Product Description

Notes on Cooking is an essential primer that can help anyone become a better cook -- without a single recipe. The book's 217 notes deliver the indispensable culinary truths, the highest standards of conduct, and the timeless gems of cooking wisdom that have been taught and passed down by top chefs for generations.

Here is what every cook needs to know, beyond the recipe. In assertive, no-nonsense language, the notes provide explanatory commentary, helpful examples, and rare quotes by great chefs and others as diverse as Georges Auguste Escoffier, Leonardo da Vinci, Daniel Boulud, and Alice Waters. They include, as well, life lessons about how to bring delight, how to recognize quality, and how to see beauty in simplicity that are as valuable outside the kitchen as they are inside.

Until now, such enduring good advice has rarely been found outside a professional setting. For the beginner wanting to improve, the seasoned expert looking to review the highest culinary standards, or the food lover seeking a fascinating glimpse into the pursuit of epicurean excellence, Notes on Cooking provides a unique and invaluable apprenticeship.

Notes on Cooking is the second in the acclaimed Notes on... series by RCR Creative Press. The first was Notes on Directing by Frank Hauser and Russell Reich, a triple award-winner endorsed by Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Tom Stoppard, Sir Richard Eyre, Rosemary Harris, and Edward Albee.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6944 in Books
• Published on: 2009-06-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 176 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780972425513
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
In all ways to-the-point, Costello and Reich's guidebook offer kitchen commandments for a realm that often tends to a little of this, a little of that thinking. Costello's culinary skills are well matched with Reich's pithy writing in more than 200 directives on everything from cooking duck to ripening fruit, for which they lay down the major rules of cooking and kitchen conduct in as few as a couple of lines. Beginning cooks will find relief in their strong declarations—Do not stuff a turkey; Always preheat the oven—instructions that, once learned by heart, make cooking easier and end with better food. The explanations for these rules are succinct but amply informative so as to please anyone who has cooked long enough to already be following them instinctively; they draw on basic kitchen science as well as the collective knowledge of culinary experts like Jeffrey Steingarten and Michael Nischan to make a case for the validity of their decrees. Some notes are less concretely didactic than others (Chicken is the test of a cook's versatility, for example), or leave room for interpretation (Dress salad lightly), but all are brightly informative enough to help cooks make better decisions and, in the end, be more productive and happier in the kitchen. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Library Journal
This small primer by restaurateur and chef Costello and coauthor Reich (Notes on Directing) delivers both practical and philosophical advice beyond what one will find in a cookbook. Its goal is to pass on knowledge that will help readers think like a chef, not merely follow a recipe. Some 217 "notes", or entries, are organized into 19 topical chapters that can be read in any order and include cross references among the notes. The notes offer simple advice like remembering to date and label perishables to lesser-known tips like how to pick the healthiest chicken in the grocer’s case and testing eggs for freshness. The authors also include appendixes on flavor lexicon, classic combinations, and cooking essentials as well as 11 annotated recommended readings. Verdict: Both novice and more experienced cooks will appreciate the plethora of useful and valuable advice here. Overall, a delightful culinary resource.

Review
"Notes on Cooking is exactly what it says it is: a short guide to an essential craft. There's enough wisdom here to inspire any home cook or seasoned professional." --Dan Barber Executive Chef / Co-owner, Blue Hill

"Concise, focused, and sensible. Notes on Cooking is full of useful advice for young chefs. Well worth reading." --Jacques Pépin, Chef, Cookbook Author, and PBS-TV cooking series host

"I wish Notes on Cooking had been written about 35 years ago, when I started cooking professionally. It is an excellent source of level-headed, practical and essential advice; indispensable and wonderfully succinct." --Michael Romano, Chef, Union Square Hospitality Group

"In Notes on Cooking, Lauren Braun Costello and Russell Reich bring you indispensable advice, experience, and know-how of many great chefs. This handsome book is both inspirational and practical, and a superb addition to the library of any passionate cook." --Daniel Boulud, Chef, Restaurant Daniel

"It's amazing how much cooking wisdom, sense and technique is crammed into this little book. It's like Mom, James Beard and Julia Child, Harold McGee and Escoffier all together in the expurgated version." --Gael Greene, insatiable-critic.com

"Every cookbook should have this short book as a preface. It is the unmeasured recipe for the systematic, creative, and fun act of cooking. The message and guidance of this book is invaluable to all who dare to enter the delicious world of food preparation." --Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, Host, Lidia's Italy

"An abundance of tips, ideas, and caveats. The list of food adjectives is one I'll refer to myself and the list of recommendations is indispensable. The food pairings are the most insightful I've ever seen. Work well done." --James Peterson, five-time James Beard Award-winner

From Booklist:
Costello takes the many culinary lessons she has learned over the years, from master chefs and her own experience, and distills them into digestible koans for this book,"of interest to the aspiring cook" and a "stimulant to the experienced practitioner". She notes that as she draws firm lines always and never instead of usually and rarely this will likely lead readers to disagree with her on occasion or spot certain contradictions, a process she admits might be just as valuable for a deeper awareness of craft as ingesting any of her dogmatic assertions. The "notes" contained herein range from Zen-like mantras ("Do not be surprised by surprising results"); to more fundamental but essential reminders to take proper care of your knives and shop locally; to weirdly specific admonitions, such as avoiding using even numbers or symmetry when plating. Chefs will find themselves nodding along here and frowning there, but anyone who's ever wielded a whisk or screwed up a sauté will nonetheless find this book both tantalizing and indispensable. --Ian Chapman, Booklist

From Publisher's Weekly:
In all ways to-the-point, Costello and Reich's guidebook offers kitchen commandments for a realm that often tends to a little of this, a little of that thinking. Costello's culinary skills are well matched with Reich's pithy writing in more than 200 directives on everything from cooking duck to ripening fruit, for which they lay down the major rules of cooking and kitchen conduct in as few as a couple of lines. Beginning cooks will find relief in their strong declarations "Do not stuff a turkey"; "Always preheat the oven", instructions that, once learned by heart, make cooking easier and end with better food. The explanations for these rules are succinct but amply informative so as to please anyone who has cooked long enough to already be following them instinctively; they draw on basic kitchen science as well as the collective knowledge of culinary experts like Jeffrey Steingarten and Michel Nischan to make a case for the validity of their decrees. Some notes are less concretely didactic than others (" Chicken is the test of a cook's versatility", for example), or leave room for interpretation ("Dress salad lightly"), but all are brightly informative enough to help cooks make better decisions and, in the end, be more productive and happier in the kitchen. --Publishers Weekly Presents: Cooking the Books, May 5, 2009

From Foreword:
Kitchen Craft. A handful of high-quality, petite non-fiction books seek to deliver content in short, pithy, declarative statements believing the technique lends authoritative credibility; the best example being Strunk and Whites The Elements of Style. One wonders why book reviews cant effectively play this game, especially now that we have another excellent example of the genre in Notes on Cooking: A Short Guide to an Essential Craft (RCR Creative Press, 978-0-9724255-1-3), by chef Lauren Braun Costello and acclaimed writer Russell Reich.

1. Beware the book cloaked in numerous glowing testimonials unless the blurbers have unimpeachable reputations like Daniel Boulud, Jacques Pepin, James Peterson, Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and the other heavyweights as is the case in Notes on Cooking. 2. Cooking wisdom must be timeless and applicable to cooks of all levels. A veteran of professional kitchens, Costello chides her peers to always be "open to considering new perspectives and ways of working," and counsels humility by encouraging cooks not to "bemoan the pedestrian tasks. Find pleasure in peeling a carrot, steaming rice, searing a steak, prepping, cleaning. " 3. Useful books offer nuggets on every page without requiring readers to start from the beginning. Notes on Cooking is expertly organized into 19 chapters, from Understanding the Recipe through to Presentation and Last Thought where readers are lectured: "Always be cooking. Hone your craft by doing it. Stop reading. Start cooking. " 4. That said, readers who hang on until the very end will find in the Appendices superb lists of food adjectives and 80+ flavor combinations, e.g., beets and lemon, leeks and chestnuts, sweet peas and pancetta, to name only three. --Matt Sutherland, ForeWard, May/June 2009

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Customer Reviews

Fabulous!
"Notes on Cooking" is just a perfect book. It's well-written, concise, informative, interesting and entertaining all at the same time. I'm not a professional cook, but I do like to cook when I have time. The tips in this must-have treasure are priceless. How could I not have known some of these things, like where to store raw vs. cooked meat in the fridge? Plus all the insider tips from professional kitchens made me feel so in-the-know. I'm giving copies of this to everyone. As a mom of young kids, I don't have time to take a cooking class now, but this book has taught me more than I could hope to learn in one. It is truly essential for anyone who prepares food in any way, from pb&j to gourmet restaurant meals. Plus it takes two seconds to read. Perfect!

Notes on Cooking -- Not Good ... GREAT
I saw an early copy of this book and the finished book delivers on every promise the cover makes and reviews note. It is pithy-yet-deep, eminently readable, and remarkably comprehensive without being overbearing. The voice of the book is a mixture of benevolent grandmother and master chef spiced with a delightful dose of nun with a switch. I may, as they encourage, find my own way but I will heed their notes in many places. (Do I really need to put bacon in a cold pan? I will now!) But while the Strunk & White analogy is appropriate, to me Notes on Cooking is much closer to Jim Collins' Good to Great. Strunk & White gives you an excellent road map for writing but when using the book it doesn't matter if you're a good writer. Notes on Cooking gives you and excellent road map for cooking and will surely help the novice cook but it will captivate and advance the craft of those of us who are already good and even great in the kitchen. I admit, I was skeptical - I mean who needs more rules right? Plus I know how to cook. Nope. This book had me at hello and inspires me to do what the last note says, "always be cooking."

It's a Series!
I read the first book in this series, NOTES ON DIRECTING, with extreme pleasure, so when I saw there was a second in the series on COOKING, I was surprised and intrigued. And upon reading it, I was more than delighted. On the surface, directing and cooking may seem to be as similar as chalk and cheese, but after the first few pages it became clear that these two books were both designed to serve a common purpose: to impart basic, practical wisdom in a bright, consistently compelling style. NOTES ON COOKING is an ideal gift for anyone who cooks (or eats!), and I'm making a list of friends who I know will welcome this addition to their culinary bookshelves. I'm also looking forward to the next volume in this unique and surprising "Notes on ..." series.