Customer Reviews

The Essential Cook Book: The Back-To-Basics Guide to Selecting, Preparing, Cooking, and Serving the Very Best of Food

5 star:		(7)
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This would be the PERFECT gift for a friend who likes to cook. It's a great reference on ingredients, explaining the difference between similar foods, when to use what, what can be used as a substitute... The pictures are terrific, the recipes I've tried are excellent, and most not too complicated to try for the first time on a weeknight. It's a great book if you like to READ cook books. The best part? They place page references to recipes on the ingredient pages and where to find the write up on the ingredients on the recipe pages. It's 100% enjoyable, right down to the heavy paper on which it's printed.

This book is an excellent source for cooking without the crutch of recipes. It teaches you the principals behind recipes and allows you to create your own.

This book is a complete compilation of ingredients and food we eat. I borrowed this book from the library with the intention of knowing names of food I usually purchased but do not want what it's called. The pictures in this book allow you to acknowledge them. It is a good resource to help me in using recipes that I read from magazines & cookbooks. This book does not delve into the nutritional aspect of the food but focus on how each food is usually prepared. The glossary on every page brings you to related pages of the food. The book is well organized and the pictures are clear and sharp. I bought this book eventually after returning the library's copy.

My Girlfriend gave this book to me as a gift and i can't thank her enough. I'm doing a Chef Course here in Venezuela and it's a great help in classes because it talks about everything you need to know on picking any kind of food and how to cook it. This type of books are really hard to findSimply Great!

A very thorough and dependable guide to foods and spices, complete with preparation how-to's and recipes. A great system of cross referencing saves time and beautifully detailed photos make this a must-have book.

I've been in the kitchen much of my life, cooking for myself, my family, and as a profession. To this day I've never found another cookbook as enjoyable and useful as this. A well-written background of all major foods, materials, and methods of preparation are provided, complete with excellent photography. This is not a recipe book, although many useful and simple recipes are provided. Instead, it is a complete guide to food and cooking. Today, this is the only cookbook I reach for. Because it's such a joy to read, it also makes an excellent coffee table book, and would be a great gift for any cook or food lover.

I agree with all preious reviews and can only add that I have a copy of this, have given 2 copies as gifts, and just purchased another for my daughter...Anyone who browses through it while in my kitchen learns something!!!