Heston Blumenthal at Home [Hardcover]

Heston Blumenthal (Author)

Book Description

Release date: November 22, 2011

Until now, home cooking has remained radically out of touch with the technological developments that characterize the rest of modern life. This is the book to prove that science can dramatically improve the way we eat. Having spent years refining his analytical and imaginative approach at the Fat Duck restaurant, Heston Blumenthal is uniquely qualified to bring the benefits of science to the domestic kitchen. Both time-saving and energy-efficient, his methods unlock the alchemical potential of flavor and taste.

The first part of the book maps the new techniques in fifteen sections, including: taste and flavor; stocks and infusing; brining, curing, marinating, and macerating; and sections on proper care of meat, fish, pasta, and many other dishes. In the second part, there are 150 specially chosen recipes. Here, at last, is the secret to irrefutably perfect fish and chips, as well as a few more unconventional dishes such as salmon with licorice, and crab lasagna.

Heston at Home is an ingeniously designed book for cooks who want to know how food works, and who are excited about adopting an unconventional approach that will revolutionize the experience of cooking at home.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'What fun it is to follow in this gastro-wizard's footsteps' Observer Food Monthly --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Entirely self-taught, Heston Blumenthal is the most progressive chef of his generation. In 2004 he won the coveted three Michelin stars in near-record time for his restaurant The Fat Duck, which has twice been voted the Best Restaurant in the World by an international panel of 500 experts. In 2006 he was awarded an OBE. He lives in Berkshire with his wife and three children.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 408 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA (November 22, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1608197018
• ISBN-13: 978-1608197019
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.9 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #40,846 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #90 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Agricultural Sciences > Food Science

More About the Author

Chef Heston Blumenthal has been described as a culinary alchemist for his innovative style of cuisine. His work researches the molecular compounds of dishes so as to enable a greater understanding of taste and flavour. His restaurant The Fat Duck, in Bray, Berkshire, was awarded three Michelin stars in 2004, and voted the Best Restaurant in the World by an international panel of 500 culinary experts in Restaurant Magazine's The World's 50 Best Restaurants 2005. He also owns the Hinds Head Hotel, a village pub in Bray. Heston Blumenthal lives in Berkshire with his wife and three children.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 49 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Adventurous recipes for brave cooks! November 23, 2011

By Bradley Nelson VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

When I saw Heston Blumenthal was putting out a "cooking at home" cookbook, I expected something in the vein of his Family Food book, full of waffle recipes and pictures of his kids. But this is not that at all. This is far the opposite direction. This book was made for the bold and adventurous home cooks, those who want to cook new and exciting and challenging dishes at home, but find cookbooks like the French Laundry Cookbook or the Big Fat Duck Cookbook to be impractical.

This book is (mostly) practical. There are some recipes that call for things I promise you don't have on hand. Some will call for sous vide equipment or dry ice or Glycerine. Some will require attention and time that may not really seem worth it. But the reality is that all of these dishes really, truly can be done at home. The most exciting part is the presence of several Fat Duck recipes that have been overtly simplified into practical recipes. Interspersed are various traditional and unique recipes (eg, prawn cocktail, or Quinoa sushi).

Each section (soup, salad, meat, etc) begins with a few pages of important information that delves into a bit of science (to be expected, and appreciated) that is of practical use to the home cook. These pages, along with the introductions to each recipe, make this cookbook one worth actually reading. There are tips on everything from how to dress lettuce greens and how to poach fish. It runs the gamut from soups and starters down through desserts and drinks.

For those who looked at the Fat Duck Cookbook and said "cool, but no thanks," this book is what you need. While for most home cooks there are still some recipes that are beyond reach, the majority are approachable. But the real target of this book may really be us professional cooks who love to ogle glitzy and expensive cookbooks, but never really cook out of them ourselves. This book is fantastic recipes that require a bit of skill but are going to have fantastic results.

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Recommended despite some flaws November 22, 2011

By Jackal

Format:Hardcover

Most molecular gastronomy/modernist cuisine books are written for professional chefs. This book is different because it is targeted at slightly adventurous home cooks. So for most of us this should be your first cookbook by Blumenthal. Only if you like this book a lot you might consider The Fat Duck Cookbook, which showcases his restaurant dishes. Most recipes in the current book can be accomplished without any specific equipment. However, some recipes require sous-vide equipment, ice cream maker, smoker, or a NO2/CO2 siphon. If you are not interesting in getting at least some of these pieces of equipment, I don't think you should consider this book.

True to the type of food the author has done in the past we get modern takes on British dishes as well as some more general modern dishes (a bit of French and Italian, and a very slight touch of fusion in some cases).

The author wants the encourage the cook to be more scientific: Every ingredient is measured in great detail, but he also suggests that you could make changes to the measurements and write down the results. So try maybe five different combinations and then pick the best. This is off course outside the recipes, but it is the approach to cooking that the author would like to promote. The book also starts with an interesting chapter on taste and flavour. Most of us probably already knows about this, but what I like are the different experiments that the author recommends us to perform (e.g. take tonic water and gradually put salt into it and observe the changing tastes).

To be negative, I think the book feels a bit rushed. The writing is somewhat uneven. At times the book seems the product of a ghost writer and at other times the writing is much more specific so it must be the author's writing. I really dislike most ghost writing, because if the author is too busy to write the book, he is probably also too busy to put a lot of time into the content of the book. If you check the web you already see posts about some inaccuracies. (The book has been available in the UK for some months.) This is unacceptable for a book, in which the author makes a big song and dance number of using precise measurements. One example is how the author tells us to put spices in gin and then put it to boil to infuse the gin with the spices (p 383). Wouldn't it be better to heat it up to a degree lower than boiling? I am under the strong impression that boiling gin will remove the alcohol. (If this is wrong, the author could have made a comment, because I think most of us are afraid to boil alcohol!)

Still there are much worse examples of ghost writing so I don't think this should keep you away from buying the book. At other times the writing contains very useful bits of information. The author has for instance done a small experiment to see whether fresh mushrooms soak up water. Received wisdom has it that you should not wash fresh mushrooms because they soak up water. When he weighs the mushrooms after washing, he find that they have not gained any weight.

I give the book four stars. It is written by a top chef, but is targetted towards non-professionals. Since the author is self-taught his approach is also likely to stimulate the non-professionals to question established views and try out loads of experiment. The author wants you to trust your own senses.

UPDATE: Other choices? At the time of writing this was a great choice. It still is good, but I would recommend Modernist Cuisine at Home as your first book.

Finally, don't confuse this book with Adria's The Family Meal: Home Cooking with Ferran Adria. That book has 100% traditional dishes.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Cooking madness at home December 13, 2011

By Jesse D. Keilson

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I love this book, but it's important to set expectations correctly. Heston Blumenthal is chef at The Fat Duck, consistently rated as one of the best restaurants in the world, known for its innovative cuisine. The title of this book is deceptive. When most people hear "(some chef) at Home" they assume it's home style dishes, probably with the complex ingredients and techniques toned down for the home cook who doesn't have a staff and an unlimited budget. This book is not like that. This is a book for the dedicated home cook, someone who will spend time tracking down hard to find ingredients or spending 4-6 hours cooking a chicken. It does require a lot of equipment, some of which can be rather expensive. Blumenthal does not really encourage you to be creative, to learn from his techniques and flavor profiles and find ways to incorporate them into your own kitchen. In short, it's not really an "at Home" style book.

Title aside, this book is fantastic. It takes home-style dishes, things like roast chicken, meat pies, chili, potato leek soup, and it elevates them. There's a reason roast chicken is such a well-recognized dish, and the recipe in this book will remind you of that reason. Roast potatoes are likewise a simple thing, but truly fantastic when executed properly. That is what this book is about, and it delivers. Those two dishes went over very well at a recent dinner. I haven't had the book long enough to cook all the recipes, but reading them over is pretty thrilling. The titles of dishes may sound plain, but reading through the recipes shows that there can be much more to a chili than just beef, beans, tomatoes and a spice packet. There are a lot of Heston-esque touches, like star anise to increase the umami notes in beefy dishes. If you've read any of this other books, this one will seem familiar. A lot of explanation and science is peppered throughout the recipes, explaining why things work the way they do or how he arrived at a particular dish/ingredient/technique.

Also worth keeping in mind that this is a British book, so you'll see some different dishes and metric measurements - do not be alarmed. For those who have a couple of his other books, you might see some similarities, especially when he gets to his rant about "sealing in the juices".

Overall, this is a very exciting book for someone who knows their way around the kitchen and wants to perfect their techniques and flavors, but it's not for everyone. As someone who has several of his other books, I was a little annoyed with the overlap between books - I'd like to get added value out of my loyalty, not repeat content.