The Deluxe Food Lover's Companion [Hardcover]

Sharon Tyler Herbst (Author), Ron Herbst (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2009

Based on Barron's popular and authoritative The Food Lover's Companion, this enlarged and enhanced new reference volume was written for discerning home chefs and everybody else who wants to become more knowledgeable about good food and elegant dining. Alphabetically arranged entries define and describe--

Fruits and vegetables, both well-known and exotic varieties

Meat cuts and preparation methods

Fish, shellfish, and ways to cook and serve them

Breads, pastas, and other grain-based foods

Cooking tools and techniques

Reliable ways to preserve and store foods

Herbs, spices, and their many uses . . . and much more

Miniature glossaries are interspersed throughout the text. For instance, following the entry for apple, an "Apple Glossary" provides descriptions and recommended uses of 28 different varieties. A generous array of sidebar features throughout the book offers quick tips on food purchases, as well as Fast Facts and advice on preparation, serving, and dining. For example, immediately following the "al dente" entry in reference to cooking pasta, readers will find this sidebar:
Fast Facts
Al Dente

An obvious line flowing through the thickest part of the pasta means it's not done

Lingering heat will continue to cook the pasta for a short time after it's removed from the hot cooking water

More than 6,700 entries are supplemented with a general introduction, hundreds of illustrations, and pithy quotations about food and dining from chefs and gourmets. The new deluxe hardcover binding with dust jacket includes a ribbon place marker and golden-tipped page edges.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The latest addition to the Companion culinary series is dubbed the “deluxe” volume because of its expanded and restructured content updated by Ron Herbst in memory of his wife, Sharon Tyler Herbst, the original author. The book maintains its reputation as an encyclopedia of literally every dish, ingredient and spice imaginable, each featuring cross-references and a pronunciation guide—especially helpful for those with a fancy palate. This time around, Herbst organizes some of the more popular entries such as apples, beer, cookies and olives into their own glossaries appearing alphabetically throughout the book. Fans of the series will find this an obvious and welcome revision, this one with gold-gilded page edges. Quotes from famous chefs, diagrams of meat cuts and sketches on every page make this a solid companion for home cooks. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Now in its fifth revision, this food dictionary is more important--and expanded--than ever. No cook should be without it."
--Lee Svitak Dean, Minneapolis Star Tribune

"If you've got a question about kitchen tools or perhaps preparation or even kitchen tools, you'll want to pick up this treasure trove of culinary information. . . . This food encyclopedia is especially user-friendly, so you can find anything you're looking for. . . . a must for anybody who enjoys cooking and fine dining, or just likes to learn. . ."


--Cookbook Digest



"For more than a decade, The New Food Lover's Companion by Sharon Tyler Herbst has been the definitive food reference book. . . . Now, a redesigned and updated version has been released. . . . This impressive makeover of a classic book is sure to please longtime Food Lover fans and novice chefs alike. . . . With its hundreds of illustrations, plethora of fun facts, cooking tips and how-to steps The Deluxe Food Lover's Companion is the latest must-have culinary guide--and its reasonable price makes it this year's bookstore bargain."
--Lacey Galbraith, Book Page

"Spot quiz: Do you know what a pomalo is? How about sansho? Chaource? If you don't know the answers to these questions, you are in desperate need of this book. . . . Enlarged and enhanced, this new reference volume is written for anyone who wants to become more knowledgeable about food and dining. . . . A must-have for any serious food professional. . . ."
--Dessert Professional





"Attractive and well-organized with efficient cross-referencing and a comprehensive bibliography, this guide would be useful to most cooks and particularly interested novices."
--Lynn Harnett, Portsmouth (NH) Herald Sunday

"How do you improve a classic? The Food Lover's Companion, first published in 1990 by wife and husband Sharon Tyler Herbst and Ron Herbst, has undergone many updates, but the latest edition is the only one that can claim

the term deluxe. "The previous four editions were soft-cover and a much different book size in terms that you

could fit in the palm of your hand," says Pat Hunter, an editor at Barron's. "We wanted more info in it than the

current book, so we included a whole bunch of new material that would enhance reader appeal." The updated

version includes quotes, tip boxes, information on basic techniques and expanded glossaries that explain the

many variations of apples, sausages, cheeses and so on. Not a cookbook, The Deluxe Food Lover's Companion is an accessible kitchen reference for everyone, from novice to chef, and features more than 6,700 entries. The authors spent years collecting the ultimate tricks from those in the food industry to update the volume, which is one of the most comprehensive collections about the kitchen trade available today. "The culinary world is

always changing, and methods of cooking have changed considerably as well," says Hunter. "We spent a lot

of time thinking about how to make a great book to begin with even better and more applicable to today's

at-home or professional chefs."




—Kirkus Reviews, September 2009

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 794 pages
• Publisher: Barron's Educational Series (September 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764162411
• ISBN-13: 978-0764162411
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 2 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,988 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #65 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Reference

More About the Author

Sharon Tyler Herbst and Ron Herbst are the authors of the bestselling Wine Lover's Companion. Sharon is the award-winning author of twelve books on food and wine, and the foremost writer of culinary reference books, including the bestselling Food Lover's Companion and Food Lover's Tiptionary.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Kindle Version Not Worth The Price February 7, 2011

By Steven Masakowski

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

The Deluxe Food Lover's Companion

Shame on Amazon for allowing the sale of the Kindle version as is. The Kindle version is poorly composed and not worth the price. The table of contents is incomplete and of little help in finding something in the book because it does not contain the glossaries often referred to in the book. I'm making my own table of contents for the glossaries by paging through the book and highlighting a glossary title when I found one. So far I found 19 glossaries. According to The How To Use This Book section, there are 40 glossaries scattered throughout the book. Finding them is very time consuming. I can't believe they were not included in the table of contents. The Kindle version doesn't have an index either making it even more difficult to search the books contents. I can't make sense out of the appendix. The US Measurement Equivalents in the appendix is completely useless because, it seems, it's not formatted for the Kindle. The illustrations are very poor. They look like gray pixel blobs. I have a paperback of a different version of this book that I find it priceless, so, go for the hard back version if you are interested in getting this book.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow, a great reference tool for foodies! September 14, 2009

By Deborah Verlen TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

My son loves to cook and I picked this up for a present to fuel his hobby! So of course I just had to sneak a peak at the contents. The almost 800 pages and over 6,700 entries details in alphabetical order all sorts of foods, cooking terms, cooking tools and techniques, herbs and more. This is truly a wonderful reference for those that like to cook or for those who are just curious about food and its preparation.

One of the things I learned while perusing his present was how to easily open an oyster--wish I had known that when I lived in New Orleans. There is a simple explanation of what a prawn is--is it a shrimp? Rock Lobster? A Prawn?

Scattered among the alphabetical listings are various glossaries from cakes to olives to pasta to pears and more. At the end of the alphabetical listings you can find an extended glossary. And if the book has caught your fancy, there is an excellent bibliography to pursue.

After you finished perusing the entries all you'll need is a recipe to put your new found knowledge to work!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Useful, attractive and fun to read December 12, 2009

By Lynn Harnett TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

An expanded version of this gilt-edged A to Z guide to food and preparation techniques features 6700 entries. In-depth glossaries scattered throughout explain varieties of ingredients, like olives or apples. Another 200-page section of expanded glossaries follows the A to Z section, delving more deeply into cuts of meat, wines, sauces, etc. Attractive and well organized with efficient cross-referencing and a comprehensive bibliography, this guide would be useful to most cooks and particularly interested novices