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Summary: Take a trip around the world through 10 different cuisines.
Review: This book rocks!! I like to get my information at a glance. That's why I really like certain aspects of this book, especially all the charts on how to stock your kitchen cupboards and spice cabinet in order to cook each cuisine. I've also just started dabbling in cheese, so the cheese recommendations in the Spanish chapter are really helpful. I also like the wine recommendations to go with Indian food, because I find beer kind of boring. This is a great book, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes to experiment with new cuisines in the kitchen.
Rating:
Summary: A great book.
Review: This book rocks!! I like to get my information at a glance. That's why I really like certain aspects of this book, especially all the charts on how to stock your kitchen cupboards and spice cabinet in order to cook each cuisine. I've also just started dabbling in cheese, so the cheese recommendations in the Spanish chapter are really helpful. I also like the wine recommendations to go with Indian food, because I find beer kind of boring. This is a great book, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes to experiment with new cuisines in the kitchen.
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Summary: A groundbreaking look at 10 influential cuisines.
Review: Unlike the first reviewer of this book, I had no preconceived notions of what The New American Chef "should" or "shouldn't" be. When I recently picked it up, what I found was a surprisingly fresh and insightful look at the subject of international flavors and techniques and how they are influencing today's (and tomorrow's) idea of American cuisine. This is a tribute to the authors' increasingly well-known reputation for going places no other food writers have gone before (and readers of Culinary Artistry won't have to ask what I mean by that!). By their own admission (on p. xiv), the authors' goal "was not to take a comprehensive, encyclopedic approach to these 10 cuisines...Rather, to share some of the underlying tenets each one has to offer." I've never read another cookbook that took on this challenge, and certainly none has so insightfully. In The New American Chef, the authors manage to "deconstruct" the underlying essence of each of the 10 cuisines they profile. In other words, what makes Japanese cuisine unique? To the authors, it is the cuisine's extraordinary emphasis on seasonality. What makes Italian cuisine unique? The Italian sensibility when selecting ingredients. And so on through Spanish, French, Chinese, Indian, Mexican, Thai, Vietnamese and Moroccan cuisines. Then each chapter underscores that central lesson by providing insights and guidelines and recipes from some of the world's best-respected experts on each of those cuisines (e.g. Mario Batali and Lynne Rossetto Kasper on Italian; Daniel Boulud, Alain Ducasse, and Hubert Keller on French, etc.). The chapters are not cookie-cutter in structure, obviously, because each chapter focuses on a different aspect of cuisine. So there may not be an emphasis in "the order of a menu" in every single chapter, but that is clearly because it is not an important aspect of certain cuisines (for example, Asian cuisines which are served family-style, rather than as a series of courses). Instead, they take about 30 or 40 pages per cuisine to focus in on what makes it unique, and what lessons the reader can take away from that cuisine to apply in their own kitchens, no matter what they're cooking. And I've already taken away useful lessons on working with spices (the focus of the chapter on India) and with chilies (the focus of the chapter on Mexico). This book is not perfect. The reproduction of the black & white photos in my copy of the book appeared uneven. And some fascinating topics are touched on so briefly that I would have hoped to read much more about them. But I agree with Union Square Cafe chef Michael Romano's comment on the book's back cover that this is truly a "groundbreaking" book for its unique emphasis on distilling the insights and lessons of an incredible array of leading experts. And I'm consoling my frustrated desire to read more about certain subjects with the incredible suggestions for further reading on each of the 10 cuisines provided at the end of every chapter, which in itself may be worth the price of the book. I highly recommend this book for the intelligent reader who wants to gain either a broad-brush overview of the principles underlying these 10 particular cuisines, or leading experts' astute insights into how to make your own cooking even more flavorful and technically expert through applying these ideas in your own (professional or home) kitchen.
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Summary: Great Gift Book!
Review: Very well written and engaging! This book makes a wonderful holiday gift, with many tempting recipes from all over the world. I especially enjoyed reading about the various cooking and preparation techniques. This book is a great read for both novices and pros alike.
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Summary: the perfect holiday gift
Review: What a wonderful book! Crisp and full of flavor, like the first bite of a fall apple. Beautifully written with tons of information, yet very approachable--I can't wait to cook my way through it. I'm a big fan of all the Page/Dornenburg books, and this one is the best yet! I'm giving it to all my friends for Christmas.
Rating:
Summary: Around the World
Review: What a wonderful palette of cultures and ethnic cuisines from around the world. It is evident that Dornenburg and Page have done their research and study of the best chefs on the globe. They provide the reader with the ingredients and tools necessary to create a delicious meal from scratch. I give this book my highest rating!
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