Customer Reviews

The Cook's Essential Kitchen Dictionary: A Complete Culinary Resource

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Jacques Rolland has undertaken a herculean task here, for compiling a cook's dictionary is harder than ever today. Only a couple of decades such a book would cover the bare bones of American cooking, throw in a lot of French and a little Italian, and that would be that. These days we have a few extra cuisines to deal with-- Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Indian, Middle Eastern, Mexican--and at the same time the old America-French-Italian triad must needs be treated in greater depth.
So granting that the task is physically impossible (even could such a book be assembled, no one could pick it up without a forklift), it must be admitted that Rolland has done a terrific job. He not only explains, defines and identifies without letup or surcease for more than 400 pages, he does it briskly and informatively: What he tells you will stick with you. And he lards his definitions with lore and tradition as well. In all, this book is not only useful but entertaining, which is what food itself should be. There are good black-and-white illustrations (drawings, not photos), and too bad there aren't more of them. Still, this book is a pleasure just to dip into now and then for a quick "snack," and it belongs on the nightstand as well as in the kitchen. Might be a good idea to buy two copies, come to think of it.--Bill Marsano is a James Beared Award-winning writer of wine and spirits, and a determined if somewhat dangerous home cook.

This dictionary is ok. It does not show the French pronunciation which was something I was looking for.

This is a handy book for the kitchen or even when you're watching a cooking show and think, "What in the world is THAT vegetable?!" And you look it up and say, "Oh! Now I know!" :) I thank my husband for buying this for me. I love to cook and it has been very helpful for identifying food and knowing the history of certain foods that I cook or that I would like to cook one day.

The usefulness of this book is compromised by its shallow treatment of a number of subjects that people might want to look up. Some of their articles are just wrong. For example, its article on absinthe states that it can cause convulsions, blindness and even death. But, although absinthe was vilified in the past, no evidence has shown it to be any more dangerous than ordinary liquor. Its psychoactive properties, apart from those of alcohol, had been much exaggerated. A revival of absinthe began in the 1990s, when countries in the European Union began to reauthorize its manufacture and sale. It is now legal for sale in the U.S. There are many other examples of misinformation throughout the book. If one is to rely on it as a reference book, it should be more accurate.