General Books - Page 3

Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating

Jane Goodall, Gary McAvoy, Gail Hudson

Amazon Price: $10.19 List Price: $14.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Wellness Central Amazon Marketplace: 68 new & used starting at $4.20

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 38 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

We all need this Hope... 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book is always next to my chair. I review it always. I have bought and given this wonderful book to friends and family. My why of passing the word. This book is an Eye opener for what we put in our mouths & how we are hurting our selfs and our plant.

Editorial Review:

The renowned scientist who fundamentally changed the way we view primates and our relationship with the animal kingdom now turns her attention to an incredibly important and deeply personal issue-taking a stand for a more sustainable world. In this provocative and encouraging book, Jane Goodall sounds a clarion call to Western society, urging us to take a hard look at the food we produce and consume-and showing us how easy it is to create positive change.Offering her hopeful, but stirring vision, Goodall argues convincingly that each individual can make a difference. She offers simple strategies each of us can employ to foster a sustainable society. Brilliant, empowering, and irrepressibly optimistic, HARVEST FOR HOPE is one of the most crucial works of our age. If we follow Goodall's sound advice, we just might save ourselves before it's too late.

The Devil in the Kitchen: Sex, Pain, Madness, and the Making of a Great Chef

Marco Pierre White

Amazon Price: $10.87 List Price: $15.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Bloomsbury USA Amazon Marketplace: 50 new & used starting at $7.75

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Marco Hates You 2 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Marco Pierre White is the original rock and roll chef and the first person I'm aware of to consistently go into the dining room and tell people to shove off.

When I was on an ACF Jr. Culinary Olympic Team in the late 90s, this was not a fact we overlooked, and for it White was instantly a hero of ours. I grabbed up all his cookbooks; the best of which was the tough to find White Heat. Through it, we discovered strange foods like caul fat, that we, as young cooks, had never seen, had, or even heard of.

Needless to say, when I saw he was writing a biography, my interest was peaked.

There's a funny story in the book that sums it up for me. A Michelin 3 star chef dined at White's restaurant, and afterwards, came into the kitchen to say everything was great except the fish -- which was salty. White told the cook who prepared it to tell the chef to "F off".

White seems to tell everyone to "F" Off, and as interesting as this book was to me, a fan, I'm sad to say, overall, it is pretty poor. White has a tremendous ego, and comes off sounding like a real jerk that ruins every meaningful relationship he's ever been apart of both personally and in business.

Editorial Review:

“There hasn’t been a food memoir this deliciously wicked since Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential.”—Portland Oregonian
The Devil in the Kitchen is legendary chef Marco Pierre White’s memoir of growing up working-class in Leeds and going on to become a king in the culinary world—the original celebrity chef. The first British chef (and the youngest chef anywhere) to win three Michelin stars—and also the only one to ever give them all back—is known equally for his astonishing talent and for being a chain-smoking, pot-throwing enfant terrible of the kitchen. In The Devil in the Kitchen he takes readers on a revealing and raucous ride, featuring some of the biggest names in the food world and beyond. It’s truly a decadent feast for anyone who loves food or just a great story.

Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table

Ruth Reichl

List Price: $24.95 By: Random House Amazon Marketplace: 129 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 83 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In Ruth Reichl’s latest book — one that will delight her fans and convert those as yet uninitiated to her charming tales — the author brings to life her adventures in pursuit of good meals and good company. Picking up where Tender at the Bone leaves off, Comfort Me with Apples recounts Reichl’s transformation from chef to food writer, a process that led her through restaurants from Bangkok to Paris to Los Angeles and brought lessons in life, love, and food.

It is an apprenticeship by turns delightful and daunting, one told in the most winning and engaging of voices. Reichl’s anecdotes from a summer lunch with M.F.K. Fisher, a mad dash through the produce market with Wolfgang Puck, and a garlic feast with Alice Waters are priceless. She is unafraid — even eager — to poke holes in the pretensions of food critics, making each meal a hilarious and instructive occasion for novices and experts alike. The New York Times has said, “While all good food critics are humorous .. few are so riotously, effortlessly entertaining as Ruth Reichl.” In Comfort Me with Apples, Reichl once again demonstrates her inimitable ability to combine food writing, humor, and memoir into an art form.

The Art of Eating

M. F. K. Fisher, Joan Reardon

Amazon Price: $16.47 List Price: $24.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Wiley Amazon Marketplace: 63 new & used starting at $9.83

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 26 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

RUTH REICHL
"Mary Frances [Fisher] has the extraordinary ability to make the ordinary seem rich and wonderful. Her dignity comes from her absolute insistence on appreciating life as it comes to her."

JULIA CHILD
"How wonderful to have here in my hands the essence of M.F.K. Fisher, whose wit and fulsome opinions on food and those who produce it, comment upon it, and consume it are as apt today as they were several decades ago, when she composed them. Why did she choose food and hunger she was asked, and she replied, 'When I write about hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth, and the love of it . . . and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied.' This is the stuff we need to hear, and to hear again and again."

ALCIE WATERS
"This comprehensive volume should be required reading for every cook. It defines in a sensual and beautiful way the vital relationship between food and culture."

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

David Kamp, Marion Rosenfeld

Amazon Price: $10.36 List Price: $12.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Broadway Amazon Marketplace: 50 new & used starting at $5.05

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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.

Kitchen Mysteries: Revealing the Science of Cooking (Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History)

Hervé This

Amazon Price: $15.61 List Price: $22.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Columbia University Press Amazon Marketplace: 52 new & used starting at $12.00

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Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

An international celebrity and founder of molecular gastronomy, or the scientific investigation of culinary practice, Herv& eacute; This is known for his ground-breaking research into the chemistry and physics behind everyday cooking. His work is consulted widely by amateur cooks and professional chefs and has changed the way food is approached and prepared all over the world.

In Kitchen Mysteries, Herv& eacute; This offers a second helping of his world-renowned insight into the science of cooking, answering such fundamental questions as what causes vegetables to change color when cooked and how to keep a souffl& eacute; from falling. He illuminates abstract concepts with practical advice and concrete examples& mdash;for instance, how saut& eacute;ing in butter chemically alters the molecules of mushrooms& mdash;so that cooks of every stripe can thoroughly comprehend the scientific principles of food.

Kitchen Mysteries begins with a brief overview of molecular gastronomy and the importance of understanding the physiology of taste. A successful meal depends as much on a cook's skilled orchestration of taste, odors, colors, consistencies, and other sensations as on the delicate balance of ingredients. Herv& eacute; then dives into the main course, discussing the science behind many meals' basic components: eggs, milk, bread, sugar, fruit, yogurt, alcohol, and cheese, among other items. He also unravels the mystery of tenderizing enzymes and gelatins and the preparation of soups and stews, salads and sauces, sorbet, cakes, and pastries. Herv& eacute; explores the effects of boiling, steaming, braising, roasting, deep-frying, saut& eacute;ing, grilling, salting, and microwaving, and devotes a chapter to kitchen utensils, recommending the best way to refurbish silverware and use copper.

By sharing the empirical principles chefs have valued for generations, Herv& eacute; This adds another dimension to the suggestions of cookbook authors. He shows how to adapt recipes to available ingredients and how to modify proposed methods to the utensils at hand. His revelations make difficult recipes easier to attempt and allow for even more creativity and experimentation. Promising to answer your most compelling kitchen questions, Herv& eacute This continues to make the complex science of food digestible to the cook.

Things Cooks Love: Implements, Ingredients, Recipes

Sur La Table, Marie Simmons

Amazon Price: $14.00 List Price: $35.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Andrews McMeel Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 73 new & used starting at $4.69

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"The first time I stepped into a Sur La Table store many years ago, it instantly became my favorite kitchenware store, and it still is. Its variety never fails to surprise me. I have always found what I needed or even what I didn't know I needed until I saw it there." --Marcella Hazan, godmother of Italian cooking in America and author of Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

Things Cooks Love: Implements. Ingredients. Recipes., the first in a series of Andrews McMeel Publishing books by the trusted culinary authority Sur La Table, speaks to the love that cooks of all levels feel for their tools. Whether you're passionate about the gorgeous copper pot you just received as a gift, a rice cooker you have always wanted to try, or your grandmother's well-aged cast-iron skillet, award-winning author Marie Simmons provides inspiration to make the best use of your cookware along with delectable recipes to enhance the experience.

Since the 1972 opening of its flagship store in Seattle's Pike Place Market, Sur La Table has become the destination of choice for iconic chefs from Jacques Pepin and Martha Stewart to Mario Batali. A favorite of culinary connoisseurs and gadget gurus alike, Sur La Table sells the A-to-Z of kitchenware and prides itself on teaching how to properly buy, use, care for, and cook with your newfound kitchen additions.

Things Cooks Love presents more than 100 satisfying recipes along with 125 detailed descriptions of commonly used and more unusual kitchen implements. Simmons focuses on how to choose basic cookware, and then branches out to an international array of essentials for Asian, Mexican, French, Indian, Iberian, and Moroccan kitchens. Each recipe includes preparation and cooking times, serving portions, and implements necessary to prepare the dish. Alternative cookware is offered for kitchens that aren't stocked with the exact cookware or tools.

Unlike any other tool-focused book on the market, this book celebrates the deep connection between cooks and their treasured tools. Things Cooks Love is more than a reference tool or a cookbook--it is a cook's book.

Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen

Laurie Colwin

Amazon Price: $11.76 List Price: $12.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Harper Perennial Amazon Marketplace: 60 new & used starting at $2.82

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Heartwarming Culinary Essays. Great Read for Foodies 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

'Home Cooking' by Laurie Colwin is the kind of book that really makes you wish you could become friends with the author. Unfortunately, the author is no longer with us, so there is a lot more than the usual barrier between celebrity and mere mortal between reader and writer.

The chapters in the book are essays composed of both culinary and autobiographical material, although the book is not a memoir a la Ruth Reichl's two books. It is also not culinary criticism or exposition in the style of John Thorne. It is most similar to the kind of essays written by Elizabeth David, one of the author's heroes, and M.F.K. Fisher.

The author has the advantage of most good writers in that she has lived in interesting circumstances providing fuel for her writing. One premise for much of her culinary advice is based on the fact that for several years, she lived in a very small Greenwich Village apartment with no oven, two hot plates, no sink and a tiny refrigerator, with literally enough room to hold no more than three people at a time. Amazingly, the author was able to actually entertain in this tiny space, using the bathtub and commode as a means of washing up the dishes.

Much of the culinary advice is quirky and some is actually a bit dated, as it predates the microplane and the cheap plastic mandoline. I suspect the author may have changed some of her opinions if these tools had been available. Colwin's advice about knives is also a little dated, as she swears by carbon steel blades rather than modern stainless steel. Since there is no evidence that she sharpened her own knives, I suspect a modern Santoku knife may have changed her opinion. Even so, the essays are a testament to cooking with only the bare minimum of equipment and space.

It is not surprising that Ms. Colwin's recipes never made the 'Best of' series, as they are quirky rather than true gourmet fare. While another of Ms. Colwin's heroes is Edna Lewis, the very influential writer on Southern cooking, Ms. Colwin's recipe for Southern Fried Chicken does not follow Ms. Lewis' lead on a number of things such as an overnight buttermilk marinade. He does, however, keep to the gospel of pan frying rather than deep-frying.

Ms. Colwin's writing provides much more food for the soul than it does food for the gut. Reading this book makes one wish that Karen Duffey would have channeled her not inconsiderable talent for the simple in her book 'A Slob in the Kitchen' into a style more like Ms. Colwin's very entertaining twists on culinary matters.

Highly recommended reading for foodies.

Editorial Review:

Share the unsurpassed pleasures of discovering, cooking, and eating good, simple food with this beloved book. Equal parts cookbook and memoir, Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking combines her insightful, good-humored writing style with her lifelong passion for wonderful cuisine in essays such as "Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant," "Repulsive Dinners: A Memoir," and "Stuffed Breast of Veal: A Bad Idea." Home Cooking is truly a feast for body and soul.

The True History of Chocolate, Second Edition

Sophie D. Coe, Michael D. Coe

Amazon Price: $14.93 List Price: $21.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Thames & Hudson Amazon Marketplace: 49 new & used starting at $9.43

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Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"A beautifully written...and illustrated history of the Food of the Gods, from Olmecs to present-day developments."—Chocolatier

This delightful and best-selling tale of one of the world's favorite foods draws upon botany, archaeology, and culinary history to present a complete and accurate history of chocolate.

The story begins some 3,000 years ago in the jungles of Mexico and Central America with the chocolate tree, Theobroma Cacao, and the complex processes necessary to transform its bitter seeds into what is now known as chocolate. This was centuries before chocolate was consumed in generally unsweetened liquid form and used as currency by the Maya, and the Aztecs after them. The Spanish conquest of Central America introduced chocolate to Europe, where it first became the drink of kings and aristocrats and then was popularized in coffeehouses. Industrialization in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries made chocolate a food for the masses, and now, in our own time, it has become once again a luxury item.

The second edition draws on recent research and genetic analysis to update the information on the origins of the chocolate tree and early use by the Maya and others, and there is a new section on the medical and nutritional benefits of chocolate. 100 illustrations, 15 in color.

A Geography of Oysters: The Connoisseur's Guide to Oyster Eating in North America

Rowan Jacobsen

Amazon Price: $10.88 List Price: $16.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Bloomsbury USA Amazon Marketplace: 36 new & used starting at $8.94

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

Editorial Review:

 “A wide-ranging, thorough, breezily written guide to oysters as cuisine” (Boston Globe), A Geography of Oysters is the complete guide to understanding, serving, and savoring one of North America’s most delicious foods—an Amazon Best of the Year 2007 selection.

In this passionate, playful, and indispensable guide, oyster aficionado Rowan Jacobsen takes readers on a delectable tour of the oysters of North America. Region by region, he describes each oyster’s appearance, flavor, origin, and availability, as well as explaining how oysters grow, how to shuck them without losing a finger, how to pair them with wine (not to mention beer), and why they’re one of the few farmed seafoods that are good for the earth as well as good for you. Packed with fabulous recipes, maps, and photos, plus lists of top oyster restaurants, producers, and festivals, A Geography of Oysters is both delightful reading and the guide that oyster lovers of all kinds have been waiting for.