Customer Reviews

Garde Manger: The Art and Craft of the Cold Kitchen (Culinary Institute of America)

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

 

 

This is a pretty remarkable collection of recipes. If you are foodservice pro, this book ought to be on your shelf. For the homecook, it can be useful, but with a couple of reservations.
This book has more GM recipes in one place in one book than the rest of my professional cookbooks combined. If you need a recipe, you will probably find it here. It has stuff like: galantines, chaud-froid, homemade cheese, curing your own meat, and a very useful section on aspic and gelatin, and another one on buffet presentations (especially handy if you have never worked one before).
The format is also quite nice. In the TOC, it lists every recipe, so no flipping through pages or trying to decode the index to find a recipe (would that more cookbooks do this). The beginning of each chapter has a really useful section on various techniques. Sadly, these are closer to a master class rather than a beginner's lesson.
For the home cook, much here is useful. Certainly you should be able to use stuff like vinaigrettes, salads, sandwiches, and maybe even fresh grind sausages. However, there is much here you should avoid, and you need to be able to distinguish which is which. Also, the recipes are terse, professional ones, and there is no explanatory material about tips or suggestions or anything else.

This is a book about cooking, preservation, and presentation. I find the recipes are easy to follow and are very satisfied with the results. I especially enjoy the recipes for the Carolina pull pork, homemade BBQ sauces, and sausages. Another recipes winner is the smoke / preserved salmon, they turned out great.

This book is not really for a beginner, but if you already know your way around the kitchen this will be a great addition to your collection.

Note: this is probably the most time consuming part of a professional kitchen but the rewards is worth the wait.

DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK!! If you are interested in Garde Manger history and want to experiment making any cold kitchen products, especially pates and sausages, this is not the edition for you. At school when I took the Garde Manger class my Chef did not use the recipes from this edition. Many of the contributiting chefs did NOT test the recipes and many of them do NOT work. The history is accurate but is simliar to the 1st and 2nd edition. I, and many of the old school students and chefs will all recommend the BLUE Garde Manger CIA text, which I believe is the 1st edition. I bought this and used it for my class instead. Much better.

I am home cook who really loves appetizers. So this book was really exactly what I was looking for! Very detailed guidelines starting from the basics and all over to decorating and finishing. High quality photos, including step-by -step ones, as well as a great variety of recipes. There are dedicated chapters for each type of cold food, such as salads, sandwiches, terrines/pates/galantines, cheese, cold soups, condiments etc. There is also a really inclusive chapter fro charcuterie, as well as a section for the basics (stocks, sauces etc).

As it includes a great number of techniques and cooking tips, i consider this a very good guide for any type of cooking. Moreover, judging from the recipes i 've tried till now i do not see any difficult to ingredients, which is really surprising if you consider that it's actually a professional oriented cookbook.

I strongly recommend this to anyone who wants to know what to prepare for a gourmet party and surprise his friends but at the same time deepen his knowledge in cooking !

This is a great book with many good recipes and directions. I am a culinary student that found this to be one of my favorite "go to" books for reference.

This book is very helpful in starting off in garde manger details and recipes to see what to do for the industry, I wish it had more picture do help you see how some standard items are presented but I was very satisfied.

A typical line cook just starting out is often thrown to the wolves in making sandwiches. I myself remember the day when I first stepped up to the line and made my first turkey club sandwich. I was so proud that I put it together correctly without burning me or the bread. Just one little mistake, I added bacon to the sandwich and forgot that the server keyed in that the lady ordering the sandwich requested no bacon, but extra tomato and lettuce. Needless to say, I learned to move pretty fast when the manager threw the plate back through the service window; smashing against the grill wall. That was my baptism under fire as I went forth to learn the garde manger line one mistake or misstep at a time.

Had this book been out in the mid 80's when I was a fresh up and coming cook I may have avoided those early pitfalls and enjoyed a better sense the latest trends, techniques, and flavors. Instead I had to fumble my way through the line prep and cold stations hoping to stay same and keep some semblance of order on my ticket board without ticking off the chef and floor manager at the same time. The old school method of instruction was to scream and yell, followed by some of the choicest language I've ever heard and many times followed up with frequent sprays of saliva if I happened to be close to the manager on duty when the problem arose.

Had I had this definitive guide at my disposal I most certainly would have had the working knowledge to better understand my roll in the kitchen with a take home reference so I would not have had to learn under fire. This book goes into micro greens, cheeses, tapas menus, chef manned buffet stations, and my personal favorite - ice carvings. The basics are outlined for all sorts of garde manger preparation and even home cooks will love the special vinaigrettes, salads, and sandwiches. Just remember that this book was written as if you were taking a class at the CIA, so there are recipes that expect some experience or previous kitchen understanding. You may wish to research your recipe before you simply open the book and start preparing. Read through and make sure you have a complete understanding and make sure you follow the mise en place to get the proper results.

I highly recommend this book and enjoy utilizing the recipes and ideas in my kitchen.

I am not a professional but I can see that this book would be a must-have in commercial kitchens. There is a wealth of useful information in its nearly 700 pages and many, many interesting recipes and techniques. My interest in cooking is purely as an amateur but I loved perusing the pages and mentally designing menus. It is well worth the money I paid for it.

We have used this book so many times since receiving it, there is always someone reading something in it. I tried making one of the cheese recipes, I'm hooked! What a great addition to our business.

I am enrolled in a gard manger class and have found this book to be very informative and have learned much from it and glad that I purchased it and now know a lot more about cold foods in the kitchen. I have found recipes in the book that I will try and recommend this book to all who want to know about cold foods.