Customer Reviews

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

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"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!

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."

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.

Reading "Notes on Cooking," I imagine myself sitting at Lauren Braun Costello's proverbial kitchen table, listening, agreeing, learning. I am connecting to the author's prose in a way that rarely happens outside of fiction for me. I LIKE the voice I read, trust it inherently as a voice of authority and culinary leadership -- I find myself wanting to know the author more, ask her questions, get this expert's praise for my omelettes and roast chickens (LOL). I am connecting in a powerful way with this little book, and can't wait to buy it for friends and family, to share the nuggets so elegantly and tenderly contained within. This is the kind of book I would give to my daughter when she moved into her first apartment. It is simply essential.

Now, I could have merely written how much I "love" it or how "great" it is, but this is viscerally sincere. "Notes on Cooking" is filled with the guidance and directional confessions of a mentor who's "been there," of a godmother or your favorite aunt who "just happens" to also be a chef.

It's GOOD, and I am so thrilled to have discovered it when I still have time to transform the way I approach food, approach cooking.

Short, to the point, and very smart...Notes on Cooking is a must-own for the dedicated home cook, seasoned professional, or anyone who wants to hone their craft in the kitchen. As a professional chef, I found that it made me excited all over again about what I do day to day;it reminded me why I love being in the kitchen so much, and reinforced the basics that I may have strayed from over the years. It sifts through Ms. Braun Costello's years of being a chef, and boils down that experience to its essential core. The reader gets so much clear, undiluted information in a short span of pages. I guarantee that after reading Notes on Cooking- your food, and your outlook in the kitchen will improve for the better!

The succinct and reference-like format is wonderful, especially for those of us with limited reading and leisure time. This is a great gift for anyone who is interested in improving their cooking - whether a novice or experienced cook. If you have culinary training, the book is a gentle reminder about so many practices that may have fallen out of your daily routine, i.e. continual sharpening of knives. Even for the professionally trained there are a number of "who knew?" items, in particular the one about using a cold pan for melting butter.

This book is a rare combination of invaluable practical wisdom and delightful elegance. It is a pleasure to read and is filled with eye-opening facts that make so much sense but are not widely known. A must-have for anyone from a sophisticated chef, to an occasional cook, to someone who just enjoys good literature!

NOTES ON COOKING: A SHORT GUIDE TO AN ESSENTIAL CRAFT offers a new book on not just cooking or kitchen tools, but storage, foundation dishes, and even life lessons on how to recognize quality and seek beauty in cooking. Everyday cooks wanting to improve as well as neo-experts looking to review culinary experience will find this fills a gap between recipes and procedure, offering the basics on how to become a better cook overall. Highly recommended for both general and culinary collections.

This book is a culinary gem and an instant classic. "Notes on Cooking" is for cooks what Strunk & White's "Elements of Style"is for writers: a compact, concise, succinct, timeless and well-written guide about honing your craft and making you think like a professional. Anyone serious about home cooking should own this book because it gives you the tools to be competent and confident in the kitchen. It's like having Julia Child by your side. I love the no nonsense voice of the authors. They lead you by the hand like all great cookbook writers and teach you with authority and passion. I highly recommend this book!

Concise at 143 pages, including the index and several appendices, accessible and authoritative, this punchy little book commands attention to detail, from the elements of food safety to organization to picking the right egg for baking or boiling.

Costello, a cooking teacher and owner and chef of Gotham Caterers, N.Y., learned her craft from classical chefs and Reich pioneered the snappy, declarative format in his first book, Notes on Directing, with Frank Hauser.

Most experienced cooks will be familiar with 95 percent of these precepts, though it still makes for fun reading and good habits can always use reinforcement. But really this is a great book for novices and less confident cooks.

From reading a recipe to understanding the cook's job, assembling (and caring for) the proper tools, shopping, storing and preparing ingredients before beginning to cook, there is all the practical and wise advice a cook needs in short, numbered, to-the-point commands.

Proceeding with the cooking itself the authors tackle approach (tasting, thinking), temperature, the pantry, stocks and sauces. And then it's on to the central element - meat, seafood, poultry, produce, as well as baking, dairy and eggs, wine and spirits. They conclude with repairing and learning from mistakes, and attending to presentation, then finish with three very brief and useful appendices: food pairings, kitchen essentials and book recommendations.

A charming and entirely useful book.