I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking by Alton Brown
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Book Reviews of I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking
Book Review: Funny & Informative Read on the Hows & Whys of Cooking
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Book Review: My Hero
Summary: 5 Stars
This is what a cook book should be. Too many cook-books are simply collections of recipes. I can get those online for free from any number of sites!
This book is definitely not a recipe book. It is a brilliant educational text compiling all of Brown's teaching from his hit show, Good Eats. If you watch his show to be a better cook but don't want to shell out the big bux for all the seasons on DVD and have moral qualms about downloading them, then I suggest buying this book. I have all his episodes and I still consult the book because it's easier to reference. It's very easy to read because he writes the way he speaks. It contains a few recipes, which I equate to homework assignments. A handful of recipes punctuate each chapter and are intended to incorporate the lessons learned in that chapter. Nothing beats learning by doing.
And don't think this is only for the rookie cook. He breaks everything down to the science of cooking. Many great cooks (like my mother, for instance) learned to cook by watching. They do what they do, because that's what they were taught to do, and it works. But to really learn a subject, you need to get into the details and really master it for all that it is. Same for cooking. You may know how to boil an egg, but until you appreciate the chemistry that goes on within the shell, you'll never understand why over-boiled eggs are rubbery and smell bad and soft-boiled is so creamy and delicious.
BOTTOM LINE: Think grade-school. Brown is you teacher, the show is a video-lecture, and this book is your textbook. A great buy for beginners and veterans alike.
Book Review: This books makes curious people better cooks
Summary: 5 Stars
If you better understand *how* when you know *why*, and you learn best when entertained, I'm Just Here for the Food is your cookbook. It's actually better stated as a how-to-cook book organized by method of heat transmission, with some exceptions such as the chapter devoted to eggs. All the publishing details are done right here also, such as the index, bookbinding, color, readable typeface, and useful appendices and equipment and safety.Using sound science sugar-coated with humor, I'm Just Here for the Food aims to fulfill the adage that if you give a man a fish, you feed him for day; teach him to fish, and you've fed him for a lifetime. Alton may not teach you how to fish, but count on learning how, when, and why to grill, braise, fry, poach and more. Baking, however, has been saved for a future book, but don't let this dissuade you.
This book is a perfect companion to his "Good Eats" TV show, as he uses and recommends the same techniques and tools throughout without being redundant on the recipes. Unlike some of his TV chef counterparts, Alton generally employs ingredients and utensils found well within a modest budget, and he doesn't clown around with flashy but impractical dishes meant to delight barking-seal audiences.
Beyond an excellent introduction to the culinary arts, this book is an achievement in creative education. If food and science were taught like this in US schools, America would be a nation of genius gourmands. Most importantly, however, I'm Just Here for the Food will furnish you with the knowledge to cook up some seriously Good Eats.
Book Review: Wonderfully informative!
Summary: 5 Stars
Let me preface this first by saying that I am a college graduate whose formal scientific learning has been lacking since 10th Grade biology. That said, I have been slowly branching out and trying to apply some cooking techniques to create my own dishes as of late, with some success, but with no real foundation as to why I would perform a certain cooking function as opposed to another. There was no method to the madness, so to speak. I purchased this book after reading some reviews here, as it looked to be exactly what I needed at this juncture in my culinary journey. I cannot say enough good things about this book! It really gets into the "whys" and "hows" of what's really going on in there. It is very informative in terms of what goes into making a successful cooking experience just as well as it explains what can turn your dish south. The key here is that it is done in a way that doesn't talk over your head, from a scientific standpoint, but detailed enough so that you walk away understanding.
Lastly, but certainly not least, are the great diagrams coupled with the typical Alton Brown style of humor which really made it a book I could not put down until I had read it from cover-to-cover. This book will have a lasting impression on how I approach cooking from this day forward.
If you are looking for a book which will break down cooking and, in turn, raise the level of your cooking game... this absolutely is the book for you. I am strongly considering buying his book on baking based solely on the strength of this book. You will be amazed!
Book Review: QUIRKY, FUN, AND INFORMATIVE
Summary: 5 Stars
I never used to watch Alton Brown on the Food Network. I had always found him a little too "out there". It was my fault. I just wasn't getting where he was coming from. But at some point, I think during one of his Thanksgiving shows, a light bulb popped on and I thought, "Ahhh...now I see!" Brown isn't your typical Food TV chef. Like Rachael Ray, Brown was more a food fan, than chef, a man who came from a background of directing TV commercials and music videos. And it is that background behind the camera that makes him so endearing on camera...the quirkiness, the slightly left of nutty as Brown explains the kinds of things you don't normally see on cooking shows or in cook books.
And so it goes with this book. More than just presenting recipes Brown, in his witty, off-beat style educates on cooking and cooking techniques. Brown explores the science of cooking (and don't let the word science intimidate you). You will also learn what to and what not to boil, microwave, bake, roast, and broil. There are even a few handy inventions such as making a heat blower out of a pipe and a hair dryer to get those coals in your grill hotter quicker, longer, and better.
Rather than laying out his cookbook in standard fashion with types of foods, Browns book is sectioned off by cooking method Such as grilling, Roasting, boiling, and frying. That's because Brown believes that how you cook is everybit as important as what you cook. This may be the most unique cookbook you will ever find. Informative and entertaining. A true joy to read.