Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Editorial Review:
From the PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author James Salter and his wife, Kay—amateur chefs and perfect hosts—here is a charming, beautifully illustrated tour de table: a food lover's companion that, with an entry for each day of the year, takes us from a Twelfth Night cake in January to a champagne dinner on New Year's Eve. Life Is Meals is rich with culinary wisdom, history, recipes, literary pleasures, and the authors' own memories of successes and catastrophes.
For instance:
• The menu on the Titanic on the fatal night
• Reflections on dining from Queen Victoria, JFK, Winnie-the-Pooh, Garrison Keillor, and many others
• The seductiveness of a velvety Brie or the perfect martini
• How to decide whom to invite to a dinner party—and whom not to
• John Irving's family recipe for meatballs; Balzac's love of coffee
• The greatest dinner ever given at the White House
• Where in Paris Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter had French onion soup at 4:00 a.m.
• How to cope with acts of God and man-made disasters in the kitchen
Sophisticated as well as practical, opinionated, and indispensable, Life Is Meals is a tribute to the glory of food and drink, and the joy of sharing them with others. "The meal is the emblem of civilization," the Salters observe. "What would one know of life as it should be lived, or nights as they should be spent, apart from meals?"
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10
Average rating: 4.0 of 5
Editorial Review:
A man of Rabelaisian appetite, with the exquisite palate of the true gastronome and the literary flair to match, A.J. Liebling (1904-1963) was a formidable eater and a remarkable man, and his nostalgic recitation of his years and meals in Paris is a pleasure to read, dream on, and drool about.
Liebling treasured a good appetite as a prerequisite for writing about food, as his accounts of substantial meals (two portions of cassoulet, one steak topped with beef marrow, and a dozen or so oysters, for example) attest. For the poised, precise, literary, and humorous flavor of his writing, you need only crack open the book--any page will do. Liebling recounts how to dine superbly without being lead astray by too much money, and he digresses magnificently on the evils of abstemiousness ("No sane man can afford to dispense with debilitating pleasures; no ascetic can be considered reliably sane"). In this age of diets and pragmatic health care, it's refreshing to read such an inspired and inspiring ode to pleasure. As a means of savoring a love affair with Paris, sparking an interest in a trip to France, restructuring your priorities for the trip you've already planned, or gearing up on the flight over for the gastronomic debauches to come, Liebling is unsurpassed. --Stephanie Gold
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 27
Average rating: 4.0 of 5
Editorial Review:
Most Asian restaurants are really two restaurants: one where outsiders eat, and one where insiders dine. So how can you become an insider and take full advantage of Asian cuisines?
In this indispensable guide, dining expert Steven A. Shaw proves that you don't have to be Asian to enjoy a VIP experience—you just have to eat like you are. Through entertaining and richly told anecdotes and essays, Asian Dining Rules takes you on a tour of Asian restaurants in North America, explaining the cultural and historical background of each cuisine—Japanese, Chinese, Southeast Asian, Korean, and Indian—and offering an in-depth survey of these often daunting foodways. Here are suggestions for getting the most out of a restaurant visit, including where to eat, how to interact with the staff, be treated like a regular, learn to eat outside the box, and order special off-menu dishes no matter your level of comfort or knowledge.
Steven Shaw—intrepid reporter, impeccable tastemaker, and eater extraordinaire—is the perfect dining companion to accompany you on your journey to find the best Asian dining experience, every time.
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Amazing journey 5 out of 5 stars.
19 of 19 people found this review helpful.
I'll start with a disclaimer - I am a hobbyist and not a prefessionally trained chef. Even if you are a very experienced hobbyist don't expect to be able to prepare more than 5-10% (or less) of the recipes in this book. This book is not a beginner or even an advanced cookbook. While it contains recipes (on the attached CDROM), most of these recipes contain techniques that are far from standard and that may require specialized chemicals (such as Sodium Alginate and liquid nitrogen) and/or devices (such as a PacoJet, or a syphon with elBulli devised attachments). Furthermore, these recipes are far from forgiving, and most of the time you'll end up with a *really* unappetizing mess rather than a meal. Practicing before inviting friends is not an option with this one... For perspective, I own about 50 cookbooks, from the basics to celebrity chef bibles. To compare, apart from a few complex recipes, about 50% of Thomas Kellers' book is pretty doable.
Now for the good. This book is more of an inspirational journey than a cookbook. It chronicles a team of chefs journey outside of the realm of the known. Ferran Adria has reached the pinnacle of traditional cuisine, got the elusive third Michelin star, and instead of cashing in by opening cloned 3 star restaurants (like Alain Ducasse and Thomas Keller) has decided to venture out and explore.
The book is part of a series of books obssessivly annotating this journey. As an example of the depth of the obssession lies the tools the team created: To the young team yet unaware of the rigorous language of food science - mere words seemed inadequate to describe the products and procedures they had invented. So with a semi-deranged, Tolkien like fastidiousness, a philosophy, a methodology, an alternative supportive language (along with rune like icons)and even a map were created.
This tome is obssessive compulsive creativeness at its best. Like a Peter Greenaway film, it attempts to establish its place in a made-up chronology of food evolution. But just as cinema will never resemble a Greenaway Film, haute cuisine, while taking up some of Ferran's creation, will never become elBulli.
As for the recipes? These techniques, while (somewhat) annotated, are difficult to master for the home cook. As an example, I am still waiting for my Airs to emulsify properly. I'll get there, but it will take time and lots of thrown away food. But I'll keep trying. As for my pasta less raviolos? They are getting much better thanks!
Editorial Review:
Ferran Adria is widely considered to be the most innovative, most influential, and indeed the greatest chef in the world today. Culinary giants like Thomas Keller venerate him. El Bulli, the restaurant where he creates his masterpieces, has become a pilgrimage site of sorts; food connoisseurs from around the world journey down a dizzying coastal road to Roses, Spain to experience his unconventional tasting menu -- often consisting of 25 or more courses. But if you want a reservation, get in line.
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.
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
About Jeffrey, Not About Food 2 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.
I made it through about 5 or 6 of the essays in the book. I was expecting a book about food, but I got a book about Jeffrey Steingarten. In one column he writes about injuring his foot and being bed-ridden for awhile. Occasionally food is mentioned when a company like Starbucks or Ben and Jerry's sends him something, but mainly it's about his bed rest, and I don't find that very interesting.
He's petty. He had a bad experience on a plane where he accidentally ate some garnish. This caused an nasty reaction that lasted a good twenty minutes or so. By using his leverage as the food writer for Vogue (he mentions how the stewardess turns pale when he shows her his business card), he makes Northwest go through what's basically a witchhunt to find the person responsible for including the poisonous garnish with the food. Finally Northwest tells him that identifying the catering company is as far as they can take it. He even gets a couple of calls from the catering company, but in the end he's disappointed because the person responsible wasn't punished. I understand that he had a bad experience (and his foolish wife even worse), but to take the whole thing to such an extreme when it was a matter of a twenty minute unpleasant experience just shows to me that he's not a very good person. That's not what I wanted to read about when I picked up the book.
On one page he complains about being "impecunious." A few pages later, he's talking about his vacation home in San Diego that he travels to from him apartment in Manhattan. Presumably his wife, whom he appears to be frequently apart from, as she's often out of the country on business, floated the cash necessary for the poverty-stricken Steingarten to afford even such meager trifles.
One might say that I'm simply jealous, and fair enough. Sure I'd like to have a vacation home in San Diego and the clout to push around Northwest Airlines, but the bottom line is I wanted a book about food, and I ended up with a book about a guy that I just don't like very much.
All that said, he is a good writer, so I gave it two stars instead of one.
Editorial Review:
In this outrageous and delectable new volume, the Man Who Ate Everything proves that he will do anything to eat everything. That includes going fishing for his own supply of bluefin tuna belly; nearly incinerating his oven in pursuit of the perfect pizza crust, and spending four days boning and stuffing three different fowl—into each other-- to produce the Cajun specialty called “turducken.”
It Must’ve Been Something I Ate finds Steingarten testing the virtues of chocolate and gourmet salts; debunking the mythology of lactose intolerance and Chinese Food Syndrome; roasting marrow bones for his dog , and offering recipes for everything from lobster rolls to gratin dauphinois. The result is one of those rare books that are simultaneously mouth-watering and side-splitting.
Book Description Modern French habits of cooking, eating, and drinking were born in the Ancièn Regime, radically breaking with culinary traditions that originated in antiquity and creating a new aesthetic. This new culinary culture saw food and wine as important links between human beings and nature. Authentic foodstuffs and simple preparations became the hallmarks of the modern style. Pinkard traces the roots and development of this culinary revolution to many different historical trends, including changes in material culture, social transformations, medical theory and practice, and the Enlightenment. Pinkard illuminates the complex cultural meaning of food in her history of the new French cooking from its origins in the 1650s through the emergence of cuisine bourgeoise and the original nouvelle cuisine in the decades before 1789. This book also discusses the evolution of culinary techniques and includes historical recipes adapted for today's kitchens.
Amazon Exclusive: Author Susan Pinkard on the French Culinary Revolution
For centuries, people the world over have associated French cuisine with fine dining. French chefs, French restaurants, French win--each instantly suggest a level of excellence, sophistication, and attention to detail not expected from other nationalities. For the French, a meal is to be savored, not devoured. Dining is an experience, not a means to an end. But how did this happen? When did the French set the standard for culinary excellence? A Revolution in Taste explores the years in which food went from a necessity to a work of art. My book reveals that modern French habits of cooking, eating, and drinking were born in the Ancien Régime. A radical break from antiquated culinary traditions, this new culinary culture viewed food and wine as important links between human beings and nature. Authentic foodstuffs and simple preparations became the hallmarks of the modern style. Pinkard looks at the roots and development of this culinary revolution in many different historical trends, including changes in material culture, social transformations, medical theory and practice, and the Enlightenment. This book illuminates the complex cultural meaning of food in her history of the new French cooking from its origins in the 1650s through the emergence of cuisine bourgeoisie and the original nouvelle cuisine in the decades before 1789. In addition, A Revolution in Taste discusses the evolution of culinary techniques and even includes a section devoted to historical recipes adapted for today’s kitchens.
--Susan Pinkard
Cook up the Enlightenment: Exclusive Recipe Excerpts from A Revolution in Taste
• Green Butter with Leek and Parsley (Marin)
• Potage aux Herbes (Marin)
• Roasted Chicken with Bitter Orange and Garlic Deglazing Sauce (Bonnefons)
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8
Average rating: 4.0 of 5
Editorial Review:
The Taste of Conquest offers up a riveting, globe-trotting tale of unquenchable desire, fanatical religion, raw greed, fickle fashion, and mouthwatering cuisine–in short, the very stuff of which our world is made. In this engaging, enlightening, and anecdote-filled history, Michael Krondl, a noted chef turned writer and food historian, tells the story of three legendary cities–Venice, Lisbon, and Amsterdam–and how their single-minded pursuit of spice helped to make (and remake) the Western diet and set in motion the first great wave of globalization. Sharing meals and stories with Indian pepper planters, Portuguese sailors, and Venetian foodies, Krondl takes every opportunity to explore the world of long ago and sample its many flavors. Along the way, he reveals that the taste for spice of a few wealthy Europeans led to great crusades, astonishing feats of bravery, and even wholesale slaughter.
As stimulating as it is pleasurable, and filled with surprising insights, The Taste of Conquest offers a compelling perspective on how, in search of a tastier dish, the world has been transformed.
Praise for The Taste of Conquest
“An altogether rich, perfectly seasoned slice of world history.” –The Boston Globe
“As a chef I have always been deeply intrigued by the mystique of spices. Michael Krondl’s book awakens and transports the reader into this mysterious world, showing us how our lives and history have been transformed by the sensuous odors of cardamom, nutmeg, and turmeric.” –Gray Kunz, chef and owner of Café Gray and Grayz, co-author of The Elements of Taste
“Fascinating . . . spicy reading for food and history lovers alike.” –Associated Press
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 46
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Editorial Review:
Peter Mayle, author of the bestselling A Year in Provence has done it again--but differently. Traveling this time beyond his adopted Provence throughout France, the food and travel writer has produced French Lessons, a celebration of many of that country's gastronomic joys. Whether pursuing La Foire de Fromages, the annual cheese fair at Livarot; a Burgundian marathon offering runners Médoc refreshment; or a village truffle mass that concludes with a heady dégustation of the newly blessed tuber, Mayle takes his readers in hand and shows all. Wide-eyed yet knowing, ever affable but with a touch of mischief, he's an ideal companion, the best possible narrator of his lively food adventures.
Mayle's gastronomic baptism occurs when, as a 19-year-old, he dines for the first time in France. "At the first mouthful of French bread and French butter," he writes, "my taste buds, dormant until then, went into spasm." The paroxysm leads to serious food-and-wine perambulations--and, finally, to chapters including "The Thigh-Taster of Vitel" (a frog-eating fete); "Slow Food" (snail love in Martigny les Bains) and "The Guided Stomach" (an investigation of the Michelin Guide restaurant inspection), among others. Readers are also present for a debate on the secret of the perfect omelet; a search for the best possible chicken in Bourg-en-Bresse; and a visit to a St. Tropez restaurant notable for its scantily clad habitués. Those familiar with Mayle's work, and those yet to discover it, are in for a treat. --Arthur Boehm
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1
Average rating: 5.0 of 5
The Ultimate Food Bible 5 out of 5 stars.
15 of 15 people found this review helpful.
I browse at cookbooks in bookstores as a hobby. I am the proud owner of some titles among the bestsellers' list of Amazon's food, cooking, and wine category but I have never encountered something like this before. I received an email from Amazon offering me to pre-order this item a few months ago. I am so glad that I had stuck it out since its release has been postponed again and again. When the book arrived, I didn't know what to expect besides its cover. I was amazed. This hefty book is the compendium of all delicious foods from all over the world. As I flipped through the pages, it felt like I was touring the world and experiencing the different exotic food each country has to offer. Majority of the foods are foreign sounding. However, there are some as basic as crab cakes, lemon chicken, short ribs, angel food cake, baked cheesecake, lentil soup, etc. The list is broken down into these food groups:
appetizers and small food
soups and salads
noodles and rice
fish and seafood
poultry and game
meats
beans, cheese, and vegetables
desserts
bread, cookies, and patries
beverages
I don't own the other book entitled "1001 Foods You Must Eat Before You Die", so I am curious if they contain more or less the same things. I am very satisfied with this one I have though and I intend to use it as a check list. I will try to taste as many of these foods as I can in my lifetime.
Now, a more critical perspective. I would like to have bigger and more number of photographs... but I suppose the book will be thicker than its 960 pages if that is the case.Hmmm! There are a few foods enlisted that don't have photographs to support them but overall, the book is fine for a visual person like me. It's hard to believe that this is the work of one single person. It's an encyclopedia for an adventurous foodie like me. Imagine how exciting it'll be to have some fantastic food for the first time in one's life and to be informed of its history. Each food has its story of how it came to be.
Editorial Review:
Every epicure seeks the very best-of-the-best foods the world has to offer, from extra-virgin olive oil and artisanal cheeses to rich, dark chocolate. 1,001 Foods To Die For is an essential list for food lovers, featuring luscious photographs and descriptions of must-eat foods from soup to nuts and from all over the world. This food bible includes everything from simple classics like foie gras and aged aceto balsamico to more exotic fare such as blowfish sushi or gratin Dauphinois. The book's contributors include more than eighty renowned culinary professionals--chefs, writers, critics, and historians--share their expert opinions on the delicious dishes and cuisines that must be experienced at least once in a lifetime. With lots of informational sidebars, and recipes for some of the featured dishes, 1,001 Foods To Die For is the ultimate culinary catalog for foodies everywhere.
For centuries, people the world over have associated French cuisine with fine dining. French chefs, French restaurants, French win--each instantly suggest a level of excellence, sophistication, and attention to detail not expected from other nationalities. For the French, a meal is to be savored, not devoured. Dining is an experience, not a means to an end. But how did this happen? When did the French set the standard for culinary excellence? A Revolution in Taste explores the years in which food went from a necessity to a work of art. My book reveals that modern French habits of cooking, eating, and drinking were born in the Ancien Régime. A radical break from antiquated culinary traditions, this new culinary culture viewed food and wine as important links between human beings and nature. Authentic foodstuffs and simple preparations became the hallmarks of the modern style. Pinkard looks at the roots and development of this culinary revolution in many different historical trends, including changes in material culture, social transformations, medical theory and practice, and the Enlightenment. This book illuminates the complex cultural meaning of food in her history of the new French cooking from its origins in the 1650s through the emergence of cuisine bourgeoisie and the original nouvelle cuisine in the decades before 1789. In addition, A Revolution in Taste discusses the evolution of culinary techniques and even includes a section devoted to historical recipes adapted for today’s kitchens. 
