Essentials of Cooking

Rating:
Summary: Freedom from recipe bondage
Review: "Essentials of Cooking" is one of a couple books that have appeared recently (Pam Anderson's "How to Cook Without a Book" is another) that are designed to help home chefs wean themselves from over-reliance on recipes. James Peterson uses a visual approach by presenting well-over 1000 photographs (taken by Peterson himself) that show how various basic culinary techniques are performed and fundamental dishes prepared. Everything from dicing apple to trimming a saddle of lamb is included, with just enough narrative to keep the reader on track. A lot of cross referencing gives the book a 'hypertext' quality. Your can read it from beginning to end, or you can just bounce around. I would not think that this would be a very good book for beginners, though. The general thrust is toward cooks with enough experience to want to loosen up and generalize their knowledge rather than newcomers just trying to find their way around the kitchen. And the "recipes" aren't really recipes in the way most readers will be familiar. They're more in the nature of general models to which you can add or subtract individual ingredients to your own liking.

Rating:
Summary: Freedom from recipe bondage
Review: "Essentials of Cooking" is one of a couple books that have appeared recently (Pam Anderson's "How to Cook Without a Book" is another) that are designed to help home chefs wean themselves from over-reliance on recipes. James Peterson uses a visual approach by presenting well-over 1000 photographs (taken by Peterson himself) that show how various basic culinary techniques are performed and fundamental dishes prepared. Everything from dicing apple to trimming a saddle of lamb is included, with just enough narrative to keep the reader on track. A lot of cross referencing gives the book a 'hypertext' quality. Your can read it from beginning to end, or you can just bounce around. I would not think that this would be a very good book for beginners, though. The general thrust is toward cooks with enough experience to want to loosen up and generalize their knowledge rather than newcomers just trying to find their way around the kitchen. And the "recipes" aren't really recipes in the way most readers will be familiar. They're more in the nature of general models to which you can add or subtract individual ingredients to your own liking.

Rating:
Summary: Great Techniques
Review: Amazing techniques for beginners or for people that enjoy cooking but forgot how to prepare a chicken for roasting or how to make hollandaise sauce, Work from scratch on how to scale a fish, trim meat and etc. Great information on how to learn the techniques from the professional cooks. James Peterson has shown us how to do all of this with all his step by step techniques. This is a book I will have for a long time in my kitchen. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys cooking or who wants to learn how to cook. My friends and family have already enjoyed your book and I hope you will have many more to come. Keep up the excellent job with your instructions. 5 Stars to Mr. James Peterson for his "Essentials of Cooking". A MUST HAVE BOOK!

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful book, but extremely basic
Review: Beautiful book but a curious mix of beginner and from scratch instructions. Unfortunately, there are much better books for the beginner (such as Good Housekeeping's Step by Step), and there is far too little (including recipes) for the experienced home cook.

Rating:
Summary: More than 250 basic techniques and recipes
Review: Essentials Of Cooking by award-winning culinary expert and educator James Peterson presents more than 250 basic techniques and recipes which are ideal for beginners in the exciting and tasty world of food preparation. Full-color illustrations enhance step-by-step instructions on everything from how to roast vegetables to cutting up a chicken, making stuffed pasta, curing seafood and much more. From making a Hollandaise Sauce to scaling, cleaning, boning fish, Essentials Of Cooking is a "must-have" instructional reference resource for beginning to intermediate level cooks.

Rating:
Summary: A superb introduction to the culianary arts for beginners!
Review: Few cookbooks can boast of over 1100 color photos providing a step-by-step coverage of techniques and recipes in progress: this covers all the basics needed to prepare food for cooking, from how to dice an onion to producing broths, sauces and dressings. The result is a fine comprehensive guide which is a one-step cooking course for beginners, with over two hundred core techniques and recipes. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: The Standard
Review: Get one. If you're serious about abandoning the constant slave-to-the-recipe grind and want to start jamming free-style in the kitchen, this ought to be in your toolkit. Dead easy, well illustrated, well written.

Rating:
Summary: Great book if you don't need clear recipes
Review: I bought this book after I saw James Peterson on Martha Stewart. He was promoting this book and came across wonderfully. I rushed out and bought this book.
It lived up to many expectations, but was a disappointment in others. I loved the wonderful pictures that this book had. This book also taught many cooking basics that other books gloss over. What I did not like was that there were no clear recipes. There were some suggestions for serving sizes, but other that that it was up to you. That said, if you are comfortable cooking without set guidelines, this is a wonderful book. It has great pictures and many valuble recipes.

Rating:
Summary: Developing a Cook, not just following recipes
Review: I buy cookbooks for fun. This book will develop cooking skills as opposed to cooking following the many creative recipes from the numerous cookbooks we all own and freqently use. Peterson's goal is to have you cooking without the crutch and the burden of following someone else's game plan. This book will help your confindence in the kitchen without resorting to books. (The pictures are quite helpful.) If you are a really good cook already, this book isn't for you. If you are a reasonably competent cook, but not a chef, you will find this book valuable. Peterson is top flight, and he wrote this one for all of us who have a life outside the kitchen but hold a passion for cooking nonetheless.

Rating:
Summary: Great for the home cook looking to improve skills.
Review: I enjoyed this greatly. I always wondered how to peel and slice a mango! Great resource for anyone the loovs to cook.