf kitchen reference guide? Your wish is granted! This clever little volume was inspired by Child's notebook, compiled from her own "trials, remedies, and errors."

Organized by large category and technique, it's a very handy reference guide for anyone reasonably comfortable in the kitchen. Each section contains a master recipe followed by variations. The emphasis is on technique, so if you occasionally find yourself trying to remember at what temperature to best roast a duck, the best way to cook green beans and keep them green, or how to save your hollandaise, then this is the book for you. And what good is a reference guide without an index? As always, Child comes to our rescue with a fantastic, comprehensive index, 19 pages long for 107 pages of text, so we can find the answers to life's burning questions in a flash.

Part of what makes Julia Child such an icon is that she can describe a complicated dish, and in the next breath convince us to make it. Classic Chocolate Mousse, Sabayon, Scalloped Potatoes Savoyarde, and Butterflied Leg of Lamb sound manageable when they follow recipes for Roast Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, and Scrambled Eggs. And with Child's help, they are. "Quick, snappy answers" for both basic and complicated cooking questions make this a work we'll never outgrow. And if Julia can use a cheat sheet, so can we! Fans of Child will love that her personality shows through in comments like, "Don't crowd the pan... or you'll be sorry," and, to introduce her Basic Vinaigrette Dressing, "I use the proportions of a very dry martini." Eight pages of photos taken by her husband, Paul, including one of Child with the famous dancing goose, make this even more of a treasure.

If there is anyone qualified to offer kitchen wisdom, it must be Julia Child. After a lifetime of cooking and teaching, her knowledge is a perfect gift for fans, novices, or anyone responsible for putting dinner on the table every night. --Leora Y. Bloom

Mangoes & Curry Leaves: Culinary Travels Through the Great Subcontinent

Jeffrey Alford, Naomi Duguid

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Excellenet! 5 out of 5 stars.
13 of 14 people found this review helpful.

I just got this book yesterday and I'm already planning my week's meals based on the recipes! :)
I've made Andhra Style Scrambled Eggs so far and they are DELICIOUS, especially served with plain basmati rice, ghee and pickle.
All the recipes in here sound very interesting. The dal recipes(tok dal and mountain dal) look like they'll turn out great.
Being an Indian, I can certify this book contains authentic recipes that people cook and eat everyday at their homes in India. This is what makes this cookbook different from the other so called Indian cookbooks....the other books just offer a westernized Indian selection while this book focuses on home cooking that is prevalent in India.
The previous reviewer perhaps eats Indian only at restaurants where everything is over spiced and the delicate flavor is lost. I just came back from visiting India and I saw that very less spices and masalas are used in rural Indian homes.
I LOVE this book and will always refer to it when I'm in the mood for some different Indian food...although I cook mostly Indian at home, this book offers a lot of different recipes and variations from various local regions....so much so that I'm sure I'll be proficient in Indian cooking in no time!

UPDATE: These are all the recipes I've tried from their book so far
1) Scrambled Eggs (5 stars)
2) Cachoombar (3 stars)
3) Cauliflower Dum (3 stars)
4) Tamarind Pulao (3 stars)
5) Bangla Dal with a hit of lime (4 stars)
6) Tilapia Green Fish Curry (5 stars)
7) Karnataka Chana (2 stars)
8) Hot Cucumber Salad (2 stars)
9) Fish Bolle Curry (3 stars)
10) Chappatis (3 stars)
11) Prawn White Curry (4 stars)
12) Eggs with curry leaves (4 stars)

Editorial Review:

For this companion volume to the award-winning Hot Sour Salty Sweet, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid travel west from Southeast Asia to that vast landmass the colonial British called the Indian Subcontinent. It includes not just India, but extends north to Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal and as far south as Sri Lanka, the island nation so devastated by the recent tsunami. For people who love food and cooking, this vast region is a source of infinite variety and eye-opening flavors.

Home cooks discover the Tibetan-influenced food of Nepal, the Southeast Asian tastes of Sri Lanka, the central Asian grilled meats and clay-oven breads of the northwest frontier, the vegetarian cooking of the Hindus of southern India and of the Jain people of Gujarat. It was just twenty years ago that cooks began to understand the relationships between the multifaceted cuisines of the Mediterranean; now we can begin to do the same with the foods of the Subcontinent.

Roast Chicken And Other Stories

Simon Hopkinson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"Good cooking depends on two things: common sense and good taste."In England, no food writer's star shines brighter than Simon Hopkinson's, whose breakthrough Roast Chicken and Other Stories was voted the most useful cookbook ever by a panel of chefs, food writers, and consumers. At last, American cooks can enjoy endearing stories from the highly acclaimed food writer and his simple yet elegant recipes. In this richly satisfying culinary narrative, Hopkinson shares his unique philosophy on the limitless possibilities of cooking. With its friendly tone backed by the author's impeccable expertise, this cookbook can help anyone -- from the novice cook to the experienced chef -- prepare down-right delicious cuisine . . . and enjoy every minute of it! Irresistible recipes in this book include: Eggs Florentine Chocolate Tart Poached Salmon with Beurre BlancAnd, of course, the book's namesake recipe, Roast Chicken Winner of both the 1994 Andr+ Simon and 1995 Glenfiddich awards (the gastronomic world's equivalent to an Oscar), this acclaimed book will inspire anyone who enjoys sharing the ideas of a truly creative cook and delights in getting the best out of good ingredients.

Food in History

Reay Tannahill

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

What we eat and where it came from 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 10 people found this review helpful.

"Food in History" is a survey of world history from the standpoint of what people ate and when. The time period covered is from the prehistoric up until nearly the present. Along the way the author gives us a brief history of the eating habits of the Romans (unborn rabbits!), China, India, the Arabs, the Europeans, and the modern world. She includes brief histories of tea, coffee, salt, jerky, chocolate, human beings, and many other food items.

This is not a recipe or a nutrition book -- although the author includes ancient recipes and comments on nutritional diseases such as scurvy. Many a fascinating tidbit of information is found within these pages. For example, I learned that the Romans were addicted to a fish sauce they called liquamen which seems to be nearly identical to the fish sauce used in SE Asia today. The Medieval section included several hilarious pages devoted to table manners in the Middle Ages, including a dissertation on breaking wind at the dinner table. (My wife says that only guys find this subject funny.)

This is a book I've had on my shelves for decades and I pick it up now and then and read about the eating habits of one civilization or another. The prose is generally lively and authoritative. Oddly enough, food doesn't seem to have inspired many historians so this book may be the best you can find on the subject even though it was written 30 years ago.

Smallchief

Editorial Review:

An enthralling world history of food from prehistoric times to the present. A favorite of gastronomes and history buffs alike, Food in History is packed with intriguing information, lore, and startling insights--like what cinnamon had to do with the discovery of America, and how food has influenced population growth and urban expansion.

Reflections of a Wine Merchant

Neal I. Rosenthal

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A leading importer of limited-production wines of character and quality takes us on an intimate tour through family-owned vineyards in France and Italy and reflects upon the last three decades of controversy, hype, and change in the world of wine

In the late 1970s, Neal I. Rosenthal set out to learn everything he could about wine. Today, he is one of the most successful importers of traditionally made wines produced by small family-owned estates in France and Italy. Rosenthal has immersed himself in the culture of Old World wine production, working closely with his growers for two and sometimes three generations. He is one of the leading exponents of the concept of “terroir”—the notion that a particular vineyard site imparts distinct qualities of bouquet, flavor, and color to a wine. In Reflections of a Wine Merchant, Rosenthal brings us into the cellars, vineyards, and homes of these vignerons, and his delightful stories about his encounters, relationships, and explorations—and what he has learned along the way—give us an unequaled perspective on winemaking tradition and what threatens it today.

Rosenthal was featured in the documentary film Mondovino and is one of the more outspoken figures against globalization, homogenization, and the “critic-ization” of the wine business. He was also a major subject in Lawrence Osborne’s The Accidental Connoisseur. His is an important voice in defense of the individual and the artisanal, and their contribution to our quality of life.

The Gastronomical Me

M. F. K. Fisher

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A great book for readers of all backgrounds! 5 out of 5 stars.
29 of 29 people found this review helpful.

Do the former critics not read Tolstoy because he was a Count? I was born into a working class neighborhood in New York, and this is one of my favorite books. Being a gourmand is an enlightened point of view, a matter of personal taste. In my opinion this is Ms. Fisher's very best book. The writing, and the personality, are exquisite. Especially in the chapter about her Father and a childhood journey, and the discovery of her crush on a fellow boarding school student (female) and her love of oysters, at the same time! Am I the only one who feels that I've shared all of those wonderful meals with her when I put down this book? Great to pack along when you are traveling, even if you've read it before!

Editorial Review:

M. F. K. Fisher sees life stomach first. The New York Times said "She spit Puritan restraint out like a dull wine and made a life of savoring the slow, sensual pleasures of the table." And between meals, she savored the pleasures of men and travel, too. She recalls California in 1912, life in France in the 1930s, and traveling solo to Mexico in 1941. Her first oyster is a beautiful story, about adolescence and the glory of the briny mollusk, and her humor is as forthright as her taste at table.

The Food Snob's Dictionary: An Essential Lexicon of Gastronomical Knowledge

David Kamp, Marion Rosenfeld

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Food Snob n: reference term for the sort of food obsessive for whom the actual joy of eating and cooking is but a side dish to the accumulation of arcane knowledge about these subjects

From the author of The United States of Arugula--and coauthor of The Film Snob’s Dictionary and The Rock Snob’s Dictionary--a delectable compendium of food facts, terminology, and famous names that gives ordinary folk the wherewithal to take down the Food Snobs--or join their zealous ranks.

Open a menu and there they are, those confusing references to “grass-fed” beef, “farmstead” blue cheese, and “dry-farmed” fruits. It doesn’t help that your dinner companions have moved on to such heady topics as the future of the organic movement, or the seminal culinary contributions of Elizabeth Drew and Fernand Point. David Kamp, who demystified the worlds of rock and film for grateful readers, explains it all and more, in The Food Snobs Dictionary.

Both entertaining and authentically informative, The Food Snob’s Dictionary travels through the alphabet explaining the buzz-terms that fuel the food-obsessed, from “Affinage” to “Zest,” with stops along the way for “Cardoons,” “Fennel Pollen,” and “Sous-Vide,” all served up with a huge and welcome dollop of wit.

Eat Me: The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin

Kenny Shopsin, Carolynn Carreno

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Editorial Review:

"Pancakes are a luxury, like smoking marijuana or having sex. That’s why I came up with the names Ho Cakes and Slutty Cakes. These are extra decadent, but in a way, every pancake is a Ho Cake.” Thus speaks Kenny Shopsin, legendary (and legendarily eccentric, ill-tempered, and lovable) chef and owner of the Greenwich Village restaurant (and institution), Shopsin’s, which has been in existence since 1971.

Kenny has finally put together his 900-plus-item menu and his unique philosophy—imagine Elizabeth David crossed with Richard Pryor—to create Eat Me, the most profound and profane cookbook you’ll ever read. His rants—on everything from how the customer is not always right to the art of griddling; from how to run a small, ethical, and humane business to how we all should learn to cook in a Goodnight Moon world where everything you need is already in your own home and head—will leave you stunned or laughing or hungry. Or all of the above.

With more than 120 recipes including such perfect comfort foods as High School Hot Turkey Sandwiches, Cuban Bean Polenta Melt, and Cornmeal-Fried Green Tomatoes with Comeback Sauce, plus the best soups, egg dishes, and hamburgers you’ve ever eaten, Eat Me is White Trash Cooking for the twenty-first century, as unforgettable and mind-boggling as its author.

Food: The History of Taste (California Studies in Food and Culture)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

This richly illustrated book is the first to apply the discoveries of the new generation of food historians to the pleasures of dining and the culinary accomplishments of diverse civilizations, past and present. Editor Paul Freedman has gathered essays by French, German, Belgian, American, and British historians to present a comprehensive, chronological history of taste from prehistory to the present day. The authors explore the early repertoire of sweet tastes; the distinctive contributions made by classical antiquity and China; the subtle, sophisticated, and varied group of food customs created by the Islamic civilizations of Iberia, the Arabian desert, Persia, and Byzantium; the magnificent cuisine of the Middle Ages, influenced by Rome and adapted from Islamic Spain, Africa, and the Middle East; the decisive break with highly spiced food traditions after the Renaissance and the new focus on primary ingredients and products from the New World; French cuisine's rise to dominance in Europe and America; the evolution of modern restaurant dining, modern agriculture, and technological developments; and today's tastes, which employ few rules and exhibit a glorious eclecticism. The result is the enthralling story not only of what sustains us but also of what makes us feel alive.
Copub: Thames & Hudson

The United States of Arugula: The Sun Dried, Cold Pressed, Dark Roasted, Extra Virgin Story of the American Food Revolution

David Kamp

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

This is an entertaining book about cooking 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I don't cook a thing, but I enjoyed reading this entertaining book about cooking. The United States of Arugula is an interesting title for a book, so I decided to give this book a chance and read it. I was pleasantly surprised about how well researched this book is. There were some names I was not famillar with. I enjoyed reading about Marion Cunningham. She updated the Fannie Farmer Cookbook in 1979 with recipes like cippino which is a tomato based fish stew. Little Joes is a dish with ground beef, eggs and spinach. I learned that Craig Claiborne was influential food journalist who reviewed restaurants and published recipes for the New York Times in the 1960s I did not know that Spago started out as a pizza restaurant. I learned that Wolfgang Puck was innovative in making pizza topped with shrimp and other seafood like scallops. I learned that he also opened an Chinese restaurant a few years ago. Kamp gives a lot of biographical information about legendary people like Julia Child and James Beard. I enjoyed reading about how they made a name for themselves in the cooking industry. I also enjoyed reading about Laura Chenel and Alice Waters. These women made a name for themselves by following their passion for cheese and French food respectively. I enjoyed reading about how television have transformed cooks like Emeril Lagasse and Bobby Flay into celebrities. This book is a fun read.

Editorial Review:

The wickedly entertaining, hunger-inducing, behind-the-scenes story of the revolution in American food that has made exotic ingredients, celebrity chefs, rarefied cooking tools, and destination restaurants familiar aspects of our everyday lives.

Amazingly enough, just twenty years ago eating sushi was a daring novelty and many Americans had never even heard of salsa. Today, we don't bat an eye at a construction worker dipping a croissant into robust specialty coffee, city dwellers buying just-picked farmstand produce, or suburbanites stocking up on artisanal cheeses and extra virgin oils at supermarkets. The United States of Arugula is a rollicking, revealing stew of culinary innovation, food politics, and kitchen confidences chronicling how gourmet eating in America went from obscure to pervasive—and became the cultural success story of our era.