I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves to cook but doesn’t have the time or money to go to culinary schoool. It’s basically the 101 most important concepts/ideas/processes that the authors learned in Culinary school. The nuggets of wisdom are explained in such a clear concise manner with simple illustrations so they are easy to understand and remember.
Great gift idea and great for housewives like me!
Some of the “Things” are as basic as the proper way to boil water – I was surprised to realize that a lot of us are doing this simple chore improperly! Others are super handy such as the how to tell if meat is rare, medium rare, well done, etc. just by touch, without cutting into the meat (very important if you are serving it to guests).
We actually bought this book for TD’s brother for Christmas. He is now doing some cooking and I figured he is the sort of man who likes knowing the finer things about cooking i.e. the 5 knives that do 95% of the work in the kitchen or why you shouldn’t buy a matched set of cookware – even if it looks good. And I was right, he loved it! =)
I realized I would definitely benefit from the information in this book as well. So here I am with my own copy! My favorite “thing” is Mise en place (MEEZ en plahs) and the 10 mistakes of inexperienced cooks – totally eye-opening I tell you!
If you’ve read this book, drop me a line! I’d love to hear what your favorite “thing” is!
Hmmm that book sure looks interesting..:)
It really is! I highly recommend if you like cooking =)
That sounds like a great helpful book to have! Great gift, too. I’m sure I’m doing a lot of things wrong!
Sounds like a good read, DiploWife! How did you come across it? 🙂
Hi there’s a very nice bookstore here called Aksara and they were featuring it! I think you’ll love it! =) This is where I get my super cute stuff like the TeaCupCakes, etc. Miss you hun!
Wow, thanks for sharing this. I’d been looking for books for months. I hope it helps for the first-timers like me! : )
I love the concept of Mise En Place (pronounced Mee Zon Plahs)! For me it is the most basic every cook has to learn and everything else will flow! And there are so many tricks that will make you look like a pro! =P For first timers I also recommend Mad Hungry by Lucinda Scala Quinn! Seriously I am a newbie cook to but she has such simple but impressive recipes (tastes soooo good!) and she teaches you how to do many things too in the clearest most concise manner. I swear by this book!