Customer Reviews

Prashad-Cooking with Indian Masters

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is suitable for people at all levels of Indian cookery, from beginners to professionals. In my opinion, it is the ultimate book for Indian cookery.

The author takes you on a guided tour of how to cook Indian food. On this guided tour, he is accompanied by some of the finest Indian masterchefs of our time.

He starts by introducing you to the actual ingredients, the herbs and spices. Then onto the different cooking processes, and finally onto the most delightful and genuine Indian recipes that I have ever come across. He also covers different regional specialities of India.

The recipes and the coooking processes are well thought out and described in minute detail, so that you can achieve the best results.

The book ends with recipes for different masalas (herb and spice mixtures) you will need - which not many books actually provide.

A must have book for fans of Indian cooking anywhere in the world.

Good content - but production values are cheap. Stinky ink on low quality paper - looks like bound photocopies. Plates are higher quality. Disappointing for the price.

I bought this book when a friend of mine (no mean cook himself) advised me to try it. Every recipe that I have tried works beautifully. This is one book anyone looking to make Indian food MUST have. Our gastronomical experience took a whole new direction with this work of art.
I like the format where each process is explained in a lucid manner. Nothing is difficult when you have this in the kitchen.
To gather recipies from all over India is extremely difficult by itself, to do it in one book is a hard one to beat.
I have loved every moment of owning this book.

I purchased this book on a trip to India several years ago on the advice of friends. I have tried many of the recipes in the book and all have been great successes. It is the finest Indian cookbook in my collection. If you have only one Indian cookbook, this is the one to own.

I have been cooking with this book since it was published more than a dozen years ago. If there is 'classical Indian cuisine' - this book captures it. The recipes are authentic in the results they produce and are easy to follow. This book is a must for anyone who professes to know how to cook Indian food whether they are a novice or an expert. It should be noted that these are restaurant recipes coming from food professionals. You will not be asked to open a jar of this or that. But neither are you ever required to find exotic ingredients - and that is the beauty of this book. No other book compares.

This is a book on Indian cooking, on which you can completely rely upon. The beauty of this book is that recipes come out accurately if you simply follow the instructions. I have tried many recipes from this book and now I have a lot of confidence on Indian cooking!

While I've found the glowing reviews here to be accurate in their comments, there are issues with this book that I find render it a bit impracticable, and hence not particularly usable for the home cook.

First I join others in commending the writer on the concept, the effort, the authenticity, the references, and the execution. Surely the recipes are well tested and are impeccable. However the buyer should be forewarned that the recipes here regularly call for massive quantities of ghee (3/4 cup for example in the recipe for baingan bharta, which serves 4--and this is typical). The type of cooking in the book is definitely restaurant-style, with all that entails. If that's what you're looking for, or if you only want a few special-occasion dishes this book is just right for you. If however you're looking for something with a balance of dishes that are more practical, healthy and the type of home-style cooking that you find you can do for every day, this is not what you'll be getting in this book.

Again though--for what it is, it's a very nice book, and it contains solid information. The practicality and usability are just the issues. I'm glad I have it as a reference, but I find it's not a book that I regularly turn to, or have come to rely upon.

I like this book. I like that it's written by an Indian, who knows Indian food but that it reflects Indian food as interpreted by top restaurant chefs. I like the description of the ingredients and the "insider" feeling you get while reading it. That said, I've cooked two or three recipes from this book and they have been less than successful. I'm still giving it 4 stars because I'm sure /I/ am cursed with the inability to cook Indian food, no matter the recipe. I love Indian food, it's my favorite cuisine in the world, but I just can't cook it. It's not the book's fault.

'Prashad, Cooking With Indian Masters' is, in terms of content, invaluable. I have had this book for 20 years and it has given me great insight into the incredible variety of Indian cuisines and helped me prepare many wonderful Indian meals.

If, however, you are unfamiliar with Indian cookery, it may be tough going for you. The English--although clearly written for the Indian market--should give you relatively few problems per se. The photos and paper-quality, too, are very 1970s. Those superficial quibbles aside, though, this is an excellent and inspiring resource.

However, in these days of (overly?) explicit recipes and hand-holding cookbook writing, it might not give sufficient detail. This book is not of the calibre of one of Madhur Jaffrey's or Julie Sahni's books, but if you want to venture out of the nursery and already know something about Indian cookery, it is a very worthwhile book indeed.

I bought this for my husband since he wanted to try his hand on cooking and he would never try a recipe from anyone less than the best chef.

The book has a very good approach to teach a newbie about Indian cooking terms. Though the pages keep falling out due to low quality binding.