Customer Reviews

On Cooking, Volume 1: Techniques from Expert Chefs (2nd Edition)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm a culinary arts student at the Art Institute of California, and total foodie, and I take my cooking very seriously. This book goes into explicit detail for each and every ingredient and cooking method. I'm not kidding when I tell you that there are three paragraphs and a chart to tell you how to boil water. That may seem like overkill, but now that I've been following the various guidelines of food preparation, I notice a subtle improvement in everything I make. If you're the kind of person who walks down the spice aisle of the grocery store for fun (like me!), or if you can't get enough kitchen gadgets (like me!) then you'll enjoy this book. Caution: don't read this one on an empty stomach!

I view this book as one of the essential resource books any serious cook should have. If I had named it, I would have called the book "On Food" because it is not just about cooking food, it actually gives you encyclopedia type entries to describe an enormous number of items in each chapter (e.g. fish, vegetables, meats). It will tell you where your food came from, in which seasons it is freshest, how best to prepare it and will follow each of these up with a number of recipes. Do not look to this book to be a cookbook, though. Is is more important to view the book as a resource to help you figure out the best types of preparations for that item you found at the market but have never used before. It is a great tool to just sit down and learn about cuts of beef and why some parts of the animal are great for one type of preparation versus another. That said, there are recipes and they are good, but to focus on them would be to overlook all of the education you can get from this book. This is used as a textbook in cooking schools, and the set-up is like a textbook, but a lot more interesting than the ones you had in college or high school because you can eat after you learn.

I received the book today and haven't been able to put it down. I've loved to cook for over 30 years and I've never found one book filled with so much good information. I wish I had this book years ago. I told my wife it takes the place of at least 10 cookbooks. If you love, or even like to cook and want to improve your technique and knowledge, I don't see how you could beat this book! It's wonderful!

I'm a soon to be chef (I hope) and in school we used this book. Let me tell you, its good. I has lots of good recipies and color pictures. The best thing about it, is that is shows how and why you do things. I think that is very good for someone to know. One thing that might be a bad thing is that it is a text book with questions at the end of a chapter and things like that.

I have been in the restaurant business for over 20 years. Since it is impossible to remember every aspect, I use it for reference quite often, as well as send my cooks to it when I can't answer there questions. easy to follow and the steps are not over complicated for a beginner to follow. And to be honest the book blows away the CIA book and I went there.

I'm currently a culinary school student and this is my text book. I find the instructions to be informative and the sections on recognizing foods, grading foods and storing foods to be exceptional. The explanation of techniques is informative and cumulative; the techniques used in later chapters build on earlier ones. There are hundreds of classic recipes which help you exercise technique. My main complaint is the lack of a measurement standardization. Dry goods can be measured in weight or volume, sometimes in the same recipe! Some of the recipes occasionally need a taste "pick-me-up". Still, its an excellent reference and I would recommend it to any serious home chef or would-be professional.

If you are tired of cookbooks only offering recipies, not instruction, then this is the book for you. Literally a text book for cooking schools, this book is easy to use on your own at home. The organization of material covered is fabulous! I was looking for a book that would teach me the techniques I lacked, and this book couldn't have delivered more. Aside from instruction, the book features wonderful recipies from some very fine restaurants. THE ONLY DRAW BACK is recipies are offered in instiutional sizes. (When was the last time you needed to make 240 brownies?) Thus, you must be good at scaling recipies, or I would strongly suggest buying the PC based software offered (either as part of the combo or order separately) for recipie conversion

This book covers all major areas of modern food preparation and practice, albeit from an American perspective. One of the strengths of "Techniques from Expert Chefs" is why you do things, as well as how. The recipes form practical illustrations of each key technique and provide inspiration for other dishes. The descriptions of ingredients and typical usage are one of the most complete that I have seen in a book of this size.

As a collector of culinary texts, I can say that this is one of the better books that I have seen. Labensky and Hause are to be commended.

I use this book as a guide in my cooking school. This is a book with a professional focus, not for the home cook. Most of the recipes are made in large quantities. Great for chefs, culinary arts students, caterers or anyone running a food operation looking for excellent reference and techniques.

We too use this book as a textbook. I have an older edition, but the book is so good that I plan to buy the updated edition.