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Learn to COOK - The Elements of Cooking: Translating the Chef's Craft for Every Kitchen
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List Price: $24.00
Our Price: $16.32
Your Save: $ 7.68 ( 32% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Scribner
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.5
EAN: 9780743299787
ISBN: 0743299787
Label: Scribner
Manufacturer: Scribner
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: 2007-11-06
Publisher: Scribner
Studio: Scribner
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Editorial Reviews:
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Modeled on Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, The Element of Cooking is an opinionated reference work destined to stand alongside the shelf among the great works of the kitchen: On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee, Escoffier, The Joy of Cooking and the CIA's The Professsional Chef. Unlike those monoliths of the kitchen, this book is slim, clear and very to the point: here are the things you need to know how to do, here are the words you need to speak the langauage of food, and, most importanly, here are the ways you need to think about an approach food, the absolute essentials that every, not only good but great, cook knows.
Just as Strunk and White sits on the desk of every student and professional who has to write a sentence, The Elements of Cooking is destined to be the go-to book for any amatuer or professional cook. It defines terms, offers the basic ratios of important preparations (sauces, cakes, etc.) so that you will never need a recipe again and provides countless, simple chef's "secrets" that every home cook should know.
In eight introductory essays, Ruhlman has pared down the essentials of great cooking: understanding how to salt food; making stock; making sauces; using heat properly; working with eggs; having the right tools (there are only 5 essentials); what to read and use as a resource; and lastly, and most importantly, the use of finesse, that extra attention to detail that turns food glorious.
Simply written, this is a book that can be read in an afternoon and it's lessons be practiced for a lifetime.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Five stars, just for the salt!
Comment: If this guy is right about salting beef, I've been wrong all my life.
This is the first book I have come across to make a case AGAINST iodized salt, just because (1) it tastes bad (2) iodine deficiency is no longer a problem in America. So use kosher salt, or sea salt, and here is the amazing concept: you can salt beef right after buying it. Salt it ahead of time (or WAY ahead of time), and the result will be that the steaks taste "seasoned" rather than "salty."
I'm still playing around with this concept, but the first field trial suggests that this book is right!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Another must have from Ruhlman.
Comment: Great reference style book. Not what I expected from Michael Ruhlman but decent none the less. I was looking for more life and kitchen experience based writing, and found an encyclopedia of sorts. I wasn't sure if this was a revision to the "Food Lover's Guide" or a Ruhlman book. His writing though is as passionate and inspiring as ever. I just wish there was more of it. Personal library worthy.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Chatty, not comprehensive
Comment: I was very excited about receiving this book, but on a careful reading, I'd have to say I'm disappointed. It's long on Ruhlman's self-absorbed writing style (did I really need another essay on his obsession with brown sauce after wading through _Making of a Chef_?) and a little short on useful information for serious cooks. Just a couple of examples that spring to mind: there's no entry for "simmer" (a much trickier temperature to figure out than "boil," for which there *is* an entry); and, there's no rundown on cuts of meat, which even my 1997 Joy of Cooking maintains! For home cooks looking to take their technique up a notch, I'd definitely recommend Jacques Pepin's Complete Technique in lieu of Ruhlman's book, even though it takes up 3x the space on the bookshelf (it's easily 5x more useful!).
Customer Rating:
Summary: Off to a great start, but then...
Comment: I was excited for this book, having heard great things.
The first 50 pages were exactly what I was expecting - real insights into cooking not apparent to the otherwise amateur home chef and professional wannabe. Those first 50 pages are filled with the kind of dicta I like in a cookbook, such as "never do...you must try...avoid at all costs, etc."
However that wonderful writing ends when the food glossary, what makes up the bulk of the book, begins. It's not to say that the information isn't useful and insightful in its own way, but most people probably aren't thrilled about slogging through food terms in alphabetical order. It's just not reader friendly.
My suggestion would be to keep the information, but organize it in a more thematic way as he started to in the beginning chapters.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Elements
Comment: From stocks, sauces, salt, ghee to Nage- a court like bouillon or anromatic liquid. This book has all the facts and terms that you will come upon when looking at recipes. I learn about food sources I never knew about before picking up this book as well as some old ones that gave me new insights to my meal I prepare. Good for anyone who cooks.
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