The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life

SERIOUSLY, this book is beautiful. Packed full of information but not long winded, incredibly well researched but not academic, and the layout is a like Chris Nolan film - meticulous, exciting, unpredictable, worth the wait.What you will take from this book:1) That child like curiosity and wonderment you've long forgotten. You will get back to grips with one of life's greatest gifts: LEARNING.2) The best primer for learning cooking out there. Whereas most cookbooks look to other cook books to guide them. The Four Hour Chef looks to other cook books for what not to do. We've all spent hundreds of hours watching cooking programmes, art programmes, DIY programmes and deceive ourselves into thinking we're learning as we sit there. After reading this book, you may actually learn from cooking programmes when you watch them in the future. You'll have a context.3) A book Jason Bourne would carry with him.I can't begin to imagine the amount of decisions Ferriss had to make when deciding what to include/leave out and what order to put things in, it's quite an achievement. Anyone who complains about this book is most likely LOOKING for things to complain about. You have to remember Ferriss has made friends with dozens of top chefs during the making of this book, and referenced dozens of top chefs in this book, all of whom will most likely read it, so do you really think he'd humiliate himself by turning out a load of voodoo? You decide.

I downloaded this book at midnight, such was my excitement. Having previously read both the 4 Hour Workweek and 4 Hour Body I couldn't wait to see what this book had to offer.The book has lots of colourful pages, diagrams and photos so I'd highly recommened reading it on a tablet as opposed to an e-reader.The book is split up into a number of sections, starting off with meta-learning, or learning how to learn. It then flows into the following different sections.Domestic - Which is a beginners guide to cooking and what equipment is needed etc.Wild - Where Tim talks about hunting and how to make water drinkable and over survival-esque methods.Scientist - This covers the more complex side of cooking and provides a number of receipes and the science behind them.Pro - A look at the worlds top restaurants and a few easy favourites to take your cooking up to the next level.The book also covers other areas such as coffee, tea, cocktails, providing interesting and valuable brewing methods and facts.I look forward to trying out some of the receipes and will update this post with my results...you never know I may submit a few pictures so show off my new found skills.Overall I found the book a joy to read and will no doubt keep coming back to it in the weeks/months ahead.

I bought this because the concept-using cookery as a starting point for teaching any skill-was interesting enough.A lot of ground is covered. First, the good points:The recipes and anecdotes very readable, and by breaking cookery down into various chemical processes (i.e. waffles and sauerkraut=fermentation, Nutella powder and beef jerky=dehydration) and kitchen or food-based skills (using a knife properly, cutting your veg more efficiently, dressing a carcass) it gives you areas where you can pick up and learn something tangible to improve your performance in the kitchen.This approach also uses cooking as a medium to learn other things, which is a nice use of "meta-learning"The "lessons", which are recipes broken down into photo-essays, are pretty good, showing what the end result should look like, troubleshooting any difficult or important bits. Showing you how to prep and make seared scallops or test by sight how well-cooked your meat is makes the visual impact of this book worthwhile. A great many cookbooks include gratuitous photos because people WON'T make the dishes and just want eye candyThe miscellaneous chapters (how to memorize a deck of cards, how to host dinner parties, the key characters of Japanese) are stand-out and useful.The not-so-good points:The emphasis on "gear". Yes, cooking demands you be precise in terms of ingredients but why list brand-name spatulas, peelers, cloths and sauce spoons? Is he taking out ads in the book? doesn't really detract, but when you list all these products, it gives the impression that these are vital parts of the cooking. This is not the case for minor kitchen implements.While some things are of notable quality, not all are and it detracts from making cookery easy to learn.The things omitted: he has a page-long digression on using the hormone desmopressin as a learning aid and never mentions anything about this again. As food and learning are the key themes of this book, the author could have combined them with a chapter on diets for mental performance. Otherwise, quite an unnecessary excerpt.The links, in a print book, to pages on his website. Why? If it was that important, why not include it, or save it for the ebook edition?The fairly pointless points:One lesson teaches how to make sous-vide in your hotel sink. Another chapter talks about eating 14000 calories in 20 minutes and then regurgitating it. In context, the chapter also discusses how to minimise weight gain when eating your favourite foods, but i can't help thinking a better recommendation would have been alternatives which don't stimulate you to eat unhealthy amounts?One recipe, Coconut Cauliflower Curry Mash, is an alternative recipe for mashed potatoes containing coconut and cauliflower, which seems like an exercise in pointlessly over-complicating.There are tea and music recommendations with every recipe. Tea is not paired with food like wine! Music? a personal choice, but conversation is better.Some more good points:The non-recipe stuff, which includes how to become a VIP at restaurants, how to build a shelter in the wild, make a fire, shoot a 3-pointer, and tie some pretty good knots, all round up to make a worthwhile and interesting how-to book. Ferriss has produced something pretty rare in making a guidebook that is practical, engagingly written and manages to accomplish it's avowed purpose. While I haven't yet made every recipe or learnt every lesson, it has helped me produce some dishes, learn differently and be more engaging and interesting at meals.I recommend it to anyone who eats, learns, eats and learns at the same time, and wants to get better at either.

I don't see how anyone can honestly review this tome of a book 2 days after it's been released. Even with speed reading and skimming it'd be so difficult and you'd miss so much that it'd be a pointless exercise.I don't own 4HWW or 4HB, in fact I thought the guy was some kind of con, spitting out books of the improve your in . So why did I buy it? A few weeks ago I chanced upon a YouTube video of Mr Ferriss giving a lecture, some of which rang true, other items made me question and explore for myself. I've always had an interest in cooking, but while I find recipes pointlessly constraining, the jump to how to progress past simple tweaking of a dish isn't really easily available without learning the entire subject A-Z. I don't have time to study an entire cuisine to learn what works, I need ideas on how to model the problem and tips & tricks that produce results.This book (so far) constantly astounds me with the diverse range of material that is really interesting (I'm an 'outdoors' person, albeit a very urban one, and still find food for thought in these sections), I won't list these as I feel it detracts from the experience of discovering them yourself. In short, I can't imagine anyone for whom this book isn't a riveting read.If you're the proud owner of a Kindle, and wondering if you should save a few quid and a couple of days, don't. Get the printed version, the entire book is full colour and any change to layout would ruin the delivery.It sounds a bit fan-boi (I'm moving in that direction, reluctantly!) but I'll likely pick up a hard-back version for reference and abuse the paper-back for first read.

I ordered this book having read the 4 hour body and expected something similar. But this book isn't similar to any other book I've read. First of all, you have the quality of the book itself. Plenty of beautiful, fun pictures, decent quality pages etc. I was surprised to see that the hardcover, when you remove the sleeve, has the exact same cover as the sleeve itself. However, most people don't buy books for the pictures, and let me assure you this book doesn't disappoint. The book is logical and the recipes seem easy to begin with. I didn't think that within a day of reading it I would be preparing a meal involving lamb shanks!But one of the best things about this book is that it isn't just a cookbook. In my initial flick through, I learnt how to capture a pigeon in a park, the principles behind learning Spanish (or any other language), and how to memorise a deck of cards in a minute. Not yo' mama's cookbook!I would definitely recommend this book. If there are any drawbacks whatsoever it might be that Tim's average audience earns an above average salary, and so to do everything as recommended you have to be willing to spend a few quid here and there.Other than that, as I say, the book gets top marks for both content and presentation.

I am a great fan of Tim's two previous books, but I was a little concerned about buying this as I'm not really in to cooking whatsoever, I leave that to my wife. But after reading this I have taken up the challenge of cooking at least twice per week and so far (2 attempts) things have gone surprisingly well.As I said I'm not really in to cooking but I fell for the marketing hype and decided to order both the paperback and the Kindle version (because I didn't want to wait for delivery). I must say the Kindle formatting isn't brilliant, I would recommend you stick to the paper/hardback if possible to benefit from the lovely colour photographs. You can always use the Kindle app on an iPad or their CloudReader which is better than on a B&W Kindle.So much more than just about cooking, the information on learning (which I have started to apply to learning Hindi, starting with the 13 sentences that give past, present and future tense, masculine and feminine etc...). Memorising a pack of cards is something I have wanted to do for some time and there is some great advice on how to do that which I have started work on.Most of the recipes are slow carb diet compatible which is great if you are still following the bulking up plans from Four Hour Body.Lastly, the web extras, such as the video on folding a shirt in 2 seconds is all very useful stuff, as was the page on washing up. I know this all sounds lame, but as my wife normally cooks, I was up so doing that 5 minutes quicker means more time to... help her fold the clothes washing. OK so that backfired but you can't have everything!Read it with an open mind and don't agree with everything Tim says, try it for yourself, but avoid making blanket statements such as "the book is claptrap like all his other books" without making a single specific reference and just a day after the book was released, all 700 pages of it. Such statements make it obvious you either haven't read the book, or equally as likely, can't read. OK so how did you write the review...? You exchanged "favours" with a monkey with a higher IQ than you (all of them) to write your negative Amazon review. By the way, the monkey told me you were crap in bed.

The four hour chefby Tim FerrissReview by Joe FajermanI bought this for my Kindle for 99p and brilliant value it is. To start with, when you open the book at page 1, the subscript tells you that the book takes over 8 hours to read. The 4 hour chef? Is there a trades description violation here?Xanthe Clay, in her review of this book (the printed version) in the Telegraph (pfeh) tells us that the four hour thing relates to the time taken to cook a number of exemplar recipes. Well, OK then. Like Xanthe, I also ploughed through a lengthy introduction on the philosophy of Ferrissism, on which I used a much tried and trusted technique - skipalot. When he finally got round to talking about cooking, after promising to be able to teach you to swim, play tennis, golf, Sudoku, and many other activities all to Olympic levels of performance, and to learn any language, all in the space of four hours, I was beginning to glaze. Until he started on about salt! Salt is important, and you must use the best! He advises most enthusiastically and at some length, that you use only “kosher” salt in cooking, and describes something like Maldon seasalt. Those nice, pretty, flaky crystals. Why this raised my hackles is because I'm Jewish and I know something about what constitutes kosherness. There's the pork and seafood thing and there's the milk and meat thing, and even the fabric thing, all of them based on superstitious interpretation of the scriptures by Babylonian Rabbis a long time ago. Salt does not figure in the kosher thing. Salt is neither kosher nor not kosher. It’s just salt! I came across the term Kosher salt some time ago in my online researches into recipes, and I decided to consult the oracle about it. I logged on to a highly Kosher website and checked it out. It was indeed mentioned. And it said what I have said. Salt is neither kosher nor not kosher. What it did suggest was that there was a confusion between kosher and koshering. Orthodox Jews will buy kosher meat from a kosher butcher and proceed to make sure that it’s really, really kosher by sprinkling lots of salt all over it in the mistaken belief that this draws out the blood, because of some biblical verse regarding blood and life. What salt does is to draw out water from the meat. There are those who say it also toughens it. The pink colour of red meat is due to myoglobin, a muscle protein similar to haemoglobin. The bible is silent on the distinction between them. So already I was off on a bad footing with Mr 4 hour chef. I carried on reading all about his dietary philosophy and how really simple so many things can be if only one followed his examples, and there was the occasional recipe. I have already tried one of them and it worked fine, but I think I could do it better. Most of the recipes are ones I did know and have done.And there's all the stuff about knife skills, butchering skills, slaughtering skills – at least I agree on his point that if you want to eat meat, you should be prepared to kill the animals yourself. All of these skill sets are accompanied by lists of the best tools to use, whether it’s knives for slaughtering and butchering, guns and crossbows for killing your own game, how to make a barbeque out of an old oil barrel (in the past when our family went camping in the south of France, I would wander down to the garbage dump, locate a suitable container and a suitable metal grid, from a fridge or oven – yes stuff like that lay about for the taking, fill it with charcoal and I had a barbeque).Read Xanthe’s review as well, she covers a lot of the more specific ground regarding actual cookery. She points out that Tim includes advice on what music to play while you are cooking or serving a particular dish! I ask you! And she probably didn’t skipalot either, like I did. Who knows? Critics work very hard and have to endure a lot of pain in their work.Anyway, for 99p on Kindle, this is great value! Go for it, budding self help aficionados.

I am the perfect Guinea Pig for this. I am a 32 year old single guy and live in a studio appartment and have never cooked proper food. Always trying to of course but never succeeding. I asked for the 4 Hour Chef for Christmas as I heard great things about it already. What appeals to me is that Ferris has acknowledged how cooking is an effort. Well here is the good news: this book will get you cooking without fuss and effort. I starting reading the book last night and have just cooked and eaten Osso Bukko. It was the most delicious meal I have ever eaten. I had to go out and get the ingrediants for this meal (only around 4 or so). I also had to get a dutch oven which didn't cost more than £20. BUT I COOKED IT!It was easy and exciting preparing the meal and I have already impressed a friend. I am looking to cook because women always ask that question on a date and if you can show a girl you CAN cook your on your way to success with girls and Tim Ferris talks about this as an important part of courtship and keeping a woman.I haven't tried any of the other meals as yet but Tim Ferris has got a complete beginner like me who has never cooked to easily prepare a world class dish within minutes.I highly reccommend this book if you want to cook and have no fuss or worry about it. I am really looking forward to the next meal. Well done Tim Ferris!

Muy recomendable, al principio pensaba que era un libro de cocina, pero tiene mucho más. Es un libro de autoayuda genial

Apliquei essas técnicas em várias áreas da minha vida... me ajudou a aprender a tocar violão, linguagens de programação e no meu doutorado, recomendo!

I'm not all the way through it yet, but I have to say I haven't been let down so far. Like Tim's other works, this is packed full of information and life hacks that I hope to use for the rest of my life. Thanks Tim.

Recomiendo todos los libros, podcasts, pláticas y consejos de Tim Ferris. Como él lo dice, no espera que sigamos su estilo de vida, pero podemos extraer grandes aprendizajes de sus "experimentos" y consejos.

Tim Ferriss hat ein Buch geschrieben, welches unglaublich spaßig zu lesen ist und das Thema "Essen" und "Kochen" in ein ganz anderes Licht rückt. Obgleich das Buch ausgesprochen schöne und wunderbar einfache Rezepte vorstellt, geht es doch um so viel mehr, egal ob man an Kochen oder Essen interessiert ist oder nicht, man kann doch alles Mögliche alles Mögliche für Leben mitnehmen!