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The Alinea Cookbook

avant-garde

By avant-garde
in Cookbooks & References

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  • 2 weeks later...
reid

reid

Posted
Posted

I received my book yesterday and I must say that I am truly disappointed. :sad:

It took more than a year for me to receive my book and it arrived damaged. If I had known that it would be shipped via surface mail, I would have gladly paid extra to have it shipped via air mail.

The book was poorly packaged so it was easy to see why it arrived in the condition that it did. A couple of emails sent via the contact us link on the Mosaic site have gone unanswered. I am not sure what to do at this point, especially since all the limited edition copies have been sold out.

Hopefully, Nick will read this and provide some insight. According to the initial email I received from the Alinea team the book should have been shipped via "track-able" airfreight.

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Tri2Cook

Tri2Cook

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Posted
It took more than a year for me to receive my book. 

That part's not really a valid complaint considering the release date has always been Oct. 2008 regardless of when you decided to place the order.

The damaged part sucks, did you file a report with the carrier?

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

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reid

reid

Posted
Posted
It took more than a year for me to receive my book. 

That part's not really a valid complaint considering the release date has always been Oct. 2008 regardless of when you decided to place the order.

The damaged part sucks, did you file a report with the carrier?

Oh I was not complaining about that. I spoke to the Post Office about it. They did not commit to anything. :angry:

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Tri2Cook

Tri2Cook

Posted
Posted
It took more than a year for me to receive my book. 

That part's not really a valid complaint considering the release date has always been Oct. 2008 regardless of when you decided to place the order.

The damaged part sucks, did you file a report with the carrier?

Oh I was not complaining about that. I spoke to the Post Office about it. They did not commit to anything. :angry:

Yeah, I hate dealing with the postal service sometimes. My latest shipment from l'epicerie arrived with a big hole punched in my bag of apple pectin and about 2/3 of it gone. I'm going to ask next time if they'll ship another way.

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

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reid

reid

Posted
Posted

I just received an email from Kate with the Alinea Book Team. She indicated that they would be sendinf a new book out. I asked if I could pay more to have it sent via UPS or Fedex and I am awaiting her reply.

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avant-garde

avant-garde

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A very interesting thing happened to me with this Alinea cookbook.

Last night I was looking through my collection of cookbooks and immediately went to grab my copy of the French Laundry cookbook. I did so because I have been doing nothing but carefully perusing the Alinea cookbook for the last couple weeks. I thought to myself, what would the French Laundry cookbook look like to me now after reading Achatz's face melter. Would I somehow remember the book as I have in the past, or would it appear to be very dated. Well...I couldn't believe how simplistic all the recipes were in the French Laundry cookbook. Mainly because I had to adjust my thinking back to recipes that didn't contain maltodextrin, agar agar, etc.

This is in no way to discount chef Keller and his cuisine. The French Laundry cookbook hit me just as strongly when I first received it and dove into the stories and recipes. I believe, like many, that Keller is still at the top of his game today. However, after returning once again to the Alinea cookbook (after reading the French Laundry cookbook), I have come to the conclusion that this work of art is truly ahead of the times and one that will take a long time to catch up with. I can't even begin to imagine what will be surfacing from the restaurant industry in the next ten to fifteen years that will make this book look dated.

Thank you Grant and staff for the hours of reading and inspiration...

"A woman once drove me to drink and I never had the decency to thank her" - W.C. Fields

Thanks, The Hopry

http://thehopry.com/

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  • 3 weeks later...
jgm

jgm

Posted
Posted

Jennifer Day has written an interesting article in the Chicago Tribune about attempting to make one of the recipes in the book.

Enjoy!

In case you're reading this weeks or months from now and the link no longer works, the name of the article is "Making 'Bean'--a $352, 31.5-hour, 175-mile cooking odyssey."

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  • 4 weeks later...
tan319

tan319

Posted
Posted
Jennifer Day has written an interesting article in the Chicago Tribune about attempting to make one of the recipes in the book.

Enjoy!

In case you're reading this weeks or months from now and the link no longer works, the name of the article is "Making 'Bean'--a $352, 31.5-hour, 175-mile cooking odyssey."

Great article and interview link too! ("...Tiger Woods")

2317/5000

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  • 2 weeks later...
phan1

phan1

Posted
Posted
A very interesting thing happened to me with this Alinea cookbook. 

Last night I was looking through my collection of cookbooks and immediately went to grab my copy of the French Laundry cookbook.  I did so because I have been doing nothing but carefully perusing the Alinea cookbook for the last couple weeks.  I thought to myself, what would the French Laundry cookbook look like to me now after reading Achatz's face melter.  Would I somehow remember the book as I have in the past, or would it appear to be very dated.  Well...I couldn't believe how simplistic all the recipes were in the French Laundry cookbook.  Mainly because I had to adjust my thinking back to recipes that didn't contain maltodextrin, agar agar, etc. 

Thank you Grant and staff for the hours of reading and inspiration...

You can see Keller's evolution by comparing his new "Under Pressure" book as well. His new book is very different from his French Laundry cookbook, as his food now looks very modern, almost El Bulli-ish in style and presentation.

On an opinionated, critical note about the Alinea book, I HATE the photography in it. I don't want stylish photos with crazy angles and affects in my cookbooks. I want to know what the dish freakin looks like! With these artsy fartsy photos, you can't even tell what the dish really looks like half the time, literally. I've seen photos on blogs that better depict what the actual dish looks like. But other than that major gripe, I love the book. :)

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avant-garde

avant-garde

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted
A very interesting thing happened to me with this Alinea cookbook. 

Last night I was looking through my collection of cookbooks and immediately went to grab my copy of the French Laundry cookbook.  I did so because I have been doing nothing but carefully perusing the Alinea cookbook for the last couple weeks.  I thought to myself, what would the French Laundry cookbook look like to me now after reading Achatz's face melter.  Would I somehow remember the book as I have in the past, or would it appear to be very dated.  Well...I couldn't believe how simplistic all the recipes were in the French Laundry cookbook.  Mainly because I had to adjust my thinking back to recipes that didn't contain maltodextrin, agar agar, etc. 

Thank you Grant and staff for the hours of reading and inspiration...

You can see Keller's evolution by comparing his new "Under Pressure" book as well. His new book is very different from his French Laundry cookbook, as his food now looks very modern, almost El Bulli-ish in style and presentation.

On an opinionated, critical note about the Alinea book, I HATE the photography in it. I don't want stylish photos with crazy angles and affects in my cookbooks. I want to know what the dish freakin looks like! With these artsy fartsy photos, you can't even tell what the dish really looks like half the time, literally. I've seen photos on blogs that better depict what the actual dish looks like. But other than that major gripe, I love the book. :)

I agree with the picture comment. I used to hate that about Trotter's cookbooks, too. Take a picture of the whole plate from the (would-be) perspective of the diner. That would be better for me I think...

"A woman once drove me to drink and I never had the decency to thank her" - W.C. Fields

Thanks, The Hopry

http://thehopry.com/

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  • 2 weeks later...
TheSwede

TheSwede

Posted
Posted
...

You can see Keller's evolution by comparing his new "Under Pressure" book as well.  His new book is very different from his French Laundry cookbook, as his food now looks very modern, almost El Bulli-ish in style and presentation. 

...

You can actually see this evolution even with el Bulli itself. The recipes in A Day at el Bulli (from 2008) are magnitudes more complex than the ones in the el Bulli 2003-2004 cookbook.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 years later...
mkayahara

mkayahara

Posted
Posted

The recent announcement of the first list of errata for Modernist Cuisine reminded me that I don't have a copy of the errata for the Alinea cookbook anywhere, and now that the Mosaic is apparently defunct, I no longer have online access either. Does anyone have a copy of the official errata that they'd be willing to share, or know of somewhere else it's available online? Thanks!

Matthew Kayahara

Kayahara.ca

@mtkayahara

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hapacooking

hapacooking

Posted
Posted

The recent announcement of the first list of errata for Modernist Cuisine reminded me that I don't have a copy of the errata for the Alinea cookbook anywhere, and now that the Mosaic is apparently defunct, I no longer have online access either. Does anyone have a copy of the official errata that they'd be willing to share, or know of somewhere else it's available online? Thanks!

http://www.alineaphile.com/archives/10-Errata,-Alinea-cook-book,-first-edition.html

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mkayahara

mkayahara

Posted
Posted

The recent announcement of the first list of errata for Modernist Cuisine reminded me that I don't have a copy of the errata for the Alinea cookbook anywhere, and now that the Mosaic is apparently defunct, I no longer have online access either. Does anyone have a copy of the official errata that they'd be willing to share, or know of somewhere else it's available online? Thanks!

http://www.alineaphile.com/archives/10-Errata,-Alinea-cook-book,-first-edition.html

Wonderful, thank you! *clicks on "Print"*

Matthew Kayahara

Kayahara.ca

@mtkayahara

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