Alton Brown's Gear For Your Kitchen

"I think cooking is a lot of fun and I hate to see people not having fun doing it just because they don't have the right tools--which is not to say they need the prettiest, best, most expensive tools. They just need the tools that are right for them." - Alton Brown, writer, director, and host of the Food Network show Good Eats.

There is nothing that is more frustrating for me than not having the right tools when I am cooking.

It is also interesting to me just how many cooks, and not just the in-experienced ones, lack a good understanding of what you need in a kitchen. Alton has done a great job here in this book of helping the cook acquire the right tools without breaking the bank.

Alton Brown's Gear For Your Kitchen offers honest, practical advice on what’s needed and what isn’t, what works and what doesn’t. For instance: You only need three knives, but they are a lifetime investment. And don’t bother with that famous countertop grill—it doesn’t get hot enough to properly sear. In his signature science-guy style, Brown begins with advice on kitchen layout and organization, then gets to the lowdown on these cooking elements: Big Things with Plugs; Pots and Pans; Sharp Things; The Tool Box; Small Things with Plugs; Storage and Containment; and Safety and Sanitation.

Alton Brown's personality permeates the book and it is filled with wonderful tidbits that make this book helpful and good reading.

On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore or the Kitchen

This is not your typical cookbook. This is for lack of a better description a great how-to book and a culinary encyclopedia!

It is not something that you buy to set on a coffee table for guests to thumb through pictures for it only has drawings. I have never read a book on cooking that I refer back to as often as this one.

Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking is a kitchen classic. Hailed by Time magazine as "a minor masterpiece" when it first appeared in 1984, On Food and Cooking is the bible to which food lovers; novice and professionals turn for an unmatched understanding of where foods come from, what they're made of, and how the process of cooking transforms them.

McGee prepared a new, fully revised and updated edition of On Food and Cooking for the books 20^th anniversary. McGee has rewritten the text almost completely, expanded it by two-thirds, and added more than 100 new illustrations. The new edition of On Food and Cooking provides countless insights into food, preparation, and enjoyment.

From the publisher:

On Food and Cooking pioneered the translation of technical food science into cook-friendly kitchen science and helped give birth to the inventive culinary movement known as "molecular gastronomy." Though other books have now been written about kitchen science, On Food and Cooking remains unmatched in the accuracy, clarity, and thoroughness of its explanations, and the intriguing way in which it blends science with the historical evolution of foods and cooking techniques.

Among the major themes addressed throughout this new edition are:

    * Traditional and modern methods of food production and their influences on food quality

    * The great diversity of methods by which people in different places and times have prepared the same ingredients

    * Tips for selecting the best ingredients and preparing them successfully

    * The particular substances that give foods their flavors and that give us pleasure

    * Our evolving knowledge of the health benefits and risks of foods

On Food and Cooking is an invaluable and monumental compendium of basic information about ingredients, cooking methods, and the pleasures of eating. It will delight and fascinate anyone who has ever cooked, savored, or wondered about food.

 

Harold McGee writes a column on science and food for the New York Times called The Curious Cook and has a blog where he files

". . . brief reports from the intersection of food and science. It's a lively neighborhood these days. There's a constant influx of new information in food chemistry and microbiology, agriculture and manufacturing, and in human perception and health. I glean items from current technical publications and scientific meetings, from conversations with cooks and scientists, and from questions that come up in my own kitchen in the San Francisco Bay area." - Harold McGee

You can see the table of contents and read excerpts of the book on his website Curious Cook as well as see links to his New York Times article. The current Times article is titled; The Invisible Ingredient in Every Kitchen but there are many more and hopefully Harold will continue to share is insightful and much needed knowledge for the rest of us just trying to catch up.

What to Eat

What to Eat is more than a book about choosing healthy foods, What to Eat explains how the conflict between business interests and consumer interests creates lots of confusion about nutrition. Marion Nestle, a respected nutrition professor from New York University, demonstrates how commercial, industrial, and political issues determine what constitutes our food supply and provides readers with a revealing look at the standard practices of government agencies, retailers, and food manufacturers that the complex world of food sales comprises.

Nestle wrote What to Eat with the consumer in mind and hopes the reader will use the information presented to make informed choices when buying food. The book is organized as a supermarket tour, an interesting and helpful format that allows the reader to more easily apply newly acquired knowledge when purchasing foods.

The public is frequently given advice to choose healthy foods, but people have little direction when it comes to navigating the supermarket and actually making these choices. In What to Eat, Nestle has readers envision themselves traveling down grocery store aisles, a technique that helps reinforce the information and makes it easier to remember.

I think that the reader will appreciate how the book points out that eating whole healthy food need not be expensive, if we learn to eat fruits and vegetables in season, substitute beans and grains for meat and of course regularly use GroceryGuide.com.

 

Read more:

Marion Nestle, Ph.D., M.P.H. - What to Eat

834 Kitchen Quick Tips - Techniques and Shortcuts for the Curious Cook

While the title sounds promising, I have been disappointed many times by recipe and cook book titles that fail to deliver. This book, 834 Quick Kitchen Tips however, is a book that WILL NOT disappoint you.

Yes it is another kitchen book but it is so much more than a cook book or recipe book. The contents are a distilled collection of the best techniques and shortcuts over 11 years of readers of the Cook's Illustrated magazine.

Many of the tips are so practical that that you will be tempted to sit down and read the book like a novel, all 585 pages.

What's the best way to preserve leftover herbs, peel eggs in record time, or chop chocolate with ease? Ever wondered if it is possible to soundproof your coffee grinder? How can you clean hardened food out of your blender with the push of a button? And exactly how many uses can are there for the humble zipper-lock storage bag?

Each tip, 834 of them, is accompanied by a detailed illustration. I found this both enhanced the readability of the book as well as the understanding of some of the tips.

The book is just fun to read, and a valuable reference that you will refer to again and again. It is a terrific book to give as a gift for someone leaving to college, newly-weds or Grandma, all will benefit from it.

I found it at Amazon.com for only $11.53 (a 32% discount off of the $16.95 cover price) and shipping is free if your order is over $25. Enjoy!