Every cook owes a huge debt of gratitude to those dedicated foodies who have meticulously documented their work with food, giving us the benefit of their mistakes, successes, experiments and flashes of genius.
1989 first edition – I have had this for a long time, since before I became a trained cook. Just looking at the cover gives me the christmas warm fuzzies! Martha is very warm and personal in her early books, … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged christmas, cookbook, cookies, gingerbread, popcorn balls, recipes | Leave a commentWhen you see ‘Ultimate’ in the title, you can usually infer is American, and probably part of a series. Yep, at the bottom of this cover it says that Weinstein is also the author of ‘The Ultimate Ice Cream Book’ … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged candy, caramel, fudge, pecan, sugar, taffy | Leave a commentI bought this book when it was released, in the late 1990′s – it was quite a popular book then, and I still use it for reference and ideas occasionally. It’s not a great book – the layout is very … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged recipes | Leave a commentMaster chocolatier Robert Linxe is famous for boxed chocolates; he has shops all over Paris and in New York. Naturally when I bought this book I thought I was getting some great recipes for chocolates – was I ever wrong! … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged cake, chocolate, cookbook, mousse, recipes | Leave a commentEmily Lucchetti is a well-known pastry chef; this isn’t her only book. ‘Star Desserts’ is about 150 recipes from the famous restaurant Jeremiah Tower’s Stars, and it is fabulous. My copy of ‘Stars Desserts’ is a happy wreck – the … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged brownies, cookbook, gingerbread, lemon square, recipes, tea cakes | Leave a commentThe Notebooks of Michel Bras is a book about inspiration, and isn’t really a recipe book or a typical food book (although it does contain almost 90 recipes and lots of culinary suggestions). It functions mainly as a diary of … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged desserts, michel bras, pastry, seminola | Leave a commentMaster chocolatier J-P Wybauw here has outlined more than 100 chocolate decoration techniques, with an interesting combination of traditional and contemporary ideas for chocolate garnish. I use this book often; it is very readable with very useful step-by-step instructions, great … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged chocolate, cookbook, garnish, recipes | Leave a comment‘The Advanced Professional Pastry Chef’ is a reference book – an advanced pastry textbook – and as such is a very handy book to have in your kitchen. It provides a wealth of quality information and a wide range of … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged cake, cookbook, pastry, recipes | Leave a commentWhen Thea and I were thinking about this website, I mentioned people would be interested in her reviews of her many cook books. She looked at me for a second, then dashed over to her bookcase, and grabbed a book: … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged Flavor Bible, sweet thea | Leave a commentChez Panisse in Berkeley was a revolutionary force in American cooking, spearheading the movement toward fresh, seasonal, regional ingredients as the basis for all menu decisions. In this book Chef Paul Bertolli shares hundreds of Chez Panisse recipes, for fish, … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged broth, chez panisse, cookbook, fish, recipes, shellfish, stocks | Leave a comment