chefhenry

As many before me in this thread have mentioned, Claudia Rodin, one of her first books was my first exposure to the cuisine of the area. At the time (20+ years ago) it suited my skills and needs wonderfully. I would also agree with previous posters that while North Africa, and Morocco might not technically be Middle Eastern their cuisines are similar, in taste and technique, with that in mind I would like to add New Moroccan, by Mourad Lalou into the mix. Have just received this book and have yet to make anything, but the writing and the updated style of cooking, the variations, and the sense of place that this book can impart make it a keeper for sure. While I am certainly no expert in the Cuisines of the area and the traditionalists might frown this is the kind of cookbook I really enjoy adding to my collection.

I' m with Kouign Aman on this one myself, I only need one cookbook... One more. The other day on Twitter someone hit the nail on the head when he joked (I assume) that his favorite cookbook store should just garnish his wages to make life simpler for all involved.

I've had the book for a while now, and have even had a few hours to spare to spend with it. I really have to say that I am really happy with my decision to get it. Not a cookbook at all per se but a book about cooks/chefs, and their obsessions and creativity. The artwork is amazing and as you read the passages you can't help but be inspired and get creative in your own kitchen. Love it as a pick me up when the day has been less than stellar. My only quibble is with my own impatience to get it, so I ended up paying much more than I would have, had I waited for a Canadian bookseller to carry it, but noooo not me... Ended up with the "Special Edition" though, very nice boxed set.

Apologies if I missed it being suggested with all of the other excellent ones above, but as I have mentioned elsewhere recently, Ruhlman's Twenty is apparently an excellent tome to get one thinking along the right lines in the kitchen. All the books and recipes in the world are no match for thought, and knowledge of technique. Just my $0.02.

I've barely begun to scratch the surface, but Notes from a Kitchen is one book that is certainly up there in the beauty of the photography. Definitely not a cookbook, but a book about chefs and their passion/obsession the artwork/photography almost overshadows the printed word.

Apologies if I scanned through the thread too fast and missed them but @ideasinfood and@akikamozawa are the couple behind (obviously) Ideas in Food, a great blog and website, and busy on Twitter also, and if you want more chefs to follow on twitter, just look at who some of your own favorite chefs are following, it can really snowball into quite the list very quickly. Becomes addictive, entertaining and informative, all at the same time. @chefhenry

Just browsing around here today, even though it's an old thread I figured I would put in my two cents for anyone else dropping in. If you are looking for high end Japanese knives I unreservedly recommend Knifewear, out of Calgary, and online. Paul's finest has some nice knives also for online shopping as well as the site mentioned above japanesechefknife.com, and there is always Korin, out of NYC. Personally I have bought online from Paul and the product and service is great. Shopping in person at Korin was quite the experience, and came home from there with the Gyuto that I use daily right now. But for the real deal and great prices in the higher end (hand made, etc.) Knifewear is the place to shop, it's a love/hate thing for me since anytime I'm in Calgary I just have to go, and end up with a new knife. Of course you really only need one knife... One more.

You can never go wrong with The Joy, and Pepin's La Technique & La Methode are now out as a single volume. All of them served me very well in my earlier years. One book that has gotten great reviews online seems to be Ruhlman's Twenty. I have a couple of his works and they do their job well, Ratio especially, haven't gotten Twenty yet myself but a cookbook with a first chapter titled "Think" as one of his essential techniques has to be a great resource for a young aspiring cook.

While I will probably end up purchasing it regardless when they figure out int'l shipping I was wondering if anyone has received a copy yet? Haven't seen a critical review yet, but of course those don't get published, or featured as often. Is it everything that it's cracked up to be? Certainly not the most expensive "cookbook" of the year but still...

Likewise, not sure what you are after. There is the online reference built and maintained by Martin Lersch(sp?) @ khymos.org called textures, but that is dealing specifically with hydrocolloids and the different textures one can achieve. That may be of help to you, then again, even if it's not what you are looking for it is an interesting book(let).

I, for one, will never again agree to a catering gig in a "well equipped" kitchen without checking out said kitchen in person. Simple menu, only sixty guests or so for a friends wedding turned into the day from hell when the kitchen in the church basement turned out to be more poorly equipped, and not much bigger than, my home kitchen. Well equipped is quite the relative term I guess...

Pouring out the leftover water and boiling fresh water every time is a good idea anyways but the scale will build up regardless, the interaction between the hot metal and the hard water is what draws the calcium and/or magnesium out of the water and it adheres to the metal during the heating phase. Our water is so hard here that we have to scrub the deposits off everything constantly, really plays havoc with all of the plumbing too!

Hi there, yes the mvs31, and all of the minipak machines apparently work as an external sealer. One just has to reverse the sealing bar and presto, works like a Food Saver, when using the chamber vac this way though you need to use the Foodsaver type bags, you need the texture of the bag to allow the sealer to draw out the air. I tried it, just to reassure myself that it did work, but haven't really found the need to seal anything larger than the 31 can handle. And in response to the earlier question, never had any buyers remorse about the couple thousand to substantially upgrade from the Foodsaver. Aside from the big savings on the bags, sealing liquids etc.. The kicker for me was compression, yuzu flavored compressed watermelon kind of made the whole deal even sweeter.

I finally took the plunge and pre ordered about six months before the eventual release date, and still ended up waiting an extra month until the bulk of the first printing run made it to North America, for me anyways, patience paid off with Amazon.ca a couple of hundred cheaper than they are asking these days. Certainly concur with the general view of the tomes though, simply amazing, it'll be a long time before I have the opportunity to even leaf through all the volumes, let alone begin to digest all of the information. Simply too busy, must retire... From cooking... So that I can cook more..

Current collection only runs about fifty or so, all the usual suspects; most of Keller's works, Alinea, Noma, a couple from Ruhlman, elBulli, and most recently added Modernist Cuisine. Years down the road though, I think the one I will cherish the most is a signed copy of Natura, purchased at my first Starchefs congress.

Got my copy about two months ago, just joined the forums here very recently though. Professional cook but ironically will not be using this book, or any out of my collection at work. The fine dining, sous vide, hydrocolloids, etc... Are for my home cooking. Located in Edmonton, Alberta these days, but work up in the oil-sands camps, feeding the workers extracting the oil.