Customer Reviews

The Oxford Companion to Food and The Oxford Companion to Wine Set: 2-volume set

5 star:		(4)
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I purchased this set as a Gold Box Deal for a great price. As a Chef, I enjoy cookbooks and culinary reference books. When I saw the James Beard Foundation recommendation, I knew this had to be a quality purchase. Now that I have had a chance to look through the pages, I am glad I snagged this deal.

Each volume is formatted the same way, and reminds me of the Larousse Gastronomique. These are basically culinary encyclopedias including types of food/wine, history, regions, and terminology. However unlike the Larousse Gastronomique there are no recipes.

In an age where books are being digitized, I can see where this set may benefit from a digital format. However, the terms are listed alphabetically so finding a subject is pretty simple. The content is written in an easy to read manner. Each entry provides interesting details, and is in-depth where it should. The amount of knowledge between the covers exceeds my expectations.

If you are a culinary student, a professional, or just a foodie, this set has something to offer. The amount of knowledge in this set is from trusted sources and recommended by many in the culinary field. They may seem expensive, but for anyone that will use them it is well worth the expense.

PROS:
Easy to read
Full of details

CONS:
None I can think of

I'm working in the F&B industry and find these books very useful to me.

I can always refer to the book for every termination that I dont know. They are written in detail and in depth and easy to understand. and it is very user friendly since i just check the word that I dont know in alphebetic order.

I have bought 9 sets for my friends working in kitchen and restaurant and they find it useful too. I highly recommand you to buy!

These two books, written by two world renowned experts, have an amazing collection of information about all things wine and all things food. They are beautifully produced books and you can't go wrong at this price! Jancis Robinson has a fantastic amount of knowledge about wines, and no other book covers wine in this way. And the Companion to Food, which was originally written by Alan Davidson, is a true companion to pick up anytime you want to know the history of a spice, a fruit, anything you can think of. And it has character, it's written in a very entertaining way! Highly recommended.

I just received my gold box special-what beautiful hefty books! Granted I have only perused each, but plan on taking the food book w/ me to read while visiting my Dad at Christmas. I have watched J. Robinson's DVD (available at Netflix) and own a couple of her wine books, so I am familiar w/ her style which obviously I enjoy. This set has decreased in price quite a bit since the beginning of the week. I compared w/ B&N (have gift card to use), but AMZN by far had the best deal, even at today's price, it is $20 less than B&N, plus FS!