Customer Reviews

In Search of Total Perfection

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Heston's is a chef that tirelessly, to a point of obsession, strives to bring out the essence of food to a predetermined idea of "perfection". Being a self-taught, literally (not going to culinary school/working in a professional kitchen for only a week!), Heston takes an unconventional approach not used by everyday chefs and uses the scientific method to hypothesize and determine experiments for the results he is looking for. What I really enjoyed about this book is that he dwells into the history and background of the dish; from the story of the farmers, to the use of ingredients and conventional techniques.

I guess some people may think that this book is not for the home cook. To a certain degree I can agree, due to the labor required in some of the recipes, but it is obvious that Heston had the home cook in mind while writing this book(just see his other books, Fat Duck Cookbook). Also this series was filmed for BBC as a television show. The recipes I have tried are sound and everything is written very clearly. But beyond the recipes, Heston is trying to give the home cook an idea of how to approach cooking, instilling somewhat of an intuition by having an understanding of what is going on in the food that you prepare. I find that having an understanding of why, is much more useful than a foundation of this is how.

Other books of interest would be On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen as well as Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking

Now all that being said, if you already own Heston Blumenthal's other books in the series In Search of Perfection and Further Adventures in Search of Perfection: Reinventing Kitchen Classics DO NOT GET THIS BOOK! It is simply a softcover copy of the two books put together!!! This is still a great book, but I much prefer the later two since they come hard bound, with more pictures and higher quality printing.

amazing stories, wonderful recepies, eventho you will be able to cook probably only 4 or 5 of them. they are hard and require lots of preparation, attention etc... but he is a genius. the quality of the paperback leaves something to be desired.

it's great even if you just want to read about how great food can be prepared or a small insight into Heston's mad genius.
On top of which, the recipe's have been made (somewhat) for home cooks.
Very good.

Very interesting collection especially if combined with the TV series. Recipes involved but doable and can be fun. His treatment of the perfect Pizza is the best!