My next step in this (motivated, enthusiastic, maybe a little crazy) goal of mine was to find a book that could be the foundation of learning the right methods to cook the right way - beyond your basic beef stew and lasagna. Of course... with all of the information that's out there these days... it turned out to be "review overload" very quickly!
After reading many of the reviews on Amazon.com, and looking several culinary schools’ syllabus, I decided on “Professional Cooking” by Wayne Gisslen. I looked at a number of books and made the decision on a variety of issues: from the history of the culinary profession (we have to know where we came from!) to nutrition (what does it really mean to be nutritious? Is it possible to be nutritious and tasteful at the same time?) to the very basics (how do you cut with a knife? What’s mise en place? What kinds of spices are really important?) to the offering of recipes – not only from the local favorites (American and French standards seem to come up quite often) but also to instructions on cooking from around the world. I finally looked at the book as a whole – were the pictures well-representative of what was being created? (Important for learning without an instructor next to you!) Are the chapters thorough and do they graph or display what they are trying to teach? What form of measurements were the metrics in for the recipes?
Ok... so I may be considered a bit of a geek when it comes to trying to find the best book for the job. I call it being passionate about what you enjoy. :) I'm sure it will be the first book of several during this journey.
Oh yeah! If you happen to know of other books that you'd recommend (and why!), I'd love to hear about them. Now that I have the book in hand, it's time to really get started. :)
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