Drinks or How I Learned to Cook

Drinks

Author: Vincent Gasnier

Drinks is lavishly illustrated book that covers over 1,000 diverse kinds of drinks. It is uniquely organized by style and taste and includes advice on buying, storing and serving drinks.

• Includes French wines, single malt whiskies, Cuban rums, Belgian beers, English ciders and classic cocktails
• Tips on pairing drinks with food
• Explains how drinks are made, smell and taste as well as the best places to enjoy them
• Arranged by style or type, then by country

Library Journal

In this colorful, descriptive, and well-organized volume, master sommelier Gasnier inspires readers to sample and appreciate a more diverse range of drinks. His comprehensive text covers more than 1000 libations, from Manhattans to mojitos. Each chapter opens with an overview of how to taste the drink and how to choose the appropriate glassware before moving on to tables that (for the wines) name grape varieties and their respective regions and Gasnier's comments on particular flavors and aromas that tasters may encounter. The only drawback is the book's coffee-table dimensions, which will prohibit readers from using Drinks as a quick, handy reference. Its overall thoughtfulness, however, more than compensates. A good addition to public libraries that already hold classics like Mr. Boston: Official Bartender's and Party Guide.-Shelley Brown, Richmond P.L., Vancouver, B.C. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Look this: Dim Sum Made Easy or Enciclopedia de Jugos Curativos

How I Learned to Cook: Culinary Educations from the World's Greatest Chefs

Author: Kimberly Witherspoon

In this indispensable companion to the smash hit Don’t Try This at Home, forty great chefs, including Mario Batali, Eric Ripert, and Fergus Henderson, share pivotal moments of their culinary educations.
 
Before he was a top chef, Tom Colicchio learned to love cooking while he slung burgers at a poolside snack bar. Barbara Lynch tells the story of lying her way into her first chef’s job and then needing to cook her way out of trouble in the galley kitchen of a ship at sea. Stories of mentorship abound: Rick Bayless tells the story of finally working with Julia Child, his childhood hero; Gary Danko of earning the trust of the legendary Madeleine Kamman. How I Learned to Cook is an irresistible treat, a must-have for anyone who loves food and wants a look into the lives the men and women who masterfully prepare it.

Publishers Weekly

Forty chefs representing notable restaurants all over the world offer a bit of humorous history on how they cut their teeth in the kitchen. Many relate their apprentice moments quaking in the shadow of the Great Chef, such as 14-year-old Daniel Boulud's meeting the famous Paul Bocuse for the first time in his restaurant in Lyon and getting smashed on a glass of blanc cassis, or David Bayless's surreal collaboration with Julia Child on camera after admiring her since he was a kid watching her '60s TV show. Most savory are testimony from the trenches in the heat of the dinner rush, as in Jonathan Eismann's hilarious account of toiling in a fashionable New York City West Village restaurant during the high '80s when his drug-addled staff began dropping like dominos around him at the peak hours of service, and Gabrielle Hamilton's attempts in her tiny fledging restaurant, Prune, not to kill her sous chef with exploding wet fava beans frying in deep fat. Despite voices somewhat skewed in favor of male chefs, the stories are entertaining and well chosen by literary agent Witherspoon (Don't Try This at Home) and New York Times contributor Meehan. (Nov.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Elizabeth Rogers Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information - Library Journal

A companion to the editors' Don't Try This at Home, this volume contains brief essays written by 40 chefs describing their experiences in becoming some of the most famous names in the world of culinary arts. Readers are treated to entertaining anecdotes written by Mario Batali, Jacques Torres, Marcella Hazen, and others, with behind-the-scenes stories of some of the world's greatest restaurants and chefs. We share Ming Tsai's first experience with chocolate ganache: off in his measurements by a factor of ten, he ended up with a chocolate body wash and to this day has a great distaste for the food. We are also given the secret recipe for the "Det burger" of Sara Moulton's Ann Arbor days. Culinary inspirations range from childhood experiences to working with Julia Child to being a short-order cook. There's some value in these tales for those interested in a career in cooking, and for the rest of us there's the joy of hearing wonderful stories of the great chefs. Recommended for most public libraries and culinary arts collections.