Customer Reviews

The United States (Culinaria)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For once there is a culinary book that does justice to each of the individual, and exceptional, regions of the United States: the cuisine from Louisiana isn't restricted to the usual red beans and rice or jambalaya; the coast isn't simply seafood; Texas is more than beef and brisket. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! This book is outstanding in not only the recipes, but the overall atmosphere given to the diverse sections of the country. As a senior high school student, I respect and value the differences between the states and surrounding areas, and Culinaria is one such informational text that depicts this diversity, and then some.

This book is a great special interest book. If you are looking for an extensive encyclopedia of recipes and techniques, this book is not for you. However, if you would like to explore the culinary specialities of the many varied regions of the United States, this is a great book.

Visually, the book is very impressive. The surrounding pictures and text describe the region and the culture, putting the recipies in context. It is this extra material that makes trying out these recipies so much fun.

The recipies themselves vary in the level of difficulty, preparation and practicality. Again, pick your experiment and get started as you have time.

Overall, it is one of the better written books in the series. This book was well worth the investment and is an interesting read.

As a professional chef and culinary instructor, I found this volume to be an excellent resource of American cuisine. The recipes are fairly basic, but the history behind regional culinary traditions is vast and informative. I recommend all the volumes in this series to chefs and home cooks very highly.

I got this, and I love it! The recipe's are delicous, the information is helpful and useful, and the pictures are sharp and clear. If you can cook at all, this is a MUST have.

America's diversity of ingredients, foods, styles, and recipes is so very well documented in this guide. Reading this will make one want to visit every region of America to sample the delicacies. It's really more of an encyclopedia as there are numerous explanations of culinary techniques and facts about ingredients highligted by rich, colorful photography. Food and cooking enthusiasts of all levels will find this book informative and entertaining. The writing is excellent and very very readable. As one reviewer already stated, the biggest drawback is the book's weight. Frankly, it's worth the extra few pounds.

This is one of the finer books to be published for our consumption in too many year. The authors are thorough and inclusive. They cover the nation and tell it the way it has been these past many years. They not only give historical data -- they share specific recipes and local "color" dealing with the times and the food involved. Execellent and well done. One problem - the book is extremely heavy because of the quality of paper used and the printing involved.

This is my favorite book in the always-worthwhile "Culinaria" series, and I own four of them! It is not easy to do justice to cuisine in a country as large and varied as the United States. This book is up to the task: it takes you through the US region by region and explores the food unique to each. The photographs are gorgeous and give you the feel not just of the food common to that area, but the land and culture itself. The text is fascinating, with separate articles on different facets of cooking. The book provides a good sampling of recipes for each region as well.

Because of the size and scope of the country, however, the book simply cannot provide a complete set of recipes of American cooking (it is already of phenomenal size and scope -- there is a good reason why Amazon charges extra to ship it.) Thus, while it has recipes for each region, it is really more a culinary guide than a cookbook. The book may inspire you to learn more about different American regional cuisines. If after reading it, you wish to focus in on a specific region, may I suggest you try, for New England, "The New England Cookbook," by Brooke Dojny. Marcia Adams has written several excellent cookbooks of Midwestern cooking; my personal favorite is "Heartland," which you may be able to get second-hand.

Overall, a phenomenal gastronomic tour of the United States. Beautiful enough to put on your coffee table, intelligent enough to provide engrossing lessons in American cuisine. A real tour de force!

This is a huge, massive, gorgeous resource, loaded with not only many, many good recipies, but fascinating American food culture history. The page after page of full color photos are spectacular. The layout is terrific, presenting neat facts about our favorite foods in an inviting, fun way. American specialties presented by region. A true masterpiece. If you like the show "Unwrapped" you will especially love this book, which presents food facts, culture, and history in a similar way.

I was so upset to find out that this book is no longer in print. I purchased this about a year ago and wanted to buy this beautiful history/cookbook for a few people for Christmas but alas, it is no longer available! My advice for anyone who finds this book in a used bookstore, thrift shop, flea market, anywhere to BUY IT! You won't be sorry. I purchased it for the New York and New England sections alone. What makes this book extra nice (aside from the beautiful photographs and masterful editorial layouts) is the history given for every region in the country. This is also a book that can be read as an historical look at the culinary landscape of the US - which, by the way, has just as rich a culinary history as any other country. Even for people who don't cook, this also has the makings of a beautiful coffee table book. The cover alone is so striking that I can see it as the centerpiece on a table or bookshelf in any home with some New England flair. Even if you can't find it anywhere, I urge you to go look at this book in a library - it's that beautiful. I'm hoping it goes back into print. I'd buy a bunch and save them for gifts.

Long out of print and the publishers Konemann went bust years ago but you can still find this lovely, chunky coffee-table book for sale online. Actually I think the whole Culinaria series could well be reprinted by some enterprising publisher, the printing plates are just waiting for that moment.

What I liked about the book is the mixture of regional recipes and food related text. The thirteen chapters (though, actually the country is divided into eleven regions with a chapter each for New York City and New Orleans/Louisiana) explore the diversity of regional food with text, recipes and photos. The section on the Midwest, for example, has spreads featuring these articles: Ethnic Chicago; Scandinavian settlers; Polish settlers; German settlers; Beer; Cheese; Types of cheese; The State fair; A day in the life of a farmer; Corn; Popcorn corn; Fruit and Nuts and more.

It's the coverage of food-related subjects that, for me, give the book a lift. I mentioned Popcorn above and there are other subjects like Coca-Cola, Snacks, Ice cream, Tobacco, Diners or Hershey's chocolate or the rather obscure Delmarva poultry that pure foodies probably wouldn't consider for inclusion but they are part of the Nation's food culture after all.

Like other titles in the series the presentation has a nice easy look to the pages. Everything is readable and the range of graphic treatments with the photos and illustrations is just right. I was impressed with the color throughout, especially the straightforward recipe shots.

Even if you only make a few of the recipes from the hundreds in the book the pages have enough information about American food to keep the curious interested for a long time. Perhaps a useful title to complement the book is The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America: 2-Volume Set, 1550 pages with 770 entries on the subject. More learned and without the recipes and colorful presentation of Culinaria it does, though, cover the subject in detail and a useful feature, I thought, was the bibliography included at the end nearly all the entries.

***SEE SOME INSIDE PAGES FROM CULINARIA by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.