I once worked at a very fine Italian restaurant in Vancouver, and was inspired by its celebrated chef Umberto Menghi to learn more about the Italian way of cooking. ‘The Complete Italian Cookbook’ is one of the books I picked … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged italian, panna cotta, pasta, recipes | Leave a commentMy mentor, George Wagner, has recently given me this traditional book about mini-sweets; I have not yet had much opportunity to study it. Petit fours generally come in two types, ‘glace’ or ‘frais’, which are cream-filled or iced; and ‘sec’, … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged butter cream, cookbook, ganache, petit fours, recipes, sweet dough | Leave a commentA long time ago I worked as a sous-chef in an elegant Italian restaurant, with the motto ‘If it is harvested today, it is eaten today’. It was an inspirational job, and I wanted to learn about classic Italian food; … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged cookbook, gnocchi, italian, recipes | Leave a commentAll us foodies love to talk about food; amateur stay-at-home cooks or professional high-end chefs, we all share this great passion. Many of the questions I am asked revolve around the same thought – where did you get that idea? … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged chocolate, pastry, recipes, sweet thea, vancouver | Leave a commentI bought this book when I first started experimenting with chocolate I don’t recommend it – it is not very useful, even though it has some good content, and is most definitely uninspiring. It is a beginner’s book, but I … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged chocolate, recipes | Leave a commentLarousse Gastronomique is the definitive reference work for chefs and cooks interested in the classic European traditions, and presents an exhaustive range of information on its subjects. This is an ultimate resource, covering two or three hundred years in the … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged cookbook, honey, recipes | Leave a commentMesa Mexicana is a straightforward cookbook focussing on Mexican cuisine, written by two popular cooks who once had their own cooking show. The recipes I have tried from the book worked out fine; the results were pretty average, which is … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged cookbook, Mexican, recipes, taco, tortilla | Leave a commentWorking long hours in a kitchen can be hard on my system; sometimes I seem to have no time to exercise , constantly eating things that make me feel unwell, or guilty; inevitably this leads to one of my ‘health … Read More
Posted in On My Bookshelf | Tagged cookbook, Health, recipes | Leave a comment