Customer Reviews

International Cuisine

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

 

 

Good book for basic information, but do not purchase for the receipes. Most of the recipes are good, but the book is for learning how to cook international food....not for the recipes.

Book is worth the money for information on how to cook international cuisine.

College-level libraries with departments in hospitality studies will find INTERNATIONAL CUISINE a fine basic comprehensive guide for the student or semi-professional cook. It provides an overview of different cuisines and cultures of the world, linking history, geography, religion and food and selecting countries that are culinary representatives of world foods. Recipes blend with these discussions for maximum impact.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

International Cuisine by
The International Culinary Schools at
The Art Institutes

(Pub. Wiley, Hard Cover)


A review by Marty Martindale

All travelers will like the fact this book explores the different cultures and cuisines of the whole world including regional and area influences. Stops in each country detail special ingredients, kitchen tools and cooking methods. This is followed by recipes menus presented.All 415 recipes have been tested and include tips when necessary. The book's 855 pages contain 80 photographs. The Art Institutes of North America are a system of 40 educational institutions spread across the land. Their culinary programs, conducted in 30 of these locations, train more than 6000 students in Escoffier, Asian and Latin culinary techniques.

Here is an overview of a few regions covered:

In the Caribbean section, for example, after lining out the people and their land's history, goes into an in-depth description of regional foods the people make. In Cuba, their foods include liberal amounts of black beans, white rice, yellow rice, citrus marinades, garlic and plantains. Their diet lacks dairy products, including cheeses. Jamaica's national dish is ackee fruit and saltfish, and their Blue Mountain coffee is renowned. On St. Vincent, roasted breadfruit and abundant fish dominate the diet. The Dominican Republic raises fine cattle, and they dine heavily on meat, rice, beans, plantains, bacon, cheese frequently contained in their culture's Taino indian cassava fritters. Barbados holds to its flying fish and coo-coo dinners, while Antigua's big dish is fungi and pepperpot, Curasao revels in its stuffed Edam and Gouda cheeses and Trinidad, to the deep south, prizes its roti pastry, frequently stuffed with goat meat.

A general look at Southwest Asia's foods shows Indonesia cooking many satays of meat, poultry and seafood, another is Gado-gado, mixed vegetables with tofu, tempeh and peanut sauce. Cambodia and Laos rely on cooked meat or fish, with banana leaves, rice, coconut and jackfruit. The people of Singapore enjoy chile-spiced pork, fish and crab noodle dishes. In Thailand, they lean toward rice, coconut milk, black beans, herbs, eggs, shrimp and bean sprouts. Vietnamese cuisine favors herbs, pickled vegetables, grilled meat, fried spring rolls. Fish sauce overrules rules soy sauce and fruits rank highly.

Middle Eastern foods all have rice, wheat, stuffed vegetables, pies wrapped in paper-thin pastry, meatballs, thick omelets, fritters soaked in syrup, eggplant, peppers, yogurt and cheeses.

In this review, we'll compare Italy's landlocked Umbria and Sicily, an island surrounded by water. Umbrians enjoy pork, said to be the best in Italy, and all its organic components. This is heavily supplemented with beans, peas, truffles, unique pastas, some great wines and chocolate. The foods of Sicily accent fish, seafood, anchovies, eggplant, tomatoes, beans, many cheeses, figs, capers, olives almonds, pine nuts, fennel and citrus.

Below is a menu and recipes picked to represent a Tapas Menu in Spain:

Green Olives Filled with Piquillo Peppers and Anchovy
Cheese with Fresh Herbs
Tomato Toast
Squid with Caramelized Onions
Black Olive, Anchovy and Caper Spread
Serrano Ham Fritters
Bacalao Hash
Potato Omelet
Sizzling Garlic Shrimp

The Culinary Schools at the Art Institutes have taken a remarkable look at the exciting foods in all countries which surround North America. You might want to store this book with your travel books.

See also:
www.artinstitutes.edu
www.artinstitutes.edu/culinary
www.exploreculinary.com

Marty Martindale's website is: FOOD SITE OF THE DAY.

This book is required for a college class.
It is a good book for introducing to international cuisine.
I wouldn't buy if I didn't have to!

I am completely amazed how inaccurate, inconsistence and offensive the information in this book is, to call one tribe cannibalistic and provide no proof for such statements. The best part (and I use that word loosely) is the recipes. The content is outdated (which makes no sense given the year of print) and historically incorrect. Anyone with internet access could have done a better job in providing accurate information about the indigenous people of each region/location, their culture, habits, contributions to cuisine and so much more. The author really should retract this book and provide a second edition that starts out with an apology, that has also been thoroughly vetted by an editor, historian and a culturally aware contributor (that has at least traveled to half of the places). Additionally this should have been a collaboration between several subject matter experts (or even people from each area) to provide a holistic view of the world, versus the authors narrow two cents. I am only keeping this as long as my class is in session. After that this will be promptly sold.

What's great about this book that each recipe serves 4. Easy to double or triple any recipe. All the food turns out yummy and I've tried a lot of them. And don't feel bad if you are a traditional chef who tweaks things to get a better taste in the American way.

I purchased the book for a culinay class. It was informaive on the countries that we were studying. The recipes and the cuisine for each country was great.

Excellent textbook. Being used at my International Cuisine culinary class. Good background of the countries and their methods/style of cooking. A must have textbooks for those willing to venture into international cooking. Easy to follow recipes and accessible ingredients.

This book was not what I expected. The pictures and instructions are okay but the recipes are not recipes I would probably be interested in preparing nevermind eating.