Notes on cooking : a short guide to an essential craft

Select an Action

Title:

Notes on cooking : a short guide to an essential craft

Author:

Costello, Lauren Braun.

ISBN:

9780972425513

Publication Information:

New York, NY : RCR Creative Press, 2009.

Physical Description:

xxvii, 143 p. ; 20 cm.

Contents:

Understanding the recipe -- The cook's role -- Tools & equipment -- Procurement & storage -- Mise en place -- Building blocks -- Temperature -- Pantry -- Stocks & sauces -- Produce -- Seafood -- Poultry -- Meat -- Bread & pastry -- Dairy & eggs -- Wine & spirits -- Repairing food -- Presentation -- Last thought -- Afterword / by Dorothy Hamilton -- Appendices. Flavor lexicon ; Classic combinations ; Cooking essentials -- Recommendations [for further reading].

Subject Term:

Cooking -- Handbooks, manuals, etc.

Cooking -- Quotations, maxims, etc.

Added Author:

Reich, Russell, 1963-

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury)	641.5 COS	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

As an essential primer of immediately useful and utterly relevant guidance, this guide can help anyone become a better cook -- without a single recipe. The book's 217 notes deliver indispensable culinary truths, the highest standards of conduct, and timeless gems of cooking wisdom that have been taught and passed down by top chefs for generations. The notes provide explanatory commentary, helpful examples, and insights from Alice Waters, Daniel Boulud, Georges Auguste Escoffier, Leonardo da Vinci, and many others. They also include life lessons -- about how to bring delight, how to recognise quality, and how to see beauty in simplicity. For the beginner wanting to improve, the seasoned expert looking to review the highest culinary standards, or the food lover seeking a fascinating glimpse into the pursuit of Epicurean excellence, Notes on Cooking provides a unique and invaluable apprenticeship.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

In all ways to-the-point, Costello and Reich's guidebook offer kitchen commandments for a realm that often tends to "a little of this, a little of that" thinking. Costello's culinary skills are well matched with Reich's pithy writing in more than 200 directives on everything from cooking duck to ripening fruit, for which they lay down the major rules of cooking and kitchen conduct in as few as a couple of lines. Beginning cooks will find relief in their strong declarations-"Do not stuff a turkey"; "Always preheat the oven"-instructions that, once learned by heart, make cooking easier and end with better food. The explanations for these rules are succinct but amply informative so as to please anyone who has cooked long enough to already be following them instinctively; they draw on basic kitchen science as well as the collective knowledge of culinary experts like Jeffrey Steingarten and Michael Nischan to make a case for the validity of their decrees. Some "notes" are less concretely didactic than others ("Chicken is the test of a cook's versatility," for example), or leave room for interpretation ("Dress salad lightly"), but all are brightly informative enough to help cooks make better decisions and, in the end, be more productive and happier in the kitchen. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

Costello takes the many culinary lessons she has learned over the years, from master chefs and her own experience, and distills them into digestible koans for this book, of interest to the aspiring cook and a stimulant to the experienced practitioner. She notes that as she draws firm lines always and never instead of usually and rarely this will likely lead readers to disagree with her on occasion or spot certain contradictions, a process she admits might be just as valuable for a deeper awareness of craft as ingesting any of her dogmatic assertions. The 217 notes contained herein range from Zen-like mantras ( Do not be surprised by surprising results ); to more fundamental but essential reminders to take proper care of your knives and shop locally; to weirdly specific admonitions, such as avoiding using even numbers or symmetry when plating. Chefs will find themselves nodding along here and frowning there, but anyone who's ever wielded a whisk or screwed up a sauté will nonetheless find this book both tantalizing and indispensable.--Chipman, Ian Copyright 2009 Booklist

Library Journal Review

This small primer by restaurateur and chef Costello and coauthor Reich (Notes on Directing) delivers both practical and philosophical advice beyond what one will find in a cookbook. Its goal is to pass on knowledge that will help readers think like a chef, not merely follow a recipe. Some 217 "notes," or entries, are organized into 19 topical chapters that can be read in any order and include cross references among the notes. The notes offer simple advice like remembering to date and label perishables to lesser-known tips like how to pick the healthiest chicken in the grocer's case and testing eggs for freshness. The authors also include appendixes on flavor lexicon, classic combinations, and cooking essentials as well as 11 annotated recommended readings. Verdict Both novice and more experienced cooks will appreciate the plethora of useful and valuable advice here. Overall, a delightful culinary resource.-Lisa A. Ennis, Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham Lib. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Available:*

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Summary

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Booklist Review

Library Journal Review

Helpful Links

Research Links

Contact

Events and Rooms

Follow Us

Today's Hours