Customer Reviews

Cooking with Fire: French Family Recipes & More for Woodfire Ovens (Book & DVD)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I wasn't disappointed at all with the book. The other reviewer here admits that he didn't read the specs on the book, yet he was upset once he got it. Doesn't really make sense to me.

I found the book to be very informative and useful for wood-fired oven cooking. I've cooked several times in my oven for family and friends using the recipes, and everybody has left the house satisfied. The DVD is a nice bonus, the narrator seems like a cool guy. But the recipes are what make this book worth the money.

We have owned a Mugnaini commercial-sized wood-fired oven for one year, and are avid and experienced cooks. Our previous experience in learning to cook in the oven came in hands-on classes from the manufacturer, and pior to this date we have made pizza, bread, and roasts in the oven. However, we didn't have what I would call a deep knowledge of best practices in using the oven; nor many recipes.

Both the book and the DVD have excellent content, full of valuable tips for the beginner and advanced oven user. The book was enjoyable to read cover-to-cover, and had many appealing recipes. But we had a large number of "aha" moments while looking at the DVD; and then re-reading the cookbook crystalized everything for us.

We can't wait to try out a larger number of appetizers, breads, grills, and roasts using our new knowledge. This book is highly recommended.

It is difficult to find books on wood-fired oven management and cooking, let alone a book/video combo on this subject matter. After seeing the ratings and reading the comments from the previous two reviewers of this book I was not sure what to expect, but ordered the book anyway. Having read sections of the book and watched the entire video I was not disappointed and in fact inspired to write my own review to praise it!

The book is printed on nice glossy paper, includes many beautiful color photos and the recipes are simple to follow using commonly available ingredients. Each recipe cross-references a chapter in the video that actually shows you how to prepare and cook the food. If a picture is worth a thousand words then a video (3 hours!) is priceless. The author clearly illustrates food preparation and discusses oven management to maximize the types of foods and cooking techniques one can use during a single firing of the wood-fired oven. If you own a wood-fired oven, after reading this book and watching the video you will feel very confident that you understand how to best prepare your food and use your oven to create a variety of great meals. If you don't own a wood-fired oven, you will be inspired to buy and use one!

I have just purchased a wood fired oven and was wanting some new ideas on cooking in general. Together with the DVD this is an OUTSTANDING package. After watching the DVD, it made all the recipes in the book look so much easyer for the beginer like myself.

This book has an excellent DVD that is a very good tutorial for the novice. My husband and I both sat down to watch it a few times for some guidance. It has really helped saying that we had never cooked anything in a wood fire oven. We love having the oven and this has given us the confidence to jump right in and try some new things.

Buying this book was perhaps the first time I felt a little cheated by internet shopping. The book looks beautiful online, as do the recipes inside, but I was fairly taken aback by the small size of the book. I've learned that in the future, when buying a gift book, to look at the specs on dimension and page length. I bought this $40 cookbook as a Christmas present for another couple, and felt a little sheepish handing over what looked like a $10 paperback. Surely, the price of the book is all in that DVD in the back (which I haven't seen so cannot comment on), but the overall marketing of the book disappointed me.

That aside, the person I gave it to, who has a brand-new brick oven, was delighted to get the book, for the same reason I selected it: it's not just about woodfire pizza. There aren't a lot of cookbooks out there on the subject of woodfire ovens, and this one covers a variety of culinary areas. Most of the others specialize on the pizza category.

I guess I just wanted to give a chunky hardcover cookbook for Christmas, y'know?

I haven't looked at the DVD yet, but the pages started falling out of the book before I was through the 1st chapter.

This book was purchased as a gift. I had read a review that the book was small, and indeed it was, with a soft cover. A hard copy edition (not available) would be a much better gift, as anyone who would use this book is a serious cook. The recipient loved it for the great recipes, but again, it would be much better in a hard cover edition.