Amazon.com
Produced by the Culinary Institute of America as a textbook for chefs-to-be, The New Professional Chef, Sixth Edition, is a book for all who love to cook, as well as students of the craft. It's a cooking school between covers, a teaching and reference work of extraordinary breadth.
In the first two of four parts, arranged in a progressive, logical sequence, the book provides a brief historical overview of the chef's role and discusses matters of interest to all cooks: the identification and purchasing of ingredients, nutrition, food safety, and sanitation, among other matters. The third part explores the techniques that underlie all cooking, from mise en place (readying ingredients), through sauces and soups and the dry- and moist-heat cooking methods, to charcuterie, baking, and pastry. This section, illustrated as elsewhere in the book by step-by-step color photos, line drawings, tables, and charts, is an unendingly informative book in itself. The book concludes with the recipes, arranged as a professional would want them, in chapters devoted to food categories such as sauces and entrees; breakfast and pasta dishes; and breads, cakes and pastries, among others. The hundreds of recipes (500 new to this edition) are designed for 10 or more servings; though reducible, their outstanding usefulness lies in revealing dish anatomy--the way recipes work. Updated with a 50-page chapter on international fare, and containing cooking trucs throughout, material on dietary substitutions, historical and anecdotal information, and serving suggestions, The New Professional Chef is an A to Z resource no culinary library should lack. --Arthur Boehm
Book Description
This encyclopedic classic--the definitive reference in professional kitchens for decades--has been thoroughly revised. The Sixth Edition of this classic culinary compendium is not only packed with the most up-to-date information for today's professional, it's also easier to use.|For easy reference, the recipes--1,000 altogether--are now conveniently located in one section. Completely reformatted, the Sixth Edition of The New Professional Chef makes it easier for you to turn directly to the information you need with three find-it-fast sections. Display, illustration, and technique photos appear next to many of the recipes. In addition, to help you build technique, recipes are now organized from simple to complex with similar types grouped together.|Look at the wealth of information packed into this new edition: * Comprehensive and up-to-date information on food identification, preparation, and presentation. * Thorough coverage of the essential ingredients, tools, and techniques of classic and modern cuisine. * New chapter on nutrition and healthy cooking. * Convenient charts and instructions on how to identify, purchase, and store the finest, freshest foods. * Complete glossary of terms, conversion tables, and a list of suggested reading.
Customer Reviews:
The ultimate reference for any kitchen.......2007-08-22
After years of experience in kitchens, and owning many cookbooks, this book just has everything I need. It is by far my favorite!
This book is a keeper.......2005-02-06
Great book that I used in culinary school. It is easy to follow and found it quite helpful with many of my culinary classes. If you want a great study guide for nutrition class, I recommend:
Nutritional Study Guide for Food Service and Culinary Professionals: Key Review Questions and Answers, isbn is 1933023058. This study guide has similar kind of questions that I experienced on my nutrition exams in culinary school. The New Professional Chef will be also a great reference for years to come.
The New Professional Chef Scores a 10.......2001-09-18
As a professional chef myself and a graduate of the California Culinary Academy, I keep 2 copies of this incredibly wonderful cookbook.
It is an absolute necessity in anybodies kitchen from the novice to the Professional.
After spending 2 years at chefs school in the early 70's and opening a chain of restaurants in Los Angeles, I got into a rut and lost not only my imagination but also forgot from lack of use many of my culinary skills.
This book is more than just a cookbook, it is an encyclopedia of knowledge. While most of the recipes are scaled for large quantities, they are easy to scale down due to the use of weight as a measure rather than volume.
If you were to buy only one cookbook to last a lifetime this would be the one. While it is pricey, you must realize the amount of time that has gone into the preparation of such a tome.
I highly recommend this book for you. If you are intersted in the buffet table the book called the garde manger, also a CIA book, is an excellent training manual.
Impressive.......2001-07-01
Not being a professional chef, this book was quite intimidating. The info regarding ingredients was great, and the recipes so far have not let me down. This is a great aid in helping a normal guy like me prepare a very nice meal for company the RIGHT way. A great appreciation for fine cooking is developed after studying this book. The ingredient measurements in weight were a bit of a stumbling block for me at first - if you don't have a scale, you had better be an excellent guesser. Overestimating and buying too much veal loin can be pretty expensive. This is THE book for basics and, of course, a fine meal for that special occasion when company is planned (most meals here require several steps and multiple sub-recipes, and are not fast, Betty Crocker projects). Well worth the price for the smile on your guests' faces.
A must have for any "food fanatic" that needs resources........2000-09-13
This is a great book for the person serious about food. I like it not only because on the recipes in the back but the front is dedicated to the how's, why's and what's of food.
Average customer rating:
- A must have for the new chef
- Awesome book for culinary students
- If you want to know the hows and whys, this is a good book
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Cooking Essentials for the New Professional Chef
The Food and Beverage Institute , and
Mary Deirdre Donovan
Manufacturer: Wiley
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Similar Items:
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The Professional Chef, Seventh Edition
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The Professional Chef ® (Study Guide, 7th Edition)
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Culinary Math
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The Professional Chef's Knife Kit
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The Professional Chef, 8th Edition
ASIN: 0471287172 |
Book Description
Cooking Essentials for The New Professional Chef offers students an opportunity to learn the basics of cooking while using the actual reference that professional chefs have relied on for over a generation—The New Professional Chef
™. In addition to providing an excellent foundation in such cooking essentials as raw ingredients, tools, classic techniques, and foundation recipes, the academic version of this professional reference clarifies every concept with supportive text, step-by-step photos in full color, illustrations, and tables. Special features designed to assist both students and instructors include the following:
- Chapter Objectives emphasize key concepts and guide reading
- Highlighted Key Terms and Concepts offer a quick recap of the language a chef should be able to use fluently
- Footnotes define terms that might be unfamiliar the first time they appear in text
- Self-Study Questions and Activities reinforce concepts and help students apply them in a problem-solving format
- Tables and Charts put important technical information at the students' fingertips
- Sidebars highlight professional development issues, techniques, kitchen management strategies, and historical context
- Chapter Summaries recap the lessons that should be mastered
To help students build technique, the over 300 foundation recipes—conveniently grouped at the back of the book—are organized from simple to complex, with similar types grouped together. Students can quickly locate extra help with recipes by referring to the technique cross-reference feature that accompanies each recipe. In addition, color photos, tips, and historical notes provide additional support.
Customer Reviews:
A must have for the new chef.......2005-01-13
If you are planning on joining the "Chef Ranks", then this is a must have book for you. I have been a Chef for 40 years and I have used this book as a training tool for new Chef that I have training. You will find it up-to-day and comprehensive in content.
Awesome book for culinary students.......2003-09-03
This book gives great information on preparing and handling food properly and of course the most important is how to store food before and after cooking. This book was a requirement for class but another book I purchase was not a requirement but I thought was extremely helpful was The Study Guide for the National Servsafe Exam. This book had very similar questions to what's in class and on the exam and it help me pass with high grades. Thank you Dr. Leonardi and Ms. Heilman
If you want to know the hows and whys, this is a good book.......2000-03-31
This book is required for the Culinary school that I attend and I have found it extremely helpful. As its title implies, it is for the serious student and a good reference book to keep because it identifies foods, explains proper handling, storage, and preparation tecnique, and also includes recipes. If you just want to throw together a recipe, buy a Betty Crocker cookbook. If you want to do it the professional way, buy this book.
Amazon.com
Jody Adams, the award-winning chef-owner of Boston's Rialto restaurant, believes that anyone who loves to eat can cook delicious food. Her In the Hands of a Chef bolsters the claim with recipes that help readers follow their instincts to produce great dishes. This is restaurant food that's also approachable by home cooks; the 200-plus recipes, derived from classic European regional cooking but featuring ingredients indigenous to America, should provide pleasure to those who make and enjoy them.
Beginning with chapters devoted to "starters and small bites," soups, salads, and sides, the book then gets down to basics with seafood, poultry, and meat fare, including game. Standout recipes among these include Chilled Smooth Corn Soup with Tomatoes, Avocado, and Lime; Pan-Roasted Salmon with Warm Cucumber Salad; and Braised Chicken Thighs with Ancho Peppers and Andouille Sausage. Chapters devoted to pasta and polenta feature dishes such as Linguine with Salsa Cruda and Semolina Gnocchi with Red Wine Mushroom Sauce and Roasted Marrowbones. The chapter "A Mile in a Chef's Shoes" includes her most beloved dishes, such as Roasted Marinated Long Island Duck with Green Olive and Balsamic Vinegar Sauce. There are also formulas for sweets, such as Lemon-Almond Butter Cake and Heather's Cranberry Chocolate Pecan Tart--"ease of preparation" desserts more typical of the savory cooks than of pastry chefs, Adams notes. This is a delightful collection, full of heart as well as good taste. --Arthur Boehm
Book Description
How do great chefs make their food taste better? Is it the ingredients they use? Their cooking techniques and equipment? That's part of the answer. But the real secret is that truly great chefs follow their instincts -- the kitchens in their heads. Now, in her first cookbook, Jody Adams, the award-winning chef/co-owner of Boston's Rialto, teaches you how to follow your own instincts and make the transition from passionate eater to passionate cook.
In the Hands of a Chef shares Jody's favorite dishes, those she prepares for family and friends in her home kitchen. By teaching the basics of artisanal cooking, or making good food from scratch, she gives cooks a solid foundation for cooking like a chef. She tells readers what to look for when buying ingredients, what equipment is essential, and how a dish should look and taste while being prepared.
Above all, Jody encourages readers to trust their instincts and follow them to create a cooking style that feels right, using recipes as the building blocks for their own creations.
From starters, seasonal soups, salads, and main courses to desserts, Jody reinvents Mediterranean foods using unconventional ingredients, many from New England. For a boost of summer flavor, grilled tomatoes add depth to gazpacho. To vary the flavor of simple salads -- from a Minted Romaine Salad with Grapes, Ricotta Salata, and Toasted Almonds to Arugula and Portobella Mushroom Salad-one or two seasonal ingredients are added to the usual recipes. Drawing inspiration from Italian tradition, Jody offers up innovative pasta and grains dishes. Ravioli, pappardelle, gnocchi, and linguine are served up with Mediterranean flavors and ingredients -- tomatoes, olives, figs, chestnuts, fresh greens, wild mushrooms, Parmesan cheese -- for home-style meals any time of the year. Yet much of Jody's cooking is pure American in flavor. Dessert classics are reinvented with new twists, such as Super-Creamy Rice Pudding with Passion Fruit Sauce and Heather's Cranberry Chocolate Pecan Tart. Here, too, are Jody's signature dishes, including Roasted Marinated Long Island Duck with Green Olive and Balsamic Vinegar Sauce and Soupe de Poisson, which Jacques Pépin calls the best version outside of France.
Intended to make you wish you had more time to spend in the kitchen, In the Hands of a Chef is an inspiration as well as an essential resource for every cook. Why be just a good cook when you can be a great one? Put yourself in the hands of Jody Adams with In the Hands of a Chef.
Customer Reviews:
How Jody Saved My New Year's Eve.......2004-01-04
I've been a fan of this cookbook since I bought it 2 years ago. I've made several recipes and always enjoyed them. I got in a pinch this New Year's Eve when a low-key dinner with my husband turned into a dinner party for 6.
I could only grab one cookbook on the way out the door for work on the 31st and I chose this one, as the recipes are straight forward, but still elegant. I chose to make:
* Socca Crepes with Spinach and Herb Filling
* Fazzoletti -- "Handkerchiefs" with Lemon Cream, Pistachios, Spinach, and Slow-Roasted Tomatoes
* Tuscan-Style Sirloin with Parmesan, Lemon, and Truffle Oil
* Grilled Pineapple with Rum, Lime-Ginger Syrup and Ice Cream
They all got RAVES. And I could make them together "quickly" (for a gourmet dinner) after getting home after 6p with only a few modifications to shorten timelines, like a quick "slow-roast" for the tomatoes, skipping the spinach for the crepes as it needed to be cooked, etc. We had appetizers at 9p, then dinner at 10p, with dessert rounding out just at midnight. PERFECT... this meant we were all actually awake at midnight!
To decrease trips to the store, I also grabbed the groceries for Oliver's Chicken Stew and Nidimi -- "Little Nests" Stuffed with Prosciutto, Fontina, and Spinach. My husband and I enjoyed both of these on New Year's Day and the day after.
YAY, Jody!
Creative and Flavorful Dishes.......2002-10-11
There are some real gems in this colleciton of recipes. They are unique, not that hard to duplicate and are outstanding.
So far, one is truly a standout in my collection: Fresh Tomato Soup with Seared Eggplant Sandwiches. Other recipes that have caught my attention and palate are: Fingerling Potato, Fig and Tarragon Salad, Winter Vegetable Gratin wiht Cranberries and Chestnuts, Fazzoletti with Lemon Cream, Pistachios, Spinach, and Slow-Roasted Tomatoes, Seared Quail Stuffed with Mascarpone and Green Peppercorns, and Sweet and Sour Braised Rabbit with Chocolate.
The instructions are thorough and easy to follow. As well, helpful sidebar discussions are provided on certain ingredients and preparation techniques.
All in all, a unique, classy, flavorful cookbook to use and enjoy.
You're in good hands ..........2002-06-11
I bought this after reading the NYT book reviewer's
praise for it, and I've made several of the recipes.
The hands down winner is the Wild Mushroom Fricassee,
which is that rare combo, exotic seeming but easy
to make.
My only criticism so far would be the production
values -- it's not a visually appealing book.
Otherwise, go for it.
2002 12 31 Update: this continues to be a high favorite among my cook books. After dining at Rialto, my opinion of Adams has only risen. Really, buy it.
Excited again.......2002-04-02
It's been a long time since I have gotten excited about a cook book but I am finally excited again. I have tried 3 recipes from this book and have deemed them all "company dishes" even though they were easy and economical to prepare. Very brilliant combinations of ingredients and I can't wait to work my way through this wonderful book
Time = Sublime.......2002-02-27
I've now tried six of the recipes in this book--including my personal Last Meal Request, Jody Adams' soupe de poisson--and they've all turned out wonderfully. I mean they're among the very best things I've ever cooked.
Adams' culinary gifts are channeled through Rivard's witty, clear and thoroughly entertaining writing and the results manage to be highly intelligent without being fussy, condescending or dry. To the contrary, the book is marked by an unusual warmth of spirit.
The photographs are of real, excellent food, dishes that--unlike those in some cookbooks--won't be mistaken for baroque Easter bonnets or Post-Minimal artwork.
Be aware: this isn't streamlined cooking for weeknight family dinners. You'll be spending a few hours in the kitchen, but if you genuinely enjoy food and cooking your time will be richly rewarded.
A truly fabulous cookbook.
Book Description
An inspiring look behind the scenes at one of the great restaurants of New York City, and indeed of the world: Daniel. We follow Daniel Boulud, one of the most renowned chefs of our time, through an average day: his breakfast meeting with his staff, discussions with suppliers delivering fresh fish and meat, and a visit to the neighborhood farmer's market, where he picks out the best seasonal vegetables offered that day. This lavishly illustrated volume is both a cookbook (with 100 recipes) and a celebration of a chef and his restaurant. The book provides an intimate, backstage tour of the restaurant and illustrates how Daniel Boulud prepares his impeccable menus, selects the wines, and chooses the flowers - whether it's a romantic dinner for two or a party for 50. This practical yet inspiring book will transport you into the mind of a superb chef and bon vivant. Packed full of easy but impressive recipes, menus, amusing photos and anecdotes from the restaurant's life, this book will appeal to both serious cooks and to those "gourmands" who would prefer to have 3-star chefs cook for them in glamourous surroundings.
Customer Reviews:
Buy it.......2005-09-13
Much more than a typical cookbook,but if you want to know what makes Daniel Boulud the best chef in New York City-read this book. Great chef- great man-great book.
Wm. Altshuler.MD
Don't try these at home kids, just enjoy the glorious ride........2004-04-12
At first glance many of the recipes in this book appear surprisingly complex,in fact the kinds of dishes only professional chefs would prepare in a world class restaurant kitchen. As you flip the pages, you realize this is the whole point. This lively book is, in fact, meant to be a glimpse into the kitchens and wine cellars and dining rooms of Daniel Boulud's three NYC restaurants. The photo journalistic approach has gives you the impression you are watching a documentary about life behind the scenes in these wonderful fairy tale like places where every hors d'oeuvre, soup, terrine, entree, dessert, petits fours, etc, etc is the result of complex preparation, incredible attention to detail and the font of creativity and spirit that are conjured up beind the scenes by master chef, Daniel Boulud.
If you're looking for great recipes by Daniel Boulud that you can actually and easily cook at home, try "Daniel Boulud's Café Boulud Cookbook" or his more recent "Daniel's Dish". It's clear from these that the chef has as great a talent for the simple as for the sublime. The former will be a joy to try for your next dinner party the latter are better left to Boulud and his brigade of 40 or more cooks. Vive la difference !
Don't waste your money.......2003-11-06
I expected a lot form this book, as Mr. Boulud's previous book was very good. But this one is not so much a book of recipes or cooking techniques as it is a lot of pictures of wine bottles, Mr.Boulud's daily life and so on. Also, a lot of pages made up of huge fonts which say too little but look too much. Recipes are not good at all, if you can find any. For example between pages 240 and 260 there is no single recipe but a lot of photographs of everything except recipes. I personally wouldn't give a try to any one of his recipes. The price for this book should be no more than $5. Hence, please don't waste your money.
Too Expensive, for too small a portion.......2003-11-02
This book may look like a work of culinary photojournalism, being a chronicle of a day in the life of Chef Boulud at his three Manhattan restaurants. While the book has some of the ingredients which would comprise such a work, it is actually a book of recipes from his three restaurants hung on a rather thin framework of the day in the life of a major restaurant kitchen.
The framework text can be read in less than an hour and contains several errors in punctuation and word usage which a copy editor should have corrected. The design of the text presentation is equally poor. There are shifts in font to signify changes in topic or voice. Some pages of text look like something out of Alice in Wonderland or Monty Python with staggered letters and words and poor choices of text / background color contrasts. Very difficult to read, what little of it there is.
As in some other recipe books I've seen, a minority of the photographs display the food and it's preparation while the majority of the photographs show restaurant workers and celebrity friends of Chef Daniel hamming it up for the camera.
This leaves the recipes. In 234 pages, there are a scant 80 recipes, all of which are presented as being from one of Boulud's restaurants, and, most are indeed recipes one would not likely make at home. There is a high incidence of unusual and expensive ingredients such as pig's head, and some downright bizarre, such as piballes worms. Many of the recipes are also very long in the preparation. Unlike every other cookbook I have reviewed up until now, I did not bother to actually make any of the recipes therein, as it was apparent that except for a few, mostly breads and desserts, these were not the kind of dishes the average person would make, even for entertaining. (This is not typical of restaurant cookbooks, as I find no difficulty making many of the recipes in Mario Batali's Babbo cookbook.) A good case in point is the db hamburger made with truffles, foie gras, and comfit, oh my.
Most recipes include a wine recommendation giving a specific vineyard and year, about which I can have no opinion except that it does nothing to enhance the value of the book for me. A type of wine such as `chardonnay' or `merlot' would have been quite good enough. I will give a small nod to their wine recommendation of `beer' for some of the dishes.
The book includes a list of sources, a requirement for these recipes with many unusual ingredients.
In all, I think the only value to purchasing this book is if one wishes to dine at one or more of Daniel Boulud's restaurants often and wish to know what goes into his stuff or, if one wishes to create a restaurant menu very similar to Boulud's fare. One may find some value to looking through this book at a library if one wants to research variations on a particular recipe.
In sum, recipes may be good, but there are too few and the presentation is poor. Other restaurant / celebrity chef books do much better.
four stars.......2003-08-03
What a delight to peek behind the swinging door at one of the top restaurants in the world. The people who make Daniel run day to day - that's what intrigued me about this book. These men and women take feeding people very seriously. The philosophy of Daniel Boulud radiates in everything that is done at Daniel - soigne. They take care of people and don't miss a beat from the flowers to the wine, the great service, and of course the food. Brenner introduces the reader to all of the people who make it work from the farmers to the seafood purveyors, cheese shops, wine reps, cooks, maitre d's, pastry chefs, pr people, owners, and of course the guests (don't forget the VIPs). Brenner does a fabulous job of putting the reader behind the scenes.
Being a novice food person, many many of the terms I didn't know. It might be helpful to have a glossary or even a floorplan of the restaurant (maybe the hardcover edition has this). Also, when writing dialog, Brenner often has one person asking a question of someone else but it never gets answered. Or there might be an answer but it's to a different question in a different conversation altogether. I'm sure the confusion of the reader parallels the confusion of a worker in a restaurant kitchen. Regardless, it was at times very hard to follow. I would have liked to have read more about the servers, who are called captains at Daniel. The sommelier, reservationists, bartender, maitre d', cheese person and many others all had a lot of coverage, but the servers, who really present the face of the restaurant to the client, were not covered in detail.
Book Description
When chef Tom Valenti cooks at home for family and friends, flavors are big and bold, and preparations fast and flexible. For more than twenty years, Valenti has ranked among New York's top chefs, creating innovative and critically acclaimed menus for some of the city's most popular restaurants. Now join Valenti in the kitchen, where he reveals professional secrets for creating deep, robust flavors in your own home. Valenti offers more than 150 recipes for every occasion: Try a cup of Wild Mushroom Soup and a Sautéed Spinach Sandwich for a casual weekend lunch, or Foie Gras Ravioli with Chickpeas, Leeks, and Basil at that special dinner party. Each recipe is full of do-ahead suggestions as well as fascinating background notes on any unusual ingredients or unorthodox techniques (water, for example, is used in a number of ways to open up flavors). From tips on how to regulate heat for best flavor and texture to new uses for sugar in savory dishes, Valenti's culinary wisdom will help you cook like a chef. Welcome to My Kitchen will surprise and inspire kitchen veterans and casual cooks alike.
Customer Reviews:
Learn from the master!.......2006-01-16
I recently received this book as a gift and I am very pleased I did. This is such a well-written cookbook, by an author who is clearly passionate about food. The personal, completely unpretentious tone of the author is so refreshing and makes for a very pleasant and easy read. I love how Mr. Valenti shares his personal experiences with food, from his (very tasty) upbringing in an Italian family, to his early years working as an apprentice in high caliber kitchens, to the accomplished chef he has become today. Though he never went to culinary school, Tom Valenti is undoubtedly a master of his craft, and all it takes is a taste of his wonderful dishes to learn that. What I really enjoy about his recipes is so many of them, when broken down, are based on simplicity, (a pinch of sugar here, a touch of vinegar there). Yet the end results are far from simple. They are gastronomic masterpieces! I feel confident that there isn't one recipe in his book that isn't heaven on a plate! My only complaint with this book is the fact that some of his recipes rely on ingredients that are not normally found in common supermarkets and more importantly, are not normal fare for the average home dinner table. Like the handful of recipes centered around rabbit, tripe, quail and guinea hens. I doubt I'll be cooking any rabbit in my future, though I'm sure his preparation of it is brilliant! Having said that, I still think this book is a treasure trove of fabulous recipes that are sure to become family favorites, because above all, Tom's dishes are almost always in the end "comfort food". And he knows how to feed your soul!
Restaurant Dishes with Restaurant Tricks and Tips.......2004-05-12
When Tom Valenti wrote his second book, ?Soups, Stews, and One Pot Meals?, he must have been concentrating on simple dishes to atone for the relatively complicated recipes he put in this, his first book. As always, ?simple? and ?complicated? are loaded words in culinary procedures. What appears complicated to some because it involves cooking several different components of a dish separately may be simple to others because each of the individual steps are simple and the end result leaves the flavors of the ingredients intact, or pleasantly accentuated by the cooking procedure and seasonings.
Valenti?s invitation to HIS kitchen is significant in that he is very fond of a few techniques which are uncommon among is colleagues in other restaurant kitchens. His most interesting twist is in the routine use of sugar as a seasoning along with salt and pepper. He is also exceptionally fond of using acids like citrus and white wine vinegars and bacon, especially smoked and double smoked bacon. It seems odd that a chef with Italian leanings and background is not dedicated to using pancetta; however, he finds it is a bit too salty to his taste. The author also shows an extraordinary respect for other common ingredients such as water. One comment on the author?s use of salt and pasta cooking water is to correct his adjusting the amount of salt to the amount of pasta. The proper technique should be to set the amount of salt by the amount of water. It is the concentration of salt in the water that is important, because that is the physical property that determines how much salt reaches the pasta.
While it is not Valenti?s object in this book to simplify recipes, he does make a special point of showing the cook the places at which it is appropriate to parts of dishes ahead of service. This doubles the value of the book. The primary value of cookbooks by talented professional chefs is to provide recipes with a lot of pizzazz for entertaining. Valenti adds the restaurant tricks which allow the prep chefs to do the kind of advance work which makes the line chef able to put together the dish quickly at the time of service. The author even succeeds in describing how to bring a risotto to an almost complete state, and hold it ?in stasis? until it can be finished for service.
Otherwise, Valenti does not skimp on the details. He provides a larger than average selection of stock and broth recipes, which impress me because they include a mushroom stock. Ever since I tasted the water left from rehydrating dried mushrooms almost forty years ago, I wondered why mushroom broth was not a more important ingredient in cooking.
Valenti?s selection of dishes is an entertaining mix of old standards such as Panzanella salad and a Cuban sandwich with inventive original (or at least unusual) dishes. There are also some dishes that give a very useful twist on favorite combinations. Broccoli Rabe and sausage is a classic Italian combination (See Lydia Bastianich?s Italian cookbook). Valenti adds variety to the dish by adding orecchiette, making it a full veg / starch / protein dish. He also adds interest by incorporating a recipe for homemade sausage to make the dish even more interesting. I may be inclined to find his method for creating loose sausage meat just a bit too simple, but as the author points out, the homemade sausage will make a huge impression on your guests. Speaking of sandwiches, this is one of the very few cookbooks which presents a good selection of recipes for sandwiches. And, these are not your typical deli style fare. Some recipes such as the classic Poorboy are fairly simple, but others are pretty involved. Most recipes use both fish and vegetables in unusual ways as in the grilled vegetable sandwich and the saut?ed spinach sandwich.
Aside from the chapter on sandwiches, the chapters are typical of almost every other Italian-centered cookbook, with chapters on Salads; Soups; Pasta and Risotto; Fish and Shellfish; Poultry and Game; Meats; Accompaniments; Vinaigrettes and Mayonnaises; and Desserts. The fish chapter is one of the largest, since fish and fishing is one of his passions. Valenti is true to his word at the beginning of the book as bacon appears in many recipes, even many fish recipes. Most of the desserts are fruit based and typical of an Italian sensibility.
One of the more distinctive characteristics of this book is the clarity in which the author presents recipes that may be just a bit on the complicated side for inexperienced cooks. Every recipe has an informative headnote that may explain the origin of the recipe or something of its attraction. All ingredients are neatly presented in a nicely shaded box with clear prep directions. The main attraction is the fact that the procedure is broken down into simple sentences, each beginning with the most important operative word in the technique. It is crystal clear that each step is to Warm or Add or Transfer or Lay or Repeat or Remove or do something Carefully of Gently. Valenti has done exactly what I do when I transcribe recipes by breaking everything down into simple steps.
Most dishes, especially main course dishes, are accompanied by a no nonsense wine recommendation.
Highly recommended for dedicated amateurs. The author does not compromise on technique. Valenti makes it as easy as possible for you to follow his lead to spectacular dishes.
Real Secrets.......2002-03-19
In this cookbook, the author seems willing to actually part with secrets he has learned and acquired from his professional training and experiences as a chef. Rather than present yet another collection of recipes that readers can imitate, Valenti seems interested in promoting in the home cook useful cooking skills and ways of adapting to what food is on hand, what time is available, and what interest one has in creative cooking. The introductory sections are informative and different from most other books', and while the main part of the volume is a selection of recipes, the emphasis is on adaptions and flavor. The dishes are often unique and the book reads well. The author's love of cooking shines through on every page, and he is no snob-- he bears in mind the constraints of time and equipment that the average experienced cook faces.
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- The Ultimate Pool Maintenance Manual: Spas, Pools, Hot Tubs, Rockscapes and Other Water Features, 2nd Edition
- The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook : 250 No-Fail Recipes for Pilafs, Risottos, Polenta, Chilis, Soups, Porridges, Puddings and More, from Start to Finish in Your Rice Cooker
- The Volumetrics Eating Plan: Techniques and Recipes for Feeling Full on Fewer Calories
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
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Art and Science of Culinary Preparation
Le Cordon Bleu's Complete Cooking Techniques: the indispensable reference demonstrates over 700 illustrated techniques with 2,000 photos and 200 recipes
