One of the best culinary reference books EVER.
Rating:
5 / 5
"CULINARY ARTISTRY receives Honorable Mention as one of the year's best culinary reference books...[It] offers insights into creative cooking."
--THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE"Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page go where no culinary writers have gone before, exploring what inspires great chefs to create new flavor combinations, dishes and menus."
--INTERNATIONAL COOKBOOK REVIEW "CULINARY ARTISTRY chronicles the creative process of culinary composition and explores the architecture of flavors, dishes and menus."
--NATIONAL CULINARY REVIEW "One of the best culinary books of the year."
--TIME OUT: NEW YORK "A great achievement."
--Chef Daniel Boulud "Fascinating...A philosophy book on the culinary arts."
--Arthur Schwartz, "Food Talk" on WOR RADIO "A wealth of information."
--Lindsey Shere, pastry chef, Chez Panisse "Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page have set me free...The sequel to 1995's BECOMING A CHEF, this fat volume offers limitless ways to compose dishes using the idea of food matches and menu plans from 30 of America's top chefs."
--Patty Stearns, THE DETROIT FREE PRESS "I unconditionally recommend the book CULINARY ARTISTRY. One afternoon won't cut it with this book -- this is a definite buy. It tells when different fruits, vegetables, fish, etc. are in season, and how to make them taste good without the expense of a culinary school education. It will save your family a load of money, and greatly improve your own creativity with food and flavors."
--Liz Tarditi, chef and columnist, TODAY'S GOURMET
"Inspiring"..."A godsend."
Rating:
5 / 5
"FLAVOR MATCHMAKING: Some cooks look to books not for precise ingredients and specific instructions, but for inspiration. I've got a book for those cooks. It's the loftily named CULINARY ARTISTRY by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page (1996), also the authors of the better known BECOMING A CHEF. It's not a cookbook per se. Nor is it a treatise on the techniques every cook ought to know. And it's certainly not a collection of culinary prose. It's more a style manual for those who need to find out if a certain something will go with another certain something. The most relevant information is found in the aptly named section 'Matches Made In Heaven.' Arranged alphabetically, the list comprises about 328 ingredients and seasonings and, for each ingredient listed, the authors provide several complementary flavors. It may not come as any surprise that the entries under beef ribs read ginger, horseradish, mustard, potatoes, tomatoes. But it is incredibly liberating, when in a chicken rut, to alight on the appropriate page and find 57 compatible ingredients for a plain old hen. When the vegetable bin is overflowing with leafy greens or I'm flummoxed over a side dish for a dinner party, I consider it a godsend to flip through the pages and decide on mustard with the greens and walnuts with the watercress. And it's inspiring to be reminded in the midst of Thanksgiving chaos that perhaps that pear dish needs a sprinkling of black pepper rather than a drizzle of honey. As with any reference work, it's not the entire book I value so much as a particular page or two in a desperate moment. The balance of the book's 426 pages are chapters on composing a dish and a menu, complete with advice from restaurant chefs. I confess I haven't read the book cover to cover. And I doubt I ever will. But it's nevertheless the one book that regularly makes the commute from office desk to kitchen counter." ...
A brilliant book.
Rating:
5 / 5
"Culinary Artistry" came to my attention as an Amazon.com recommendation which mentioned that if I enjoyed the authors' book "The New American Chef" (which I did, very much), that I might also enjoy this book. Amazon got it right in spades: "Culinary Artistry" is yet another breakthrough approach to thinking about food by these authors. Cuisines, menus, dishes and flavors are both constructed and deconstructed, providing the experienced cook with a blueprint for successful experimentation. This book is an invaluable resource to anyone confident enough in the kitchen to want to innovate, yet smart enough to know that it's important to know the "rules" before you try to break them successfully. This is an absolutely brilliant book, one that I have referred to almost daily since it's been in my possession.
|