Rating: 
Summary: Not everything, but pretty useful
Review: This is the cookbook I use the most these days. The recipes are fairly contemporary and there is interesting background information on ingredients and the like. There are no color photographs, so it's not the sort of book you flip through to find something to cook. Rather, it's a good reference when you have an idea already what you want to make. The only really problem with the book is that the recipes were not completely checked for glitches and are not completely idiotproof. Sometimes steps are left out or vague language is used. I prefer "chem lab" level cookbooks that don't leave anything to doubt, with exact specifications--this book is a little loose sometimes. And occasionally an ingredient doesn't show up in the step-by-step recipe, making you guess when it should be added. However, for the most part this cookbook is quite good.
Rating: 
Summary: I LOVE this book!!!
Review: Buying this book was the best $ I ever spent. I use it every day, and every single day I sing its praises. This book is perfect if you, like me, are not naturally gifted in the kitchen but enjoy cooking for yourself and your family anyway. More advanced or confident cooks might find it too basic, but it's still a strong classic to have among your cookbook collection. Almost everything I've made from this book has turned out delicious, from black beans and rice to roast chicken to Spanish omelets to kibbe. My husband makes bannanna pancakes from scratch - using a recipe from this book - that I'd pay $10 at brunch. It's very clearly written, with a nice, humorous tone that keeps the uninitiated calm in the kitchen. It's also educational. I don't know from chicken, Bittman lays it out for me. How the heck to you cook an artichoke? How come my soft-boiled eggs aren't like my mom's? It's all in this book. Helpful overview of the various food groups in front as well. If you have to buy someone a housewarming gift, get them this book. Then invite yourself over to their house for dinner. I know. I'm ranting. But, flush with sucess after every meal that's turned out well, I just can't say enough good things about this book.
Rating: 
Summary: How to cook everything you already know how to cook
Review: This is a good beginner's cookbook but was a big disappointment for me. I hoped to find some new recipes, maybe simple but at least new, and I found, as I looked through the cookbook, that there wasn't much more than the usual stuff. There's a great dominance of Italian recipes, ok I guess for the majority of readers, and good recipes too, but they're all things that, having lived in Italy for many years and being of Italian origin, are nothing new. The book is well done, but too sparse. One example, last night I wanted to find a new way to make potatoes, looked in my new cookbook and there were only about four recipes for potatoes. Potatoes, mind you, which have infinite possibilities. A big disappointment if you want new ideas. Good gift possibly for someone totally lost in the kitchen who wants to learn because it's very well described. I suppose there are people who have never made mashed potatoes with a real potato, but I hardly consider it something to be featured in a cookbook.
Rating:
Summary: A New Classic
Review: What the original "The Joy of Cooking" was to my mother's generation, this could very well be to the current generation. Bittman provides a tremendous range of good, basic recipes without any trendy nonsense or the kind of "playing with your food" cuisine typical of too many contemproary cooks and authors. He manages to be contemporary and international without going overboard. Bittman's book is a great resource, not just for the beginner, but for any cook. I first saw this book at a friend's house, where it gets a regular workout. You just returned from the market with two pounds of fresh asparagus? Look it up in the book and find a dozen ideas. Find yourself with a couple pounds of squid in the fridge? Couldn't resist the sale on Tilapia? He's ready for you. Unlike too many cookbooks today, this isn't just a coffetable book for thumbing through. This is a tool for cooking. It's one you'll constantly be reaching for to find new ideas and fresh ways of cooking old favorites. Buy it.
Rating:
Summary: The most comprehensive cooking guide I've seen
Review: I love to cook, and read about cooking. This book covers both. I have used this book often; for simple recipes, and more complicated. I plan to buy this book for friends and relatives- it is a staple for the kitchen.
Rating: 
Summary: The CD doesn't work with Macintoshes
Review: Nowhere in the review or dust jacket of this book does it reveal that the CD-ROM of this book is for Windows machines only. It does not run on Apple or MacOS systems. Really crummy.
Rating: 
Summary: Save your money and avoid a headache; just buy the book
Review: Adore the cookbook, hate the CD-Rom! The cookbook is fabulous; just steer clear of this dud of a CD-Rom. I had to spend over 30 minutes downloading the software to run the cookbook and then spent the night repairing my Windows files when it crashed my computer. Now the CD-Rom is in the trash, and I am a happier person.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent for the novice chef
Review: This book is a wonderful resource for those of us who don't know the "basics" of cooking. Whenever I have a general cooking question, the answer is always there. Need to know how to carve a turkey? It's in there. Want to know how to prepare fennel? Need to know what fennel IS? It's all there. It's a great guide for general food preparation, as well as a good source of easy, great-tasting recipes.
Rating:
Summary: No. No. No. by fermed
Review: A book with such a title invites challenges: EVERYTHING? Are you sure? Either no weight has been given to the variety of things that can be cooked (else such a title would be avoided) or the author is a humorist trying to pull our collective leg. Well, one other option exists, a most likely one: the title is a marketing ploy designed to sell a lot of books. Before embarking on this review, I looked at each of the 114 previous commentaries by readers. The vast majority were full of praise for the book, and many declared it THE indispensable cookbook; but tucked in there, among the plaudits, were voices of dissent: one said she had tried to find 8 recipes in the book, and found not one of them; another did not like the overbearing tone of the author, and titled the review "Must I Be Lectured?;" yet another spoke about the results of using this book as "the worst food I've ever made." That this is not the work of a humorist was apparent when I saw the first recipe I checked: there is nothing funny about putting a red bell pepper in a Spanish potato omelette, as he advises; but even worse, Bittman either does not know, or does not want to let the reader know, how to turn the omelette in the pan. Incredibly, he advises to use the oven to cook the top of the omelette. Brought tears to my eyes, and not from the onions, either. And so I examined the book's advice about a couple of basics: how to boil and egg, how to create mashed potatoes. This book flunks on both counts. It recommends piercing the eggs before boiling, a custom dismissed by "The Joy of Cooking," and not even mentioned in McGee's classic "On Food and Cooking." Both these books deal extensively with the issue of boiling an egg. Bittman's book is just not in the same culinary league as those others. By telling the reader to pierce he is forcing an entirely unnecessary maneuver which, aside from being potentially dangerous, may result in broken (and thus wasted) eggs before they go near the heat. The book fails to mention that the best mashed potatoes come from the baked, not the boiled potato. Nothing wrong with the recipe in the book, of course, but a volume with such a grandiose title should mention how simple things are best prepared so that they yield their peak of flavor. Some of the recipes look fine, if rather bland and prosaic. There are a few factual errors (as mentioned by another reviewer and confirmed and expanded by this one); but of all ironies, the greatest weakness of this book is its lack of completeness. Ethnic recipes are few (what, no paella?); many regular items have a single method of preparation: it is either it, or you are on your own (rabbit, sweetbreads, goose); and, of course, really difficult items, such as mountain oysters or chicken feet, are not even mentioned. Three stars for the content of the book. I take away one star for the title, which unfairly represents the book to the purchaser. I take away another star because of its terrible index: a critic complained that the book contained no recipe for "vindaloo." Actually a recipe for vindaloo does appear in the book under "spicy pork with cinnamon," subtitled "vindaloo pork," which is not mentioned in the index. Total for the book: one star. Try, you can find a better, more complete cookbook.
Rating:
Summary: Great for a nervous amateur
Review: I am enjoying this book, mainly because so many other cookbooks leave out details which I need, such as what certain weights and measures mean. For instance, how many teaspoons in a tablespoon? Also very helpful are the details. Bittman leaves very little to chance. Other cookbooks often take it for granted that you know hwo to mix certain ingredients, or what kind of utensils to use. Bittman makes it very clear. Beware though! I bought the book with the CD. It does not work on the Mac, and there is no indication of that on the package. The publisher says that the Windows format is the only one they use. No offer to refund the extra cost, no apologies...not very farsighted.
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