Notes on Cooking: A Short Guide to an Essential Craft (Notes on...) [Hardcover]

Lauren Braun Costello (Author), Russell Reich (Author), Dorothy Hamilton (Afterword)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2009

As an essential primer of immediately useful and utterly relevant guidance, this guide can help anyone become a better cook - without a single recipe. This book's 217 notes deliver indispensable culinary truths, the highest standards of conduct, and timeless gems of cooking wisdom that have been taught and passed down by top chefs for generations. The notes provide explanatory commentary, helpful examples, and insights from Alice Waters, Daniel Boulud, Georges Auguste Escoffier, Leonardo da Vinci, and many others. They also include life lessons - about how to bring delight, how to recognise quality, and how to see beauty in simplicity. For the beginner wanting to improve, the seasoned expert looking to review the highest culinary standards, or the food lover seeking a fascinating glimpse into the pursuit of Epicurean excellence, "Notes on Cooking" provides a unique and invaluable apprenticeship.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In all ways to-the-point, Costello and Reich's guidebook offer kitchen commandments for a realm that often tends to a little of this, a little of that thinking. Costello's culinary skills are well matched with Reich's pithy writing in more than 200 directives on everything from cooking duck to ripening fruit, for which they lay down the major rules of cooking and kitchen conduct in as few as a couple of lines. Beginning cooks will find relief in their strong declarations—Do not stuff a turkey; Always preheat the oven—instructions that, once learned by heart, make cooking easier and end with better food. The explanations for these rules are succinct but amply informative so as to please anyone who has cooked long enough to already be following them instinctively; they draw on basic kitchen science as well as the collective knowledge of culinary experts like Jeffrey Steingarten and Michael Nischan to make a case for the validity of their decrees. Some notes are less concretely didactic than others (Chicken is the test of a cook's versatility, for example), or leave room for interpretation (Dress salad lightly), but all are brightly informative enough to help cooks make better decisions and, in the end, be more productive and happier in the kitchen. (June)
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From Library Journal

This small primer by restaurateur and chef Costello and coauthor Reich (Notes on Directing) delivers both practical and philosophical advice beyond what one will find in a cookbook. Its goal is to pass on knowledge that will help readers think like a chef, not merely follow a recipe. Some 217 "notes", or entries, are organized into 19 topical chapters that can be read in any order and include cross references among the notes. The notes offer simple advice like remembering to date and label perishables to lesser-known tips like how to pick the healthiest chicken in the grocer’s case and testing eggs for freshness. The authors also include appendixes on flavor lexicon, classic combinations, and cooking essentials as well as 11 annotated recommended readings. Verdict: Both novice and more experienced cooks will appreciate the plethora of useful and valuable advice here. Overall, a delightful culinary resource.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 175 pages
• Publisher: RCR Creative Press; First edition (June 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0972425519
• ISBN-13: 978-0972425513
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #17,946 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #20 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Professional Cooking > Professional
  • #70 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Reference
  • #71 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Culinary Arts & Techniques

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous!, May 27, 2009

By 

E. Right (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Notes on Cooking: A Short Guide to an Essential Craft (Notes on...) (Hardcover)

"Notes on Cooking" is just a perfect book. It's well-written, concise, informative, interesting and entertaining all at the same time. I'm not a professional cook, but I do like to cook when I have time. The tips in this must-have treasure are priceless. How could I not have known some of these things, like where to store raw vs. cooked meat in the fridge? Plus all the insider tips from professional kitchens made me feel so in-the-know. I'm giving copies of this to everyone. As a mom of young kids, I don't have time to take a cooking class now, but this book has taught me more than I could hope to learn in one. It is truly essential for anyone who prepares food in any way, from pb&j to gourmet restaurant meals. Plus it takes two seconds to read. Perfect!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Notes on Cooking -- Not Good ... GREAT, May 28, 2009

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Jimmy Donuts (Worcester, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Notes on Cooking: A Short Guide to an Essential Craft (Notes on...) (Hardcover)

I saw an early copy of this book and the finished book delivers on every promise the cover makes and reviews note. It is pithy-yet-deep, eminently readable, and remarkably comprehensive without being overbearing. The voice of the book is a mixture of benevolent grandmother and master chef spiced with a delightful dose of nun with a switch. I may, as they encourage, find my own way but I will heed their notes in many places. (Do I really need to put bacon in a cold pan? I will now!) But while the Strunk & White analogy is appropriate, to me Notes on Cooking is much closer to Jim Collins' Good to Great. Strunk & White gives you an excellent road map for writing but when using the book it doesn't matter if you're a good writer. Notes on Cooking gives you and excellent road map for cooking and will surely help the novice cook but it will captivate and advance the craft of those of us who are already good and even great in the kitchen. I admit, I was skeptical - I mean who needs more rules right? Plus I know how to cook. Nope. This book had me at hello and inspires me to do what the last note says, "always be cooking."

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's a Series!, June 21, 2009

By 

Jeffrey Haddow (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Notes on Cooking: A Short Guide to an Essential Craft (Notes on...) (Hardcover)

I read the first book in this series, NOTES ON DIRECTING, with extreme pleasure, so when I saw there was a second in the series on COOKING, I was surprised and intrigued. And upon reading it, I was more than delighted. On the surface, directing and cooking may seem to be as similar as chalk and cheese, but after the first few pages it became clear that these two books were both designed to serve a common purpose: to impart basic, practical wisdom in a bright, consistently compelling style. NOTES ON COOKING is an ideal gift for anyone who cooks (or eats!), and I'm making a list of friends who I know will welcome this addition to their culinary bookshelves. I'm also looking forward to the next volume in this unique and surprising "Notes on ..." series.