The Visual Food Encyclopedia: The Definitive Practical Guide to Food and Cooking [Hardcover]

François Fortin (Editor), Serge D'Amico (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0028610067 | ISBN-13: 978-0028610061 | Publication Date: October 15, 1996 | Edition: 1

What does a tree tomato look like? What?s the difference between a turnip and a rutabaga? Where does malanga come from? How do you trim an artichoke bottom? The Visual Food Encyclopedia answers all these food questions ? and thousands more.The Visual Food Encyclopedia is the cook?s companion in the market and the kitchen, illustrating and explaining everything other cookbooks assume you already know. It takes you by the hand and, with a no-nonsense approach, tells you how to look for freshness, when to buy each ingredient at its peak, how to store it once you get it home, and the best methods of preparation and cooking.This extensive guide covers more than 1,000 ingredients, including:? 70 different kinds of vegetables? 63 varieties of fruits? 37 types of meat? 62 species of fish? 34 different cereals and grains? 47 herbs, spices and condiments? 30 kinds of cheese and milk products? Varieties of nuts and seeds, mushrooms, seaweed, sugars, fat and oils, and coffee and tea.In large part, the explaining is done with pictures, over 1,200 of them. The state-of-the-art computer images are so clear and richly colored, you?ll want to eat the food right off the page. And because you just have to see how some things are done, like cutting a chicken into serving pieces, basic techniques are clearly illustrated with original step-by-step photographs.This unique book doesn?t ignore health benefits either. All the entries include nutritional highlights. A glossary of terms along with a comprehensive index of the technical and most commonly known names for each entry is provided at the end of the book. Plus, while this is an encyclopedia, not a cookbook, serving ideas and traditional recipes using selected ingredients are featured/From the novice cook to the experienced chef, there are timeless lessons to be learned from The Visual Food Encyclopedia.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The recipe calls for burdock, and you haven't a clue--what it looks like, how to buy it, and what to do with what's left over. This is where the Visual Food Encyclopedia shines. Burdock is easily located in the section on root vegetables. The Encyclopedia provides pictures of the whole plant and of the root in question (a whitish, spongy thing with a thin, brownish skin), a short history of the vegetable (originally from Siberia, now cultivated in Japan), buying tips (look for firmness), and ideas of what to do with the leftovers (try a stir-fry, or grate some for a stew).

No food categories are overlooked. The pasta section tells how to make pasta from scratch, and illustrates all manner of pasta types. There are detailed instructions on preparing snails, sea urchins, and frog (this is a translation from a French edition)--and all manner of foods are included, from fruits, grains, and vegetables to seaweed, fats, and tea to dairy, fish, and meat. Some ingredients get more attention than others (all the pear varieties, for example, from Anjou and Bosc to Comice and Passe-Crassane, are pictured and described in detail, while the various chili peppers don't get as full a treatment), but with more than 1,000 ingredients, 1,200 illustrations, and a goodly number of recipes as well, this is a corker of a food reference, of value to any cook, from novice to weekend gourmet to professional chef. --Stephanie Gold

From Booklist

This volume is "adapted" from Dictionnaire Encyclopedique Des Aliments by Solange Monette (Quebec/Amerique, 1989). It has descriptions of 1,000 different foods with 1,200 drawings or photographs. The foods are arranged by broad categories (fruits), then subdivided (pome fleshy fruits), and ultimately arranged by specific foods (apple, pear, quince, loquat). In the introduction to each broad category, as well as to each food, there is a paragraph or two on buying, preparing, serving ideas, cooking, nutritional information, and storing. The introduction notes that this is not a cookbook, but there are selected recipes as well as step-by-step photographs describing kitchen techniques such as making pasta or preparing a lobster.

The text is well written with no hint of translation mistakes and just a slight foreign slant--the descriptions of andouille, foie gras, rillettes, and pigeon. The layout of each page is especially pleasing, with tables for the nutritional information, a box for recipes, and pictures or photographs of the food above, below, or beside the text.

This is a comprehensive source with the common as well as the unusual--lettuce, perch, cinnamon, fiddlehead fern, seitan, tofu, burdock, kefir, and a whole section on seaweeds. Exclusions are minor; there is no mention of lovage, which in French is called false celery, or of the great variety of potatoes--yellowing fingerling, kennebec, etc. The Book of Food by Frances Bissell [RBB Ja 15 95] is similar in content but uses photographs exclusively and does not include recipes. The Visual Food Encyclopedia will be a welcome addition to any food reference collection.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 688 pages
• Publisher: Macmillan; 1 edition (October 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0028610067
• ISBN-13: 978-0028610061
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #348,530 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #43 in Books > Education & Reference > Encyclopedias > Cooking

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeously illustrated, filled with vital info, July 26, 2002

By 

Catherine S. Vodrey (East Liverpool, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Visual Food Encyclopedia: The Definitive Practical Guide to Food and Cooking (Hardcover)

Serge D'Amicos' "The Visual Food Encyclopedia" is a sumptuous book, almost worthy more of the living room coffee table than the coffee-stained kitchen table. As a French import translated into other languages, it lists only a dozen varieties of apple (what, no Jonathan?), for example, but gives snails their own chapter.

For a volume that provides a close look at such relatively exotic fare as jicama and carambola, a pronunciation guide would have been a nice addition. The book is arranged into sections (vegetables, legumes, cereals and grains, and so on-seaweed even has its own chapter), and every food is shown both whole and in cross-section. Like "Larousse Gastronomique," this is an eminently useful volume written with a definite French slant.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Expensive, but beautfully illustrated and handy., August 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Visual Food Encyclopedia: The Definitive Practical Guide to Food and Cooking (Hardcover)

I was fortunate enough to buy this one on sale for ridiculously cheap, but I would still say the full price is worth it.

It tells you what something is by common names and scientific, what the varieties are and their differences, how to select the best, how to store and handle it, how to cook it, and rudimentary nutritional info.

Wonderful resource!

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Missing the ingrediants you really want to know about, September 27, 2002

By 

M. Byer (Mountain View, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Visual Food Encyclopedia: The Definitive Practical Guide to Food and Cooking (Hardcover)

If you are a cook and sometimes come across ingrediants you have never seen (or can't pronounce) this is *not* the book for you. It is missing most of that stuff. Example recipes would be helpful, too. However, as a general western reference with good illustrations, it fits the bill nicely. I open mine about once a month to look up something. Great as a gift and even better to receive as a present!