Culinary Artistry [Roughcut]

Andrew Dornenburg (Author), Karen Page (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 4, 1996

"In Culinary Artistry...Dornenburg and Page provide food and flavor pairings as a kind of steppingstone for the recipe-dependent cook...Their hope is that once you know the scales, you will be able to compose a symphony."a Molly O'Neil in The New York Times Magazine.

For anyone who believes in the potential for artistry in the realm of food, Culinary Artistry is a must-read. This is the first book to examine the creative process of culinary composition as it explores the intersection of food, imagination, and taste. Through interviews with more than 30 of America's leading chefsa including Rick Bayless, Daniel Boulud, Gray Kunz, Jean-Louis Palladin, Jeremiah Tower, and Alice Watersa the authors reveal what defines "culinary artists," how and where they find their inspiration, and how they translate that vision to the plate. Through recipes and reminiscences, chefs discuss how they select and pair ingredients, and how flavors are combined into dishes, dishes into menus, and menus into bodies of work that eventually comprise their cuisines.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you really find food fascinating--the idea of food, working with food, and the eating of food--then Culinary Artistry should be on your bookshelf. There are two books at work here. One is What Chefs Have to Say About the Foods They Create. The other is Fun with Food Spread Sheets. A cynic might suggest that after putting together Becoming a Chef, the authors had so much leftover interview material that Culinary Artistry was but the natural outcome. The chef's point of view, however, would be to make use of everything passing through the kitchen, to throw nothing away. In other words, if Becoming a Chef is an entrée, then Culinary Artistry is the special of the day.

The book is divided into sections that discuss and reach out to chefs to join in that discussion of such ideas as the chef as artist, dealing with sensory perception in food, composing with flavors, putting a dish together, putting together an entire menu, and standing back to admire the growth of a personal cuisine. This is thoughtful material. It is not how-to material. These guided conversations are made practical for the home cook by charts such as which foods are in season and when, the basic flavors of foods (bananas are sweet; anchovies are salty), food matches made in heaven (lamb chops with aioli or ginger or shallots), seasoning matches made in heaven (dill and salmon), flavors of the world (Armenia means parsley and yogurt), common accompaniments to entrées (beef and potatoes), and, most fun of all, the desert-island lists of many of the chefs quoted so extensively throughout the text. Many recipes accompany the text.

How this will affect any individual's own culinary art, be that professional or personal, remains unclear. It may be as private an experience as reading. For the uninitiated, this book will prove that there's a lot more going on with food and restaurants and chefs than they may ever have imagined. --Schuyler Ingle

Review

"Most used cookbook: CULINARY ARTISTRY by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg."—Grant Achatz, chef of Alinea, in the November 2006 issue of Chicago magazine 

“To this day, if I'm really stuck for a flavor pairing, I will still refer to CULINARY ARTISTRY for its charts of common, and not so common, matches."—Michael Laiskonis, 2007 James Beard Outstanding Pastry Chef at Le Bernardin, in Saveur

“My favorite cookbooks:  CULINARY ARTISTRYand El Bulli.”  —Hung Huynh, winner of “Top Chef” Season 3

“Favorite cookbook?  CULINARY ARTISTRY.   It’s a really great reference book for chefs."—Stephanie Izard, winner of “Top Chef” Season 4

“One of my favorite cookbooks isCULINARY ARTISTRY.”—Hosea Rosenberg, winner of “Top Chef” Season 5

“One of 10 must-have cookbooks [of all time]…Gives you insight into how chefs think.”—Alison Fryer and Jennifer Grange, in the Toronto Star

“One of six cookbooks every beginner should own.”—Nathan Lyon, Real Simple   

  “CULINARY ARTISTRY offered a groundbreaking approach to the idea of flavor pairings…The book is said to have revolutionized the way leading chefs cook.” (WBEZ, Chicago Public Radio)

“For inspiration…Incredibly liberating…A godsend…The one book that regularly makes the commute from office desk to kitchen counter." —Renee Schettler, The Washington Post

"CULINARY ARTISTRY seemed to pull together everything that was missing in my ideology of food....It is a myriad of endless flavour combinations....One particular chapter fascinates me: 'Meet Your Medium.'  This chapter encapsulates all that is important to cooking....What I love about this book is the fact that it can give you a framework on which to build your own food style." —John Campbell, executive chef, the Michelin two-star restaurant The Vineyard at Stockcross, Berkshire, England

“CULINARY ARTISTRY is absolutely brilliant. I now recommend it to aspiring mixologists as a key resource for understanding the ideas and theories behind creating unique flavor combinations and generally how to approach the craft as an artisan.”—Ryan Magarian, mixologist

“If you want to look like a genius in the kitchen, top picks includeCULINARY ARTISTRY."—Chad Ward, eGullet.org

"When you're in a kitchen where you have lots of cooks coming and going, someone's always dragging their favorite book in and it's dog-eared from use. It's well-known in food circles that CULINARY ARTISTRY is one of those books that people drag along with them or that they hand on to other chefs."—Lucinda Scala Quinn, MSLO Executive Editorial Food Director and host of "EatDrink" on Martha Stewart Living Radio

“When [current French Laundry chef de cuisine Timothy Hollingsworth] first moved up from commis to cook at The French Laundry, John Fraser (today the executive chef of Dovetail in New York City) had recommended that he read CULINARY ARTISTRY. The book features extensive lists of ingredients and other foods they get along with…CULINARY ARTISTRY had gotten him through those menu meetings during his formative years at The French Laundry.”—Andrew Friedman, author of Knives at Dawn: America’s Quest for Culinary Glory at the Legendary Bocuse d’Or Competition

"CULINARY ARTISTRY: This is the best reference book I've used."—Scott Giambastiani, executive chef at Google

“Most professional chefs skip cookbooks altogether, but one book you're likely to find well-thumbed on their bookshelves is CULINARY ARTISTRY… ‘People always ask me 'What goes good with what?' said chef David Kamen, an instructor at The Culinary Institute of America. ‘This is the book to have. It's very helpful.’"—Gemma Tarlach, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"Not all spices go well together. An excellent resource for learning about spices and what they complement is CULINARY ARTISTRY."—BBQ master Mike Mills and Amy Mills Tunnicliffe in their 2005 book Peace, Love and Barbecue

"For those with an interest in adding 'kitchen' flavors and creativity to their cocktails, CULINARY ARTISTRY offers an intense introduction that will have you off and running."—Christopher Conatser, mixologist and 2008 winner of the Greater Kansas City Bartending Competition

"One of our favorite research tools that we use when developing recipes for our books (the only diabetic cookbooks to win the James Beard and Julia Child Cookbook Awards) is CULINARY ARTISTRY." —Frances Towner Giedt and Bonnie Sanders Polin, PhD, DIABETIC-LIFESTYLE.COM

"One of the books that I have often recommended to various mixologists across the country has been CULINARY ARTISTRY. It presents the culinary palate in a unique mannerby illustrating the methodology that many of the world’s greatest chefs use to approach thinking about what flavors work best with other flavors…I found it refreshing to see it covered so well, especially since mixology specifically IS the art of flavor pairing."—Robert Hess, DrinkBoy.com

“CULINARY ARTISTRY is full of valuable advice for cooking professionals, and I highly recommend it.”—Rocco DiSpirito, in his book Flavor

Product Details

• Roughcut: 448 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (November 4, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471287857
• ISBN-13: 978-0471287858
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (100 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,999 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #7 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Professional Cooking > Professional
  • #29 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Culinary Arts & Techniques
  • #39 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > U.S. Regional

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

108 of 111 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Reference Material, October 24, 2001

By 

disco75 "disco75" (State College, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Culinary Artistry (Roughcut)

I am a self-taught home cook who enjoys the activities of the kitchen. I entered the cooking arena one of the standard ways, using cookbooks. Collections of recipes familarized me with the techniques and ethnic cooking styles. Gradually, my cookbook collection included reference books that provided some of the theory behind tastes and preparation styles. Gold's 1-2-3 series, Peterson's Sauces, and others introduced to me the philosophies that allow a cook to go beyond mimicking a recipe to improvising and even creating a dish. Culinary Artistry is perhaps the best available reference for learning about the traditions of combining flavors and food groups.

It contains vital information that I suspect is taught only in some of the culinary schools. It provides valuable charts of information about cooking and menu planning. The book contains sections on Menus, including a seasonality chart and a chart explaining successful seasoning combinations. There is a section for Composing Flavors, the highlight of which is a chart showing successful food contrasts. Another section involves Composing A Dish. Here there is a chart showing great food matches and one showing seasoning matches. The Composing A Menu section offers a chart showing frequent accompaniments to meats and paragraphs presenting theories about Hors Douevres, Cheeses, and Desserts. This was a sparse and incomplete passage in an otherwise comprehensive book. Finally, there was a fun section addressing the Evolution of Chef's Styles. Here the authors provide sample menus comparing chef's offerings from earlier decades to their present day productions.

The volume offers multiple anecdotes, quotes, and side bars concerning the views of popular chefs. Various recipes are interspersed to illustrate the principles. My one criticism was that the book was laid out like a college textbook. Photos, captions, quotes, highlighted lines, sidebars, and other areas compete on the same page, magazine style. The book serves as reference, frequently glanced at rather than read straight through as a narrative.

47 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiration and insight abound if nothing else., October 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Culinary Artistry (Roughcut)

Culinary Artistry is a book some may passover or leaf through in the bookstore for the likes of the Joy of Cooking or a Martha Stewart volume 20 cookbook. But look closer, the charts and the what-goes-well-with-what sections of this book alone are worth the price if only to give the food lover an inspired moment to create a dish with ingredients he or she may love. If you find yourself saying, "gee, I'd really love to have salmon tonight but I don't know what to put with it", pick up this book, find Salmon and refer to the extensive list of items that the interviewed chefs prefer with it and an idea is born. After that, all it takes is a little know-how in the kitchen and you've created your very own gourmet meal. If you choose to read from front to back you'll also discover page after page of insightful information from some of the nation's top chef's. Take your time, it's not a novel but it can be read like one and used as reference even after you've reached the last page. For the money, this is a book that will stay on your shelf for years to come and still manage to provide a new idea each time. So put down the Martha Stewart Haloween cookie issue and give Culinary Artistry a try, "It's a good thing". Sorry about that last one, she's infectious.

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Inspiring"..."A godsend.", November 25, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Culinary Artistry (Roughcut)

"FLAVOR MATCHMAKING: Some cooks look to books not for precise ingredients and specific instructions, but for inspiration. I've got a book for those cooks.

It's the loftily named CULINARY ARTISTRY by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page (1996), also the authors of the better known BECOMING A CHEF. It's not a cookbook per se. Nor is it a treatise on the techniques every cook ought to know. And it's certainly not a collection of culinary prose. It's more a style manual for those who need to find out if a certain something will go with another certain something.

The most relevant information is found in the aptly named section 'Matches Made In Heaven.' Arranged alphabetically, the list comprises about 328 ingredients and seasonings and, for each ingredient listed, the authors provide several complementary flavors. It may not come as any surprise that the entries under beef ribs read ginger, horseradish, mustard, potatoes, tomatoes.

But it is incredibly liberating, when in a chicken rut, to alight on the appropriate page and find 57 compatible ingredients for a plain old hen. When the vegetable bin is overflowing with leafy greens or I'm flummoxed over a side dish for a dinner party, I consider it a godsend to flip through the pages and decide on mustard with the greens and walnuts with the watercress.

And it's inspiring to be reminded in the midst of Thanksgiving chaos that perhaps that pear dish needs a sprinkling of black pepper rather than a drizzle of honey. As with any reference work, it's not the entire book I value so much as a particular page or two in a desperate moment.

The balance of the book's 426 pages are chapters on composing a dish and a menu, complete with advice from restaurant chefs. I confess I haven't read the book cover to cover. And I doubt I ever will. But it's nevertheless the one book that regularly makes the commute from office desk to kitchen counter." ...