Saturday, December 27, 2008

How I Learned to Cook or American Food Writing

How I Learned to Cook: Culinary Educations from the World's Greatest Chefs

Author: Kimberly Witherspoon

In this indispensable companion to the smash hit Don’t Try This at Home, forty great chefs, including Mario Batali, Eric Ripert, and Fergus Henderson, share pivotal moments of their culinary educations.
 
Before he was a top chef, Tom Colicchio learned to love cooking while he slung burgers at a poolside snack bar. Barbara Lynch tells the story of lying her way into her first chef’s job and then needing to cook her way out of trouble in the galley kitchen of a ship at sea. Stories of mentorship abound: Rick Bayless tells the story of finally working with Julia Child, his childhood hero; Gary Danko of earning the trust of the legendary Madeleine Kamman. How I Learned to Cook is an irresistible treat, a must-have for anyone who loves food and wants a look into the lives the men and women who masterfully prepare it.

Publishers Weekly

Forty chefs representing notable restaurants all over the world offer a bit of humorous history on how they cut their teeth in the kitchen. Many relate their apprentice moments quaking in the shadow of the Great Chef, such as 14-year-old Daniel Boulud's meeting the famous Paul Bocuse for the first time in his restaurant in Lyon and getting smashed on a glass of blanc cassis, or David Bayless's surreal collaboration with Julia Child on camera after admiring her since he was a kid watching her '60s TV show. Most savory are testimony from the trenches in the heat of the dinner rush, as in Jonathan Eismann's hilarious account of toiling in a fashionable New York City West Village restaurant during the high '80s when his drug-addled staff began dropping like dominos around him at the peak hours of service, and Gabrielle Hamilton's attempts in her tiny fledging restaurant, Prune, not to kill her sous chef with exploding wet fava beans frying in deep fat. Despite voices somewhat skewed in favor of male chefs, the stories are entertaining and well chosen by literary agent Witherspoon (Don't Try This at Home) and New York Times contributor Meehan. (Nov.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Elizabeth Rogers Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information - Library Journal

A companion to the editors' Don't Try This at Home, this volume contains brief essays written by 40 chefs describing their experiences in becoming some of the most famous names in the world of culinary arts. Readers are treated to entertaining anecdotes written by Mario Batali, Jacques Torres, Marcella Hazen, and others, with behind-the-scenes stories of some of the world's greatest restaurants and chefs. We share Ming Tsai's first experience with chocolate ganache: off in his measurements by a factor of ten, he ended up with a chocolate body wash and to this day has a great distaste for the food. We are also given the secret recipe for the "Det burger" of Sara Moulton's Ann Arbor days. Culinary inspirations range from childhood experiences to working with Julia Child to being a short-order cook. There's some value in these tales for those interested in a career in cooking, and for the rest of us there's the joy of hearing wonderful stories of the great chefs. Recommended for most public libraries and culinary arts collections.



Books about: The Formula or Dangerous Grains

American Food Writing: An Anthology: With Classic Recipes

Author: Molly ONeill

In a groundbreaking new anthology, celebrated food writer Molly O'Neill gathers the very best from over 250 years of American culinary history. This literary feast includes classic accounts of iconic American foods: Henry David Thoreau on the delights of watermelon; Herman Melville, with a mouth-watering chapter on clam chowder; H. L. Mencken on the hot dog; M.F.K. Fisher in praise of the oyster; Ralph Ellison on the irresistible appeal of baked yam; William Styron on Southern fried chicken. American writers abroad, like A. J. Liebling, Waverly Root, and Craig Claiborne, describe the revelations they found in foreign restaurants; travellers to America, including the legendary French gourmet J. A. Brillat-Savarin, discover such native delicacies as turkey, Virginia barbecue, and pumpkin pie. Great chefs and noted critics discuss their culinary philosophies and offer advice on the finer points of technique; home cooks recount disasters and triumphs. A host of eminent American writers, from Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Walt Whitman to Thomas Wolfe, Willa Cather, and Langston Hughes, add their distinctive viewpoints to the mix.

American Food Writing celebrates the astonishing variety of American foodways, with accounts from almost every corner of the country and a host of ethnic traditions: Dutch, Cuban, French, Italian, Jewish, Chinese, Irish, Indian, Scandinavian, Native American, African, English, Japanese, and Mexican. A surprising range of subjects and perspectives emerge, as writers address such topics as fast food, hunger, dieting, and the relationship between food and sex. James Villas offers a behind-the-scenes look at gourmet dining through a waiter's eyes; Anthony Bourdain recalls his days at the Culinary Institute of America; Julia Child remembers the humble beginnings of her much-loved television series; Nora Ephron chronicles internecine warfare among members of the "food establishment;" Michael Pollan explores what the label "organic" really means.

Throughout the anthology are more than 50 classic recipes, selected after extensive research from cookbooks both vintage and modern, and certain to instruct, delight, and inspire home chefs.

The New York Times - Roy Blount Jr.

In Corby Kummer's tribute to the Vermont cheesemakers Cindy and David Major, the banner of global-minded artisanalism is on high, but the pudding's proof is plain enough: "Oh my gosh," Ms. Major says of her first mouthful of the first batch of their cheese that they deem worthy of the annual conference of the American Cheese Society. "It tasted so rich, creamy and sweet. I just knew we'd finally figured it out."

That cheese won a blue ribbon. So should this book.

Publishers Weekly

This exhaustive collection of essays, anecdotes and recipes spans three centuries of American food writing, from Meriwether Lewis's account of killing "two bucks and two buffaloe" during his famous trek across the continent, to Michael Pollan's up-to-the-minute account of the politics of organic food. In between are countless gems: Alice B. Toklas's baroque recipe for lobster, Richard Olney's meditation on pâté and Edna Lewis's poignant description of killing hogs on her family farm. Ably organized and edited by the former host of the PBS series Great Food, this collection features numerous accounts of foodways long since vanished in this country; take, for instance, Charlie Ranhofer's thorough analysis of the 13-course society dinner, complete with "removes or solid joints," "iced punch or sherbet" and "hot sweet entremets"; or Maria Sermolino's memories of the Italian meals served at her father's Greenwich Village restaurant back when spaghetti was still a novelty. Famous food writers are well represented here (James Beard and Calvin Trillin, M.F.K. Fisher and James Villas), but perhaps even more rewarding are the wonderful but lesser-known players on the American food scene; either Elizabeth Robins Pennell's discussion of the spring chicken or Eugene Walter's tale of gumbo alone would make this volume a treasure. With so many wonderful ingredients, this rich, delectable treat is a must-have for American foodies. (May)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

What People Are Saying

Andrew F. Smith
Wow, what a great collection! This is a must read for all foodies and culinary professionals. (Andrew F. Smith, Editor in Chief, Oxford Companion for American Food and Drink)




Table of Contents:
from Travels into North America     1
Ice Cream     5
from The Hasty-Pudding     6
Johny Cake, or Hoe Cake     12
from The Journals of Lewis & Clark     13
Letters to His Daughter, 1819-32     15
A Virginia Barbecue     21
Exploit of the Professor     24
To Make a Chowder     29
from A Diary in America     30
Potted Lobster     34
This Day's Food     35
Above All Other Birds     37
To Dress Macaroni a la Sauce Blanche     41
The Eating-Houses     42
To Make Corn Bread     47
Chowder     48
Peach Leather     52
Bread     53
Watermelons     56
Irish Potato Pudding     60
from My Bondage and My Freedom     61
The Lay of the One Fish-Ball     66
Tomato Catsup     68
Apple-Pie     69
A Michigan Receipt for Making Shortcake in Camp     72
A Great Treat of Ice Cream     73
Hayes Cake and Tilden Cake     75
from Cookery     76
Mother's Rice Pudding     83
from ThePhilosophy of Frying     84
Meat-Flavoring     86
The Tyranny of Pie     87
Black Cake     89
from Zuni Breadstuff     91
Chicken Croquettes     95
My Sugar-Making Days     96
Chicken Chartreuse     98
Success in Entertaining     99
Roman Punch No. 1 and No. 2     104
from History of the United States     105
Bran Jelly     108
from The Epicurean     109
Lobster a la Newberg or Delmonico     113
Spring Chicken     114
Eggs a la Goldenrod     118
Bill of Fare on the Plains     119
from I Go A-Marketing     123
Hamburg Steak     126
Calas     127
Cranberry Sauce     130
Possum     132
Matzos Pudding     134
from The Great Pancake Record     135
Old-Fashioned Hickory Nut Cake     143
from Maymeys from Cuba     144
Perfection Salad     152
from The Promised Land     153
Baked Bananas, Porto Rican Fashion     156
Around Little Italy     157
from My Antonia      165
Bucks County Apple Butter     170
The Home of the Crab     171
Hot Dogs     172
Puree of Peanuts Number Two (Extra Fine)     176
Eating American     177
Cape Cod Turkey (Stuffed Codfish)     181
from Of Time and the River     182
Nut Loaf     186
from American Food and American Houses     187
Chop Suey     193
Breakfast     193
from Down-East Ambrosia     196
Planked Porterhouse Steak     204
Mr. Barbee's Terrapin     205
from America Eats     215
A Lusty Bit of Nourishment     220
Define This Word     234
from Cross Creek Cookery     243
from Clementine in the Kitchen     250   Jerre Mangione   from Mount Allegro     257
Avocado, or the Future of Eating     263
That Infernal Machine, the Pressure Cooker     266
Fried Scallion Cake     269
The Strange Case of Mr. Palliser's Palate     270
from Fifth Chinese Daughter     272
from A Walker in the City     279
from Papa's Table d'Hote     383
Almond Cake or Torte      290
from Invisible Man     292
Gazpacho     297
Food in the United States in 1934 and 1935     298
Pineapple Pie     310
Sukiyaki on the Kona Coast     311
from A Flower for My Mother     318
from Good Cooksmanship, or How to Talk a Good Fight     321
Toward Fried Chicken     326
Southern Fried Chicken (with Giblet Gravy)     330
Pancakes     335
from The Modest Threshold     337
How to Cook a Carp     343
Dinner at the Pavillon     347
The Gumbo Cult     354
Baked Beans     364
from Delights and Prejudices     365
Beef Stroganoff     375
from Soul Food     376
Vichyssoise     380
Soul Food     384
Tunnel of Fudge Cake     387
from Oranges     389
How To Make Stew in the Pinacate Desert: Recipe for Locke & Drum     396
About the Television Series     398
Coq au Vin     404
The Food Establisbment: Life In the Land of the Rising Souffle (Or Is It the Rising Meringue?)     408
Lessons in Humility and Chutzpah     422
Zucchini Quiche     428
The Techniques of the Kitchen-The Making of a Cook     430
Moong Dal     438
from Simple French Food     440
Chicken Tagine with Chick-peas     452
The Traveling Man's Burden     456
Risotto Alla Parmigiana     463
Just a Quiet Dinner for Two in Paris: 31 Dishes, Nine Wines, a {dollar}4,000 Check     465
Francs and Beans     472
from Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonalds     475
Morning-After-Hog-Butchering Breakfast     479
An Original Old-Fashioned Yankee Clambake     487
The Anthropology of Table Manners from Geophagy Onward     495
Blessed Are We Who Serve     503
Chicken Marbella     515
from Eating Together: Recipes & Recollections     517
Gillette's     522
Kitchen Horrors     530
from Meatless Days     535
from Monifold Destiny     545
The Pleasures of Eating     551
The Farm-Restaurant Connection     559
Where Is the Grease of Yesteryear?     569
Philadelphia Pepperpot Soup     572
Primal Bread     576
Mama Menudo     586
Enough Jam for a Lifetime      589
Yellowfin Tuna Burgers With Ginger-Mustard Glaze     594
Do Women Like to Cook?     597
from Recipe of Memory     605
The Toll House Cookie     610
Boiled Chicken Feet and Hundred-Year-Old Eggs: Poor Chinese Feasting     615
Creole Gumbo     622
Adultery     626
from My Kitchen Wars     642
Dinner Rites     650
Steamed Pork Loaf with Salted Duck Eggs     655
The Breath of a Wok     657
from Kitchen Confidential     662
Today's Special     669
Indian Takeout     673
Hersheyettes     677
from Fast Food Nation     683
Cheese: Cindy and David Major, Vermont     694
from Coming Home to Eat     699
Celebrations of Thanksgiving: Cuban Seasonings     706
Lady Bird Johnson's Pedernales Chili     711
from Looking for Umami     712
My Organic Industrial Meal     717
Sources and Acknowledgments     729
Index     743

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