Professional Cooking Books - Page 17

Stacks: The Art of Vertical Food

Deborah Fabricant

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

How to Wow your guests! 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

When I first saw a picture of a "stack", I was drawn to it immediately. I had to buy the kit and soon realized I needed more ideas, so I bought the cookbook. If you are a "foodie" who likes to experiment and make more than meatloaf and mashed potatoes for dinner guests, this is a great tool. The ingredients are fresh (and the author offers alternatives if you are just too busy to make your own pesto!), colorful and flavorful. This book is a great value, as well. You can use the recipes as a guide to being creative. Enjoy

Learn How to Serve Up EyeAppealing Dishes 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful.

This cookbook delivers the home chef who want to spice up the appearance of food with this new vertical style.

Fabricant has done all the trial work for us and now gives recipes for each entree plus has available from her web site and others all the necessary "stacks" etc., you'll need.

This is also supplamanted in most cases with great color photogrpahy that show the recipe served, which is so helpful in this case.

I've not tried all, but several main dishes and desserts and my guests and I found them so appealing visually, but the portions were large and the food rich. So, who can complain!

Unique and wonderful for us fledgling gourmets!

Editorial Review:

Former restaurateur Deborah Fabricant takes food to new heights with her "stacks" of delicious, dramatic edible towers. The over 50 recipes are illustrated with full-color photography and step-by-step photo instructions.

Darina Allen's Ballymaloe Cooking School Cookbook

Darina Allen

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

Excellent general textbook from the Irish Alice Waters. Buy It. 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.

The `ballymaloe cooking school cookbook' by school co-owner and Irish TV cooking show host, Darina Allen is my second volume in my search for the perfect Irish cookbook. As it turns out, this very heavy and long (639 pages) book is much, much more than a book about Irish cooking, as well it should be, since it is comparable to the Culinary Institute of America's textbook, `The New Professional Chef'. That is, it is a general textbook for essentially all styles of European and American cooking, with a tendency to include more Irish recipes than you would expect from a French or Italian cooking textbook. In fact, a quick browse reveals recipes from around the world, many with an attribution to a close Darina Allen friend, such as Marcella Hazan.

When I saw Darina Allen on the old Sara Moulton show, `Cooking Live' on the Food Network, I had no idea that her Ballymaloe Cooking School was so big and well established to support such a comprehensive volume.

Ms. Allen's general tone in this book follows much the same path as the Chez Panisse guru, Alice Waters in that it strongly emphasizes good, fresh ingredients and a philosophy to waste nothing. Even the most lowly scraps can be recycled in the compost heap or the stock pot.

Unlike Ms. Allen's `The Festive Food of Ireland', I am happy to say that these recipes give all their units in an uncluttered and familiar English system of units, such as pounds and ounces, cups, tablespoons and teaspoons. I was just a bit surprised to see Ms. Allen recommend using standard spoons out of the silverware drawer to measure for savory recipes. On one hand, this is brilliantly simple, since a standard teaspoon (5 ml) is a rounded `teaspoon' and an English tablespoon (20 ml) is a rounded soupspoon. One important difference to note here is that the English (and Canadian) tablespoon is 25% larger than the American tablespoon (15 ml).

The book covers a very broad range of subjects, featuring 24 chapters on stocks & soups; appetizers; eggs; rice, other grains, & legumes; pasta and noodles; vegetables; salads; fish & shellfish; poultry; lamb; pork & bacon; beef; variety meats; game; desserts; cheeses; cakes & cookies; breads, scones & pizzas; jams & preserves; breakfast; barbecue; finger foods; drinks; and sauces.

One of the first things that struck me about this book is that it delves into subject which few if any other cooking texts touch, such as shopping, fashion, kitchen safety, and manners at the table. Many of the book's more conventional sections are a bit off. The `cupboard basics' section violates the notion that you should never buy an ingredient unless you have definite plans to use it in a recipe in the next week. Ms. Allen's list includes things such as dried fruit, Carr's Water Biscuits, Nam Pla (fish sauce), Pesto, and Ballymaloe's own brands of Tomato Relish and Jalapeno Relish. I would make pesto myself and I don't anticipate using nam pla, harissa, tortillas, Carr water biscuits, or chorizo in the next month, and maybe not even in the next year. The same general comment can be made of the `essential kitchen equipment' list. I always go back to Madhur Jaffrey's sound advice to simply make the recipes you want and buy for only those recipes. Sooner or later, you will have built up a pantry and assembly of cooking tools to match your personal style.

I do not weigh this too heavily against Ms. Allen, as she also has great advice on what to do if your power fails on your freezer or if you plan to move and are dealing with a full freezer.

Although this is a text for training future professional chefs, many of the classic recipes are remarkably unfussy. The master recipe for chicken stock cooks for only 3-5 hours, and adds all the vegetables at the beginning of the cooking rather than waiting for the last hour. Similarly, the master recipe for the basic omelet only cites one basic kind of French omelet and leaves out at least one of the fussier steps I have heard from various sources. The recipe for scrambled eggs is also not quite as fussy as the classic French method requiring a double boiler (bain marie).

Some techniques are illustrated with a set of photographs illustrating the steps, but these tend to be small and some major techniques are not so illustrated.

True to the author's emphasis on raw materials and the fact that the school has its own farm for vegetables, eggs, and fresh herbs, the introductory paragraphs to each section are rich in advice on how to pick and use raw materials. The introduction to eggs, one of my favorite subjects, is especially good on identifying the best eggs (how long ago was it laid) for each job.

Overall, this is an excellent reference for all sorts of recipes. I happened to check out the recipe for `basic hamburgers' and found a recipe that exactly duplicated my projected improvement over Julia Child's favorite hamburger recipe. Where Miss Julia has us put sautéed garlic and onion sandwiched between two layers of ground meat, Ms. Allen recommends the sautéed savories be mixed in with the ground meat, together with egg. A surprising touch recommends we also wrap it in caul fat, but this is optional.

One thing you will find in this book that you will not find in a CIA tome is a very personable, comradely tone which almost places Ms. Allen at your right hand as you read through the recipes. That means you will have a lot more fun reading this book than you may with a CIA text.

If you are very new to cooking, I highly recommend this as a first cookbook, especially if your ancestry can be traced back to the Emerald Isle! But, this is much, much more than a cookbook of Irish recipes.

Editorial Review:

Under the enthusiastic direction of one of Ireland's most beloved culinary artists, readers can learn over one hundred basic kitchen techniques. Applied to a mouth-watering array of over 500 recipes, these lessons are designed to instill confidence in the beginner, while encouraging experienced cooks to expand their kitchen repertoire.

Gene Kilgore's Ranch Vacations

Gene Kilgore

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

LEADING GUIDE TO RANCH VACATIONS IN NORTH AMERICA 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

The recently published 7th edition of Gene Kilgore's Ranch Vacations describes over 90 guest, resort, fly-fishing, and Winter ranches in North America. Whether you are looking for a private getaway, a working dude ranch, or resort for the whole family, this is by far the most comphrensive guide available in bookstores today. Author Gene Kilgore, widely considered the recognized authority on ranch vacations, has traveled thousands upon thousands of miles to tell you the reader tidbits of information about the setting, rates, activities, accomodations, dining options, entertainment and children's programs. He also includes helpful advice on how best to reach your destination. As in past editions, Kilgore has included wise sage tips on choosing the right ranch, what to pack, helpful maps, and a wonderful glossary of ranch terms. The 7th edition of this book sits on a shelf in my personal study alongside the six previous editions and will no doubt help me plan yet another ranch vacation for my family as we love to relive the time honored traditions of dude ranching. I commend the author on his commitement to opening the eyes of his readers to the beauty that is ranch country. Happy trails await you.

Editorial Review:

Gene Kilgore's Ranch Vacations lists more than 140 ranches in the U.S. and Canada. Kilgore details the setting, activities, dining and accommodation options, entertainment, children's programs, rates, and how to get there. Complete with two new maps, full-color photos, and tips on what questions to ask when choosing a ranch, what to pack, and a glossary of ranch terms, planning a vacation where beautiful scenery, fresh air, and delicious food awaits has never been easier.

Bavarian Lager: Beerhall Helles History, Brewing Techniques, Recipes (Classic Beer Style Series, 17.)

Horst Dornbusch

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

My favorite book in this series. 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 7 people found this review helpful.

The various books in the Classic Beer Style series are as mixed of a bag as their subjects. While each makes an effort to provide a bit of a history lesson, some technical background and a few recipes for the homebrewer, each author seems to have been pretty much left to work out the details. As a result, some examples got lost by being muddled with too much history, too many technical details or recipes that are at the extremes of the complexity scale.

Dornbusch managed to get a great balance of the three in this book, and he presents it in a style that shows that he downright enjoys his subject. The result is a book that, from a homebrewer's standpoint, is actually fun to read. But most importantly, you can make some pretty good brews from his recipes.

Do you like german beer? 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Do you like german beer? If you do, get this book. This is the recipe key for that famous blond beer served in Bavaria. If you like the red beer, then get the book on octoberfest beer (marzen). This book will help you formulate a tasty, balanced, perfectly malty brew that is delightful. Fifty percent of my brews are helles beers, and once you get them right, I think yours may be too.

For the most authentic taste, I recommend incorporating decoction mashing. This subject is not covered in this text, but is in a book titled: NEW BREWING LAGER BEER.

Don't forget to drink to the foam (safely) and dance to merry music with a partner! Have fun. Auf Wiedersehen.

Editorial Review:

Helles was first created in Munich n 1894, it is perhaps the most delicate beer imaginable.

Prime Time Emeril: More TV Dinners from America's Favorite Chef

Emeril Lagasse

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

With more than 1,000 shows on the food television network, weekly appearances on Good Morning America, and guest spots with Rosie O'Donnell and Jay Leno, it seems that people can't get enough of Emeril Lagasse. Happily, here's Prime Time Emeril: More TV Dinners from America's Favorite Chef. It's another big helping of the food, the fun, and the man America has fallen in love with.

Now Emeril's fans can cook more of the dishes they've seen him prepare on prime time television -- more than 150 of them. They're easy to understand and simple to follow, and the results are foolproof and pure Emeril.

Each chapter of Prime Time Emeril is filled with recipes, techniques, and tips to help you re-create Emeril's unique New American style of cooking right in your own home. These recipes feature his kicked-up favorites, including Chicken Drumettes with Blue Cheese Sauce and Emerilized Barbecued Oysters with Rosemary Biscuits. There are new twists on Louisiana classics, including gumbo, jambalaya, and beignets.

From his hometown of Fall River, Massachusetts, Emeril shares the food he loved best as a kid -- recipes such as Hilda's Stewed Chicken, Madeira-Braised Short Ribs, and Lobster Portuguese-Style.

Re-create Emeril's amazing appetizers, including Spicy Duck Empanadas with Cilantro Cream or Singing Shrimp. How about a big bowl of steaming Monkfish Chowder or Rabbit, Andouille, and Wild Mushroom Gumbo? Kick it up more than a few notches with Mardi Gras Jambalaya, Tuna of Love, or Bamburgers. And Emeril has never been shy about dessert. Whip up one of his creations, such as Pumpkin Cheesecake, Cherry and White Chocolate Bread Pudding, or Mr. Lou's Chocolate Praline Pie.

So pick up this book and pick up a pan. You're ready for some prime time cooking with Prime Time Emeril.

Doughs, Batters, and Meringues (French Professional Pastry Series)

Roland Bilheux, Alain Escoffier

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Wonderful Tool for Learning Top-Notch Pastry Skills 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I went to pastry school in France and found these books absolutely indispensable.

Need to learn the classics of French pastry? This book (and the other three in the series*) is for you! There are lots of detailed pictures and explanations are clear and well written. Along with time-lines to help you gage how long a project will take. The recipes are frequently given for large restaurant quantity along with a scaled down version suitable for home cooking. My only complaint is that there's no index that spans the 4 volumes, though each book does have its own index with references in both English and French. Very useful.

Master the information in these books and you can work in any pastry kitchen anywhere in the world.

* Creams, Confections, and Finished Desserts
Petits Fours, Chocolate, Frozen Desserts, and Sugar Work
Decorations, Borders and Letters, Marzipan, and Modern Desserts

Editorial Review:

Volume 1 of this series presents all of the important techniques used to make the basic pastry preparations.

Zagat 2008 Seattle Restaurants

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

My bible 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I have used Zagat guides for years. I am in Sales and entertain clients often so this is an indespensible tool for me and keeps me "in the know" on the hot spots in town. I keep one in my car and one in my office. Although I primarily use it for business, my husband and I refer to it often when heading out for dinner, too.

Editorial Review:

The dining scene in the Pacific Northwest has never been bigger. Based on the opinions of thousands of local restaurant goers, this guide covers over 600 restaurants in and around Seattle. Also includes stick on bookmarks, added interior color and more.

Food Network Best Of The Best Of...

Jill Cordes, Marc Silverstein

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 2.5 of 5

great recipes 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is a great cookbook with the best of the great recipes that you see onfood network all compiled together.

Editorial Review:

Every week, Jill Cordes and Marc Silverstein, hosts of Food Network's popular show The Best Of, take viewers to unexpected places in search of the best of food, drink, and merriment. From the smallest prairie towns to the biggest cities, from five-star dining rooms to greasy spoons, from Maine to Maui, these reporters traverse the country, cameras at the ready and forks in hand.

Part recipe collection, part scavenger hunt, part confessional, Food Network Best of The Best Of gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at life on the road to discover why a drugstore in South Dakota sells 3,000 donuts a day or where to find the finest matzoball soup in Iowa. Whether it's a Cordon Bleu-trained chef amidst the slot machines of Las Vegas or the ranch wife who opened an eatery in a one-horse town, the book, like the show, showcases the breadth and variety of the food experience in America.

ServSafe Essentials, Second Edition (with the Scantron Certification Exam Form)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Very Good Reference, must buy 5 out of 5 stars.
15 of 15 people found this review helpful.

This book was quite helpful for my the National Servsafe test. It was a good reference, and it had excellent chapter of the microbiology of food. If you really want to know the type of questions asked on the National Servsafe Test get the following which is on amazon.com:
Study Guide for the National Servsafe Exam: Key Review Questions and Answers with Explanations
ISBN: 0971999678
I used both these books and passed with ease. Not to mention both these books helped me to get an "A" in my sanitation class.
Both books are must buys.

ServSafe Essentials w/Scantron 3 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Not as informative as ServSafe Coursebook..Be careful which book you really need! Diffent ISPN numbers only by last two. Still informative and useful for taking ServSafe exam for certificate if working in food service sector.

Editorial Review:

With concern about foodborne illness increasing among consumers, it is more important than ever for restaurants and foodservice operations to be able to assure customers that the food they are eating is safe. This book teaches basic food safety concepts and prepares readers for the ServSafer Food Protection Manager Certification Examination.

Chef's Secrets: Insider Techniques from Today's Culinary Masters

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

Fun Foodie Read. Uneven suggestions. Lots Great Some dumb 4 out of 5 stars.
43 of 45 people found this review helpful.

`Chef's Secrets' is a cleverly edited book by caterer and writer Francine Maroukian, subtitled `Insider Techniques from Today's Culinary Masters' which has much to offer, some old chestnuts, and a few misguided suggestions.

The most important aspect of the book is how much you can take away from it upon a single cover to cover reading. I say this because like similar question and answer books, the text is not well organized for hunting down the answer to a particular question, as all sections are more anecdotal than they are systematic in content. Thus, the greatest advantage is gained by reading the book from cover to cover, from front to back, and absorbing a few new, useful techniques.

In doing this, I found much that was interesting in a `by the way' fashion. The first thing that struck me was the large number of contributors who have graduated from the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) and Johnson and Wales. I believe over half graduated from an American culinary educational program, with these two institutions leading the list. I am certain this is a really major change in the culinary scene over the last 50 years. The second interesting observation was the number of times Wolfgang Puck was mentioned as a model of American culinary innovation and inspiration. This may come as quite a blow to the egos of Jeremiah Tower and the opinions of Jim Villas who tend to minimize Puck's serious contribution to the American culinary scene. That Alice Waters is mentioned once is no surprise. That Wolfgang is mentioned twice, more than any other living chef, is notable. The third interesting observation is the number of people who seem to have apprenticed with either Ducasse or Boulud. These two staging sponsors lead the list by a wide margin. All of this makes reading the contributors' thumbnail biographies and `More Secrets' sidebars interesting, but this is not the main show.

The primary point of the book is the eighty-two chapters, contain 82 culinary `tips' from 82 recognized experts among the American culinary elite. While the seven (7) `culinary masters' named on the cover are well known, the remaining 75 contributors are no slouches. All are serious master chefs or thoroughly vetted writers active today. And, it appears that all of these tips were solicited from the contributors directly by the editor. They are not extracted from the contributors' printed works. The tips are also laid out in great detail. Many are supported by illustrations; however, several of illustrations in these storyboards are less revealing than they might be.

One of the first problems I found with the book is that many of the `insider techniques' are pretty common knowledge to any foodie who has read a few good cookbooks and who dotes on the better Food Network shows such as `Good Eats', `Molto Mario', and `Sara's Secrets' by contributor Sara Moulton. Some good examples of this are the tips on how to peel ginger with a teaspoon, how to defrost meat, how to joint a chicken, how to crisp greens, and how to quickly ripen fruit. Some other tips are just a bit too specialized to be useful to a lot of people. One misleadingly titled example is a tip on how to perfectly roast a chicken that has relatively little to do with what everyone thinks of as `roast chicken'. What the author actually shows us is the classic Italian technique of roasting a deboned chicken under a weight. The following tip by Charlie Palmer on how to roast fowl comes much closer to what the average cook would expect from instructions on roasting birds. Another misguided suggestion is a technique for making an omelet by finishing it in a broiler, in much the same way as you may finish a frittata. I have read at least twenty different techniques for making an omelet, and not one of them finishes the dish in the broiler! This tip is one for the professional short order cook who has a constantly hot salamander at eye level. It is simply a waste of time and gas or electricity to start an omelet on the range and fire up the broiler to finish, especially since every expert on the face of the earth, from Julia Child to Elizabeth David to Jacques Pepin does their omelet on the range from start to finish.

This still leaves a lot of good tips to go around. Out of the 82 sections, I suggest that at least twenty will be of some value to the average foodie amateur. A professional cook may find more useful material, but they may also be already familiar with most of the tips. My favorite sections are on creating dried shrimp flakes to use as a seasoning; how to check the salinity of a curing solution; how to sear a fish in a stainless steel pan; how to turn out tender shrimp; how to use bacon to its best advantage while cooking beans; and how to re-establish a non-stick surface on a stainless steel or aluminum pan.

Just as I am especially fond of single subject cookbooks such as those dedicated to eggs or potatoes or biscuits or cupcakes or salmon, I especially enjoy these `tip' books; however, I find them less useful than the single subject books or the general giants such as `The Joy of Cooking' or `James Beard's American Cookery'. This book is fun, but it is not quite as good as Perla Meyers' `How to Peel a Peach' or Raymond Sokolov's `How to Cook'. Neither of these two books is perfect, but they are more sound as day to day counselors on important techniques.

Recommended as a foodie fun read for a weekend, with some good tips along the way.

Editorial Review:

In Chef's Secrets, more than 80 renowned chefs share the tricks, timesaving techniques, and wisdom they've learned through years of experience. The Food Network's Sara Moulton shows how to keep dredging neat and simple; pastry chef Fran ois Payard shows how piping chocolate can make fabulous-looking desserts; Norman Van Aken offers step-by-step instructions for making an intensely flavored pan sauce; and much, much more.
Each technique is described in the chef's own words, along with a short, revealing interview and a detailed profile of the chef's accomplishments. With tips ranging from the basics (how to peel ginger with a teaspoon) to the extreme (how to filet an eel), Chef's Secrets will appeal to beginners as well as established foodies. It's the perfect addition to any food lover's bookshelf!