Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This volume is fantastic. It is encouraging to see culinary professionalism displayed so everyone can see the bones of it. I am a chef and enjoy its purism and sense of direction. It is a great culinary tool for myself and my cooks. I am currently teaching a class in garde manger for which I have ordered this book as a text. This is a must for your collection.

Many of the readers have commented that this book is for professionals only. I happen to disagree with this opinion as there are no prerequisites required to understand the instruction given within. Having said this, if you are not even curious of understading the fundamentals of lets say for example, sausage making, there is no need to buy this book, you can find great sausage at the grocery store without the hassle of making it at home.

So this book, yes it is for professionals but also for anybody who wants to understand (and even apply)the nuts and bolts of the cold kitchen. Personally I think that understanding the method that is used to prepare something, gives one a greater appreciation of that something when it is offered to him/her.

So for all of you non-professionals, if you are simply curious, about how to make salad dressings, terrines, or bologna for that matter, this book is written in laymans terms and will be an interesting journey into the world of Garde Manger.

One could compare this book, `Garde Manger' by the Culinary Institute of America to Martha Stewart's `Entertaining' like a comparison of Richard Feynman's Lectures on Physics to a popular history of 20th century physics. Unfortunately, that comparison does not hold up. The more appropriate comparison would be between a technical work on wood joinery to a glossy `This Old House' imprimatur book on cabinet making. The difference between the classroom and the home kitchen is simply not that large. One can even bend the simile around on itself to say that the laboratory in which new culinary thoughts arise is in the home kitchen and not in the teaching classrooms of the Culinary Institute of America.

All this playing with comparisons is simply meant to make the point that while this book is presented as a textbook by the most prestigious culinary training institution in the country, it's material is simply not that different from a book with more obviously commercial origins.

This book does have a lot of material you will not find in a Martha Stewart or Ina Garten or Paula Deen book. High on the list of interesting background information is the history of how the French Revolution may have been a major contributor to the rise of restaurants and the great strength and variety in French cuisine.

The real story here is cold food and how it is prepared and served in (French) restaurants. On this subject, this book is a delightful source of both recipes and Alton Brown / Shirley Corriher type background. Honestly, the true culinary counterpart to Feynman's lectures would be Harold McGee's oft quoted books on food science.

This CIA book gives a wealth of recipes for salad dressings and other cold sauces, cold salads, sandwiches, cured and smoked foods, sausage, forcemeats, cheese, hors d'oeuvres, appetizers, condiments, and basic recipes (spice mixes and the like). One thing that immediately endeared me to the book is its treatment of vinaigrettes, which easily outdoes even Martha Stewart's better than average treatment. This material is worth the price of admission. Another service it supplies, with the authority of a teaching institution, is to simplify some culinary terms. For example, it always bedeviled me to know the difference between, for example, a relish, a salsa, and a chutney. Turns out that they simply are three different words for the same basic preparation. Like `plains', `veldt', and `pampas', they are different words for the same thing reflecting three different ethnic sources.

The chapters on curing and sausage may interest fewer readers than most, but there is much you can get from these chapters even if you never make a sausage. I was particularly struck by the fact that government regulations require that pork used in sausage making be `certified'. That's a little fact that people like Emeril and even Alton leave out of their little how to shows on sausage making. As a great believer in serendipity, I believe you never can tell what inspiration you can get from unfamiliar material. Here lies the greatest value to this book. It tells you a lot of the things which more popular treatments of the same subject can easily overlook. This includes things like sanitation, shelf life, and equipment care. As an aging hippie whose fantasies were fueled by the `Whole Earth Catalogue', I find the chapter on cheeses to be worth a month's run of `Good Eats' shows.

One can say that this book is really meant for the restaurant professional, but I believe it has many uses for the home cook. The most important use is as a resource for making pantry items like prepared catsup, mustard, relish, crackers, spice mixes, salad dressings, and stocks which one may typically buy at the supermarket. If you put your mind to it, you will certainly attain a better tasting product. What may be more important is that you will also certainly attain a better tasting product with no laboratory chemical ingredients.

For the real foodie, this book is a treasure. It gives recipes for lots of things few other books take the trouble to cover. The danger to the newbie is that they may not see those points at which the book's coverage is not complete. One area is in the recipes for stocks. These recipes are `bare bones' instructions with none of the usual cautions and explanations given in some other books. If you are really serious about stock making, consult `Jeremiah Tower Cooks' or Judy Rodgers's `The Zuni Café Cookbook' or even the CIA's `New Professional Chef' text. One can excuse this somewhat since these are hot preparations in a book about cold food. I would have preferred a reference to a work that gave the subject a more complete coverage.

One irritating thing I find in some reviews is a complaint about something which is outside stated range of the book. This book is about cold food. Do not expect details on baking or hot cuisine. Any material on those matters should be taken as a convenience to the reader.

I was a bit surprised to find at least one typo in this textbook by a respected school, published by textbook specialist Wiley. I found no errors that will mislead the home cook.

The book has several features I consider essential in a textbook. One is an bibliography. Another is a list of sources. Another is a glossary of terms. Another, very important, is an index of recipes.

This book is excellent if you are building a culinary library or do a lot of entertaining or are especially fond of salads and sandwiches, or simply like to read about food. The only reservation an interested reader may have is the price. The $60 list price inhibited me for several months, but I believe the book is worth it if you do any entertaining or make any quick cold lunches in your kitchen. Highly recommended.

Horrors!

I bought this book on a whim at a bricks and mortar
retailer. It is beautiful, and I was caught in a moment of weakness.
Now, having lived with it for several days, I'm online to send it as a
gift to my brother and sister ...

I had recently read The Making of
A Chef (look up the author yourself) which is about the experience of
a writer enrolled in the Culinary Institue of America
("CIA"). I found that book lively and engaging though the
recipes more than a bit cryptic. Hence my enthusiasm for a well
organized cook book with all the details the journalist
(appropriately) left out.

As for its true worth as a cooking
companion, the dozen vinagrettes alone seem enough to justify the
cost....

This edition is the most informative there is on the garde manger position, and has sure fire recipes. More recent editions dumb down the content to below a college reading level in my opinion.

I've been wanting this book for about two years and finally found it for a great price. The book covers basic kitchen prep for cold foods. The simple recipes that are more of a "jumping off point" for experienced cooks. You can create your own version of many of these dishes once you see the basic ingredients.

The book is divided into 12 sections:

History of the Garde Manger
Cold Sauces and Cold Soups (wonderful section on making mayonnaise)
Salads
Sandwiches
Cured and Smoked Foods (Very clearly presented. I wish I had that beautiful piece of pastrami they made for the book!)
Sausage
Terrines, Pate's, Galantines and Roulades
Cheese
Hors d'Oeuvre
Appetizers
Condiments, Crackers and Pickles
Basic Receipes

The information is clear and straight-forward with many photos. Ingredients are also easy to follow.I especially like the chapter on cured meats. This is a wonderful book for any level cook. Beginning chefs will learn a great deal and experienced chefs have a fabulous reference guide. It's expensive but one of those "backbone" books every cook should have.

This is a book that is geared toward the professional chef only. The layperson might glean a few tips from it but it would never be used on a regular basis for cooking at home.

Hands downn the most comprehensive collection of recipes, methods and techniques i've used. This book is for chefs who need a quick reference for classicaly prepared items from the cold kitchen. Although I think a novice would not find this publication useful, it would still a great source of ideas for menus and presentation.

I needed to purchase this book for my Garde manger course and I never knew there were so many different types of salads and dressings. I also purchased the Study Guide for the National Servsafe Exam: Key Review Questions and Answers with Explanations and it helped me greatly on all levels of sanitation. Unfortunately, the Garde manger book of CIA does not cover the subject. Even handling vegetables, fruits and salads you have to be careful. This sanitation book even help me with my other culinary subjects.

I love this book, but I thought it did not cover baking very well. I purchased the Study Guide for Baking ISBN 0974328707. This book covers all the basics of baking and there is also another book on Advance Baking ISBN 0974328715. This book goes more into depth of baking, including custards and frozen desserts. These books help me greatly getting through my culinary courses.