Secrets of the Best Chefs and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more



or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering
Sell Us Your Item
For a $2.00 Gift Card
Trade in
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Start reading Secrets of the Best Chefs on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Sorry, this item is not available in
Image not available for
Color:
Image not available

To view this video download Flash Player

 

Secrets of the Best Chefs: Recipes, Techniques, and Tricks from America's Greatest Cooks [Hardcover]

Adam Roberts
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)

List Price: $27.95
Price: $20.17 & FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $7.78 (28%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Want it Wednesday, May 29? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition $9.78  
Hardcover $20.17  
Image
Save on Popular Books This Summer
Browse our Bookshelf Favorites store for big savings on popular fiction, nonfiction, children's books, and more.

Book Description

November 13, 2012

Learn to cook from the best chefs in America

Some people say you can only learn to cook by doing. So Adam Roberts, creator of the award-winning blog The Amateur Gourmet, set out to cook in 50 of America's best kitchens to figure out how any average Joe or Jane can cook like a seasoned pro. From Alice Waters's garden to José Andrés's home kitchen, it was a journey peppered with rock-star chefs and dedicated home cooks unified by a common passion, one that Roberts understands deeply and transfers to the reader with flair, thoughtfulness, and good humor: a love and appreciation of cooking. Roberts adapts recipes from Hugh Acheson, Lidia Bastianich, Roy Choi, Harold Dieterle, Sara Moulton, and more.

The culmination of that journey is a cookbook filled with lessons, tips, and tricks from the most admired chefs in America, including how to properly dress a salad, bake a no-fail piecrust, make light and airy pasta, and stir-fry in a wok, plus how to improve your knife skills, eliminate wasteful food practices, and create recipes of your very own. Most important, Roberts has adapted 150 of the chefs' signature recipes into totally doable dishes for the home cook. Now anyone can learn to cook like a pro!


Frequently Bought Together

Secrets of the Best Chefs: Recipes, Techniques, and Tricks from America's Greatest Cooks + Modern Sauces: More than 150 Recipes for Every Cook, Every Day
Price for both: $42.53

Buy the selected items together


Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review


See Pages from Secrets of the Best Chefs


Review

"I love this book. It is a collision of one of the most curious and enthusiastic home cooks I know, Adam Roberts, and a long list of chefs and cooks I would do just about anything to learn from. He is able to draw out a fascinating range of quotes, lessons, recipes, and insights--each as distinct and personal as those sharing their kitchens." --Heidi Swanson, author of Super Natural Every Day

"Adam Roberts’s book is an excellent resource for anyone who wants to learn from the best chefs in the country." --David Chang, chef/owner, Momofuku

"Adam Roberts is an original: smart, funny, talented, endlessly inquisitive, an A student and, happily for us, an A+ teacher. Everyone from beginner cooks to sure hands will learn something new on each page. And even if, like Adam’s mom’s, your stove stores shoes and handbags, you’ll still be charmed by Secrets—it’s a great read." --Dorie Greenspan, author of Around My French Table

"One of the best and most approachable books on chefs’ cooking I’ve seen—showcasing recipes anyone can master, without fussy techniques or fancy equipment." --David Lebovitz, pastry chef and author of The Sweet Life in Paris

"As interpreter, tour guide, doppelganger, chef-speak translator, and technical test bunny, Roberts heightens the experience of cooking with the greats by giving us the inside track on accessing the greatest kitchen talent of our time." -- Andrew Zimmern, host of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern

"Adam Roberts, who blogs as The Amateur Gourmet, brings a professional’s clarity and imagination to this unusual and very useful cookbook. There are plenty of great recipes here, but what makes the book uniquely valuable are the insiders’ tips and trade secrets, full of reassurances and common sense, generously shared by chefs both famous and little-known, from José Andrés and Jonathan Waxman to Tim Artz and Angelish Wilson. I’d say Secrets of the Best Chefs is almost guaranteed to make you a better cook." -- Colman Andrews, editorial director TheDailyMeal.com and author of The Country Cooking of Italy

"Adam Roberts renders each chef’s story so engagingly that every chapter is its own travel story; taken as a whole, they add up to the most inspiring portrait of contemporary American cooking we’ve seen." -- Matt Lee and Ted Lee, authors of The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern

"Adam Roberts is the affable and infectiously curious friend we all wish we had with us in the kitchen—the one who prods us with questions, entertains us with amusing tales, and makes us feel better when our cake flops." -- Amanda Hesser, food writer and founder of Food52

"This book is packed with the kind of insights and tips that stay with you for a lifetime of cooking, and written from a sophisticated yet friendly and relatable point of view that tells any reader they are welcome and that they can do this. It looks great, too, and the photos make obvious the amount of fun Adam had doing this—sending perhaps the best message of all, that cooking with friends is the most fun you can have standing up." -- Ted Allen, author of In My Kitchen


Product Details

  • Hardcover: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Artisan (November 13, 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1579654398
  • ISBN-13: 978-1579654399
  • Product Dimensions: 8 x 1.2 x 9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #27,529 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Adam Roberts created his award-winning food blog The Amateur Gourmet in January 2004. Since then, he's published two books ("The Amateur Gourmet," "Secrets of the Best Chefs") and hosted several shows for Food Network online ("The FN Dish," "The Amateur Gourmet Show," "The Taste Test"). He currently writes for Food & Wine Magazine, the Epicurious Epi-Log, The Huffington Post and Serious Eats. He divides his time between Los Angeles, CA and New York, NY.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Where Savory Meets Story November 30, 2012
Format:Hardcover
The thing I love most about this book is the variety of menus you can create by mixing and matching recipes from the best chefs across the country. Not only are the recipes easy to follow, but there are great tips sprinkled throughout each section to help even the most amateur cooks in the kitchen. Some of my favorite dishes are Lidia Bastianich's Mussels and Clams Triestina, Alice Waters' Farmer's Market Salad, Chuy Valencia's Flank Steak with Guajillo Sauce and for dessert, Sara Moulton's French Apple Tart.

As an added bonus, the book also provides a chance to learn more about the life stories behind some of these incredible kitchen masters. I loved Melissa Clark's advice... "If you fail a lot, just call it 'recipe developing' ". Bravo to Adam and Artisan Books on a wonderful new addition to my kitchen library.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars delicious with a side of hilarity December 3, 2012
By pattyj
Format:Hardcover
Most cookbooks have like 10 recipes that sound interesting if you're lucky, 5 recipes that sound like you might make, and 1, maybe 2 recipes you actually use. This cookbook has such a great variety from the chefs so I always find a new recipe I want to make each time I open it. And the recipes I've tried are great - a handful of recipes are already on my permanent dinner rotation, and there are a bunch I still can't wait to make. Also, it must be said that Adam is hilarious, as readers of his blog will know. Most cookbook writing feels stale, but his stories cooking with the chefs are not only funny, but manage to make the reader feel that they are getting to know the chefs and understand their cooking philosophy.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I am so impressed by Adam Roberts. He is a food writer, television personality, and cook with a fine-living vision - and a brilliant way with words. From page one, the reader is treated to an inside look into his culinary mind -- inquisitive, a bit daring, and always inspired by cooking visionaries and trendsetters. What makes this book so wonderful is that Adam doesn't only cook with superstars we all know - he places equal value on the experiences of home cooks and artisan chefs who can inspire us all.

In Secrets of the Best Chefs, Adam has captured a bit of the awe we all might experience when cooking at the elbows of our nation's greatest chefs, yet even so, we understand his passion for making foods at home that people will love to eat again and again. From his own kitchen, Adam recreates the signature dishes of his mentor chefs. With crisp language and easy to comprehend recipe instructions, he makes even complex dishes seem manageable by the average home cook. Secrets of the Best Chefs also shares helpful tips and observations to make kitchen time more streamlined and efficient.

I'm a believer in his process. And just to prove my point, tonight I'm making his version of Nancy Silverton's Prosciutto San Daniele with Warren Pear and Pomegranate Seeds. For myself. And I'll be loving every bite as I'm reading to pick out the next recipe to cook and enjoy.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars A foodie's dream
I am so jealous of author Adam Roberts! As a matter fact I just told him so on his Facebook page. From personal kitchens of some of the chefs to their professional kitchens, their... Read more
Published 10 days ago by Michelle M. Mitza
3.0 out of 5 stars Seems to be informative...
I've only had time to quickly scan the volume, but it seems to have pertinent information about shortcuts in culinary application.
Published 19 days ago by Sanford Walke
5.0 out of 5 stars Love this cookbook! Read it like a novel
As someone who reads recipes for fun, I find this book to be highly engaging and interesting. I love the easy suggestions and the stories Adam tells in spending time with each... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Melissa Koeman
5.0 out of 5 stars One of My Favorites
I love this book so much that I find myself carrying it around for no reason. It's fun to cook from and it's just as fun to read curled up on the couch. Read more
Published 1 month ago by lc
3.0 out of 5 stars Odd combination: Naive author relaying intricate restaurant chef...
I checked this out of the library. After spending three weeks with it, I've decided there is not enough of value within its pages for me to purchase it. Read more
Published 1 month ago by I Do The Speed Limit
5.0 out of 5 stars More than a Recipe Book
I received the book as a Christmas gift and hadn't really read Adam Roberts before. But I plowed through this book cover-to-cover and I've become a great fan of Roberts' blog... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Brian Chase
5.0 out of 5 stars Secrets of the Best Chefs by Adam Roberts
I ordered this cookbook as a gift and it was a hit. Great recipes and photos. He interviewed many famous chefs that gave him interesting stories and tips. Read more
Published 2 months ago by kathy
4.0 out of 5 stars YUMMY
Nice book, nicely set out. Not quite what I thought it would be, but enjoyable, but if your looking for tips and tricks, forget it. Read more
Published 3 months ago by RIVER
5.0 out of 5 stars Really F'ing Good Book
Adam's blog is a mix of interesting recipes and restaurant reviews and occasionally excessively "I don't know what I'm doing but this turned out ok" posts. Read more
Published 3 months ago by David Thomas
5.0 out of 5 stars Gift for a Friend.
It came Better then discribed!! I would definitley recomend it! My friend really loves this cookbook!!! Thank you so much!!
Published 3 months ago by Julie VanderJagt
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews


Forums

There are no discussions about this product yet.
Be the first to discuss this product with the community.
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Listmania!


Create a Listmania! list

So You'd Like to...


Create a guide


Look for Similar Items by Category