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Summary: If you love the show, you will love this book.
Review: I have always enjoyed Good Eats and Alton Brown's intriguing way of explaining not just how to cook, but why it works that way. This book will teach you great recipes, and how they work. He also put in a good sense of humor to help you understand terms that could be extremely boring if handled by anyone else.
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Summary: FoodTV's most underrated cook.
Review: Alton Brown is amazing. His show has been running for five years, and this is his first (long awaited) cookbook. The thing about Alton is his vast knowledge of the "science" behind cooking and the ease and humor in which he passes on that experience to us. Not only do you learn how to cook a good meal, you learn WHY it's good, and with that knowledge you have the power to experiment and consistently make your meals good. He explains the reason for each ingredient, and why it's added when it's added. So after watching his show (or now reading this book) you have done more then memorized a recipe, you have learned cooking skills. I fully recommend anything Alton touches, including "I'm Just Here for the Food"!
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Summary: Not Your Average Cookbook
Review: First off, this is NOT your average cookbook.
Most cookbooks could more properly be called Recipe Collections.Alton Brown takes the time to explain a lot of the theory behind what's going on, so that you have a better idea of how to get to the desired end product--- good eats. (OK, I had to do it just once!) Take the time to read through this book carefully, and you'll come away with a better understanding of things, you'll learn a few new tricks ( hint: look in the eggs section for scrambled eggs. I'm never going back to my old method again. Ever. )
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Summary: Good Read
Review: Alton Brown's prose is as good as his cooking. This is the only cookbook I've read cover to cover. And it's the first cookbook that's made me laugh. The recipes aren't bad either. My wife says that the Grilled Butterflied Chicken is the best chicken I've cooked. The Chicken in Garlic and Shallots isn't quite as good but is wonderfully simple and aromatic; it's great for weeknight cooking. Alton Brown introduces each chapter with an explanation of the science behind the cooking. His approach is just right: enough information to understand why to use a certain approach but not enough detail to remind us of our high school chemistry texts. I'm the kind of cook who tends to follow recipes religiously and cross my fingers about the results. So, for me, Alton Brown's witty expalanations of the voodoo behind cooking are the best parts of the book.
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Summary: Excellent guide book
Review: This book is more of a textbook for cooking. There are TONS of great facts, and information. If you love to ask "Why?" when you are cooking, this is the book for you.
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Summary: The Best
Review: Alton Brown is the mastermind behind the Food Network's show, "Good Eats". As "Good Eats" success began to blossom, Alton decided to try his hand at a book. As fans began to wait in anticipation of "I'm Just Here For The Food: Food + Heat = Cooking," it was assumed that this book would be a take off from his show "Good Eats". However, it is not, but does show you what Alton enjoys most of cooking - the science, the understanding of what goes on in the kitchen. The book's chapters are divided into cooking processes, such as grilling, braising, microwaving and more. In each chapter, he explains the type of heat, what method is best for applying this heat and some recipes as examples. By understanding the heating process, and thus, the science behind cooking, the more in control of each meal or recipe you will be. He explains scientific terms in a manner in which a layman can understand. He also explains those unspoken rules to cooking that most cookbooks do not explain, either from the assumption that you went to culinary school too, or because the writer did not know these rules either. His usual humor and wit is ever present in this book. In fact, you feel like Alton is actually reading the book to you! He uses his own terms for things, such as "software" (food), "hardware" (pots, pans, and utensils) and "application" (cooking process). He even has funny diagrams and photographs in case you wanted an extra chuckle. Also included in this book is an explanation of ingredients, such as the varieties of butter: unsalted, clarified, whipped, buttermilk and margarine. So, if you were at all confused, you will no longer be. At the end of the book, he includes recommended reading, so we can be just as smart as he is, plus places to purchase our food and supplies! And not only was this a great book, it received a James Beard Award in 2003 for the Best Reference Book! So, you just have to buy it now, because! Seriously, if you want to understand more about what is going on in your kitchen, and how to enjoy your cooking, buy this book!
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Summary: Funny & Informative Read on the Hows & Whys of Cooking
Review: Sure, you can follow a recipe, but did you ever wonder why it says to "rest" a cut of meat after cooking? Or how exactly to properly sear or saute something? Or do you follow instructions and end up with dry, overcooked, or otherwise inedible food nonetheless? Then Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking is definitely for you. Alton's tone makes the book a quick and enjoyable read. Capturing the essence of his Food Network program "Good Eats" in printed form, the book's text is often funny and always informative. Illustrations accompany the text in strategic locations, including one particularly funny one demonstrating the consequences of poor safety when deep frying. The book covers the basics from searing to grilling to broiling to cooking with water (steaming, simmering, etc.) and frying. Each section explains the processes at work and the reasons each technique should be used and why they work. Whereas other texts do cover the same techniques as this book--and some even delve into the hows & whys behind the various methods of cooking--Food + Heat = Cooking makes the explanations readable and memorable without coming across like a textbook. Fans of Brown's show on Food Network will certainly want the book. However, don't buy this book if you're looking for lots of glossy, yummy photos of food. Do buy it if you can't get recipes to work correctly or find their directions unclear or just want to improvise on occasion and have your dishes turn out great. Although the book does contain quite a few recipes, its true value is in the techniques and the whys & hows of cooking.
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Summary: Informative and Entertaining
Review: I don't consider myself a chef, but I love to cook, and people love what I cook. This wasn't the first cookbook that I read from cover to cover either. However, I have never enjoyed a cookbook quite so much. It is very entertaining and informative. I've been cooking for years, and yet, I learned so much from this book. I learned some new cooking techniques, and although I was already familiar with quite a few of the techniques that Alton Brown uses, I learned why I do it that way. My picata recipe only varied slightly from Alton's but his was definitely an improvement! I really think men would read and use this cookbook more than any other. I will probably be getting a copy for my son. There are a few typographical errors that I've discovered as a transcribe some recipes into my recipe program, such as 1/4 tsp ground in the Marinated Flank Steak Recipe. I decided to ignore that ingredient, and my recipe still turned out fine. I don't think he meant dirt...did you, Alton? Anyway, I still give it 5 stars and recommend it highly!!
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Summary: A Primer on Cooking
Review: This is not a cookbook in the traditional sense. If you want a cookbook that regurgitates the recipes you see on the show -- well, you're not going to get it from Alton Brown. In this book, he teaches about the methods of cooking, and then give some recipes that support the techniques described.
The bottom line is, if you want to learn about cooking, buy this book and read it, cover to cover. If you want some recipes you saw on Good Eats, go to foodnetwork.com and get them for free. In the end, buying the book will make you a much wiser person.
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Summary: If you are tired of flopped recipes
Review: Let's face it, even if you don't enjoy cooking as a hobby, you have to learn to cook. You can't eat out every single meal and you can't live on frozen entrees. I was sick and tired of lousy results from my best attempts at following standard recipes. Alton Brown came to my rescue. If I am going to cook, I want good results, predictable results, reliable results, something people really want to eat. AB shows you how. I don't know how anyone can get by in the kitchen without knowing what is going on with the food as it being transformed by the cooking process. You don't need a Ph.D. in chemistry you just need to let AB teach you in his entertaining way.
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