Jacques Pépin's Complete Techniques by Jacques Pépin
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Book Reviews of Jacques Pépin's Complete Techniques
Book Review: Great book, no colour photos inside though!
Summary: 4 Stars
Great book, no colour photos inside though!
Also, paid extra to speed up delivery - this didn't happen.
Book Review: Not quite what I was looking for....
Summary: 3 Stars
This huge book is full of French techniques for cooking and presentation. I am an amateur home chef and love learning new techniques and ways to cook, but I felt that this was full of techniques and recipes that would just never get any use in my kitchen. It has great information on French cooking, but after reading through the book, I realized that French cooking just is not really appealing for my tastes, or anyone in my family for that matter. If I do end up making any recipes in the near future, it would probably mostly consist of just a basic sauce, like a beurre blanc for example, or maybe something not too complex from the dessert section. I felt a bit disappointed once I got the book and had a chance to skim through the recipes. I think I was looking for something that would inspire me to create my own recipes and make some of theirs too, but instead I was quite grossed out by about half of the recipes and techniques in the book. I think my next cooking literature investments will be something from The Culinary Institute of America possibly. I was looking for a book that would make me hungry just reading it and want to jump in my kitchen and start whipping something up.... this book made me lose my appetite.Book Review: Good, but...
Summary: 3 Stars
Before you buy this, check out La Varenne Pratique by Anne Willan. It is similar, but superior, to Pepin's Complete Techniques. The pictures are larger, clearer and in color, and the information is as comprehensive, if not more so.Book Review: Excellent Book With Insurmountable Flaw - No Color Photos!
Summary: 2 Stars
Originally I gave this book "one star" because of the terrible photography. In retrospect, that was perhaps too harsh. The recipes alone make Master Pepin's book worth buying. And I mentioned this in my original review, calling the book "excellent" despite its terrible flaw. Tragically, the lack of color photos makes the book very difficult for a beginning chef. Some professional chefs may disagree, but that's understandable, they already know the techniques Chef Pepin attempts to teach through his very poor black and white illustrations. Keep in mind that the book is suppossed to be primarily a book on COMPLETE TECHNIQUES (the full title of the book is Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques). I realize Chef Pepin actually combined two books to produce this text -- one on technique and another with lots of recipes. And I do love the organizational structure of the book. The insurmountable problem is that the pictures are eye-strainingly unbearable. I would happily pay twice the amount for the same book with larger color photos, where one could actually follow the knife and hand techniques. In the twenty-first century, there is absolutely no reason to impede education in so respected a field as the culinary arts by opting to keep a book cheaper with black and white photos. The result is not a greater exposure of the culinary arts to the general populace, but broader confusion on how to conceptualize the technques. Having said all of this, I recommend the book simply for the recipes. In addition, not all of the black and white photos are impossible to make out. Most are impossible, but not all. Master Pepin should encourage his publisher to republish a color photo version of this text. For people interested in usable color photos of cooking techniques, refer to Le Cordon Bleu's Complete Cooking Techniques. This book is actually less substantive than Master Pepin's -- though a wonderful introductory book. Jamie Oliver's new book KITCHEN is geared towards the beginner and is a wonderful introduction to nouvelle European cuisine. Jamie demonstrates some knife and hand techniques in clear, usable color photos. He shares with the reader lots of herbs and fusion ingredients and techniques. An even more impressive new text is Rocco Dispirito's FLAVOR which teaches a beginner a lot about ingredients, though little about knife and hand techniques. (For those of you who saw The Restaurant on cable and thought Rocco a big ..., I agree. But his cookbook, Flavor, is phenomenal. I bought it despite his apparent a-hole personality in that show.) Michel Roux's book on New Techniques is wonderful for beginners, as is his book on Sauces. Both books share with the reader useful knife and hand techniques, using many other tools of the trade.Book Review: Love Mr. Pepin but hated and returned this book
Summary: 1 Stars
I agree with a previous reviewer and thank him for recommending La Varenne Pratique by Anne Willan as an alternative to this book. La Varenne is a beautifully photographed, well-organized book that truly is a book of cooking techniques. This book is much more a collection of esoteric recipes for fancy, specialized french cuisine.
The worst thing about this book is that there are no headings on the pages so you can't tell what section you're in as you move through the book and the bottom footer only says "Technique seventy-eight"--how is that helpful? The book almost seems like it was cut off at the top and bottom to make it smaller for printing. It reminds me of the self-published photocopied books from the early days of desk-top publishing. Maybe I'm being a little harsh, but compared to La Varenne Pratique by Anne Willan it is inferior....unless you are interested in boning various cuts of meat and fish and then cooking them in aspic or in puff pastry, or turning vegetables into fried potato balls, zucchini puff paste, etc.
If you want to know how to select, prepare, serve and store everything from vegetables and fruits to seafood and meat I recommend La Varenne Pratique instead. If you want to open your own fancy French restaurant then maybe buy this book too!