Rating: 
Summary: Nifty!
Review: Alton Brown's Food Network TV show, Good Eats, is one of the most educational shows on cooking that I have seen. He likes to explain how and why things work. I love both the pedantry and the humor of his show (although I have heard others who dislike the child-like approach he takes; not childish! Child-like. There's a big difference.)As my title says, his show is a good starting point. Alton Brown can help you understand how food and cooking work. He provides good solid information and he lays a foundation that gives you the confidence to invent your own food. ("Play with your food!"). But he cannot, in a half hour show that includes comedy sketches, teach you everything. His book, "I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking" is much the same. He presents good basic information on cooking methods and techniques in a book with catchy graphics and his typical humor. If you want to learn the WHYs of cooking, this book is a great start. From here, move on to Shirley Corriher's "Cookwise," which gives greater depth a slightly more serious science. I *love* this book. But here are the negatives: 1) Not a cookbook. Don't look for a lot of recipies. 2) Not loose or spiral bound. All cooking books should be, and too few are. 3) Covers all major cooking methods (from boiling to microwaving), but no baking! Baking is my main hobby. Maybe a future book -- "Cookwise" has baking info. Alton Brown singlehandedly changed me from a recipie slave to a creative cook. I've moved on to other food writers, and I've invented my own food, but Alton will always be my kitchen hero.
Rating:
Summary: Like his show, a great starting point
Review: Alton Brown's Food Network TV show, Good Eats, is one of the most educational shows on cooking that I have seen. He likes to explain how and why things work. I love both the pedantry and the humor of his show (although I have heard others who dislike the child-like approach he takes; not childish! Child-like. There's a big difference.) As my title says, his show is a good starting point. Alton Brown can help you understand how food and cooking work. He provides good solid information and he lays a foundation that gives you the confidence to invent your own food. ("Play with your food!"). But he cannot, in a half hour show that includes comedy sketches, teach you everything. His book, "I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking" is much the same. He presents good basic information on cooking methods and techniques in a book with catchy graphics and his typical humor. If you want to learn the WHYs of cooking, this book is a great start. From here, move on to Shirley Corriher's "Cookwise," which gives greater depth a slightly more serious science. I *love* this book. But here are the negatives: 1) Not a cookbook. Don't look for a lot of recipies. 2) Not loose or spiral bound. All cooking books should be, and too few are. 3) Covers all major cooking methods (from boiling to microwaving), but no baking! Baking is my main hobby. Maybe a future book -- "Cookwise" has baking info. Alton Brown singlehandedly changed me from a recipie slave to a creative cook. I've moved on to other food writers, and I've invented my own food, but Alton will always be my kitchen hero.
Rating: 
Summary: A Guys' book to add thier own receipes to!
Review: Both my husband and I are huge fans of Alton Brown's show "Good Eats" and I was hoping this would be a book that also included some of his tips and receipes. It does have some basic tips but basically this is a good 3 ringed book that any guy would be proud to have the receipes he likes from his friends and mother!
Rating: 
Summary: For the Anal Chef
Review: I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!! It comes with clear sheets in which you can insert recipes passed down from your Mother, Grandmother, or others, and you can see both sides. It preserves them, yet allows you to utilize them daily. The blank pages can be moved as needed and I used stick glue to secure additional recipes. Because it's a ring binder, I also print off recipes from cooking.com etc and slap them in there! I also secured any cookware instructions, like seasoning cast iron etc. This is a must have for the anal AB fan!!!!
Rating:
Summary: For the Anal Chef
Review: I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!! It comes with clear sheets in which you can insert recipes passed down from your Mother, Grandmother, or others, and you can see both sides. It preserves them, yet allows you to utilize them daily. The blank pages can be moved as needed and I used stick glue to secure additional recipes. Because it's a ring binder, I also print off recipes from cooking.com etc and slap them in there! I also secured any cookware instructions, like seasoning cast iron etc. This is a must have for the anal AB fan!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Not worth the money
Review: I'm a huge Alton Brown fan. This is one of the books I asked for when my birthday came around. I thought I wanted it after reading the reviews and thought it sounded good. I was very disappointed. While there is some good information in it, it's mostly blank pages that you write your own recipes in w/ your notes. There are a few clear plastic pages so that you can put in recipe clippings and instructions and warranties for various kitchen gadgets, but a simple file folder would solve that. Sadly, I will be returning this book and finding something else to purchase.
Rating: 
Summary: Do Not Buy This Book Without Looking at a Copy!
Review: In many ways, this is the book I expected to find when I looked at AB's Cook's Notes volume, but there are still many reasons to warn potential buyers to look before they leap. In my opinion, the book looses one star for costing 22 bucks for about 12 dollars worth of material, most of which can be found in other sources. The book looses a second star for not filling my expectations for completeness of the material. The table of substitutions, for example, did not have the first three things I looked for, that being buttermilk (!!!), creme fraiche, and Aleppo pepper. I may forgive the last, even though it does appear as a common ingredient in at least three recent cookbooks, but no BUTTERMILK. At least two culinary reference books in my library have substitutions for buttermilk and creme fraiche, not including the Larousse Gastronomique. The book looses a third star for, like the Cooks Notes volume, not being loose leaf bound. The book lost a few points for me when the generally very good diagrams of meat cuts from cows, pigs, and sheep did not include any reference to what Mario Batali calls the fifth quarter, being things like heart, liver, kidneys, sweet breads and (my favorite) guanciale. I have this fantasy that the only thing keeping AB from having his picture on the cover of Gourmet magazine is that he has not, like Mario, done a show on guanciale (pig's jowls). Unlike the Cooks Notes volume, I would not dismiss this volume totally. If you the prospective buyer have no other culinary reference and are inclined to own everything you can with AB's name on it, then I would not want to stop you. But please page through it before laying down your 23 bucks! Otherwise, save your money for a more complete volume such as the Williams Sonama 'Kitchen Companion' volume.
Rating:
Summary: It's a cookbook for geeks and tinkerers...
Review: It doesn't have a lot of flashy pictures. It doesn't have a traditional layout to the recipies. It also spends a lot of time discussing stuff other than the actual recipies at hand. On the other hand, it is a nice introduction to the whys and hows behind cooking, which is really what helps you be a good cook when it doesn't come in a box or is written down for you on a recipie card. Granted, it may not hold up to some of the seminal tomes on the science of cooking, but it is a heck of a lot easier to come by than some of them, a lot less intimidating than others, and significantly more affordable than yet still others.
Rating:
Summary: not worth the money
Review: My girlfriend bought me this so called...book...not worth the cash. If I had seen it in the store, I would just have gone to the office supply aisleand bought a three ring binder for 99 cents and made it myself. But his other real books are good.
Rating:
Summary: Nifty!
Review: This is a fine cook book, a reasonable food science book, and a fun compilation of techniques and ideas. The layout makes following the recipes easy, and the art is fun. If you are a fan of the show, you will like this book. If you are a hard-core foodie, much of the science can be found elsewhere (Cookwise), but not usually in such entertaining style.
My only disappointment is that baking is not covered here, but AB seems to imply that is coming in a separate volume.
I would mention that this is one of about 150 cook books I own, and while I love it, it would not be the one-cookbook-I-take-to-the-desert-island. Some other reviews have slammed this book for what is *not* there, which is unfair. This is not written to be your only (or even main!) cookbook; it is an additional reference for yummy American foods, rigorously explained. If you need to know how to replace some missing buttermilk, that is what Joy of Cooking or Doubleday are for.
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