Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work: A Cookbook

If a book's worth can be measured by the number of dog-eared pages, then Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work could turn around the international financial crisis. In fact, my copy has so many turned page corners that I'm expecting a `Cease and Desist" order to arrive at my home any day now. Well over 75 pages are marked as requiring my re-reading and note taking. And lest you think I'm a chronic book destroyer, a quick scan of my most favorite and used books show less than ten dog-eared pages in any one book. This is one worthy book for anyone who cares about the inner workings of their food or for anyone who wants someone to do the homework for them so they can simply follow instructions and put out great dishes.Aki Kamozawa and H. Alex Talbot are the pragmatic culinary uber duo from Ideasin Food.com and the Kitchen Alchemy column of Popular Science magazine. Their kitchen pedigree includes Clio in Boston and a slew of smaller kitchens and consultancies. In the modernist cyber kitchens, Alex and Aki are royalty.The much anticipated Ideas in Food comes in at 320 pages with zero pictures, sketches, drawings or even graphical imagery. That's right! This book, the sister of the blog, as know for its rich stimulating photography as its cutting edge techniques, has left the artistic creativity to the reader's imagination. Instead, it hones in on the science of creating great food. And Aki and Alex bring the reader this science in such a friendly way that even the most science phobic among us will be able to understand why eggs cook the way they do.But with Harold McGee and Hervé This books and the countless food blogs (paramount among them: CookingIssues.com) that examine food science, where does Ideas in Food fit in? Having read pretty much every food science offering, I can say that this is the densest and most accessible of them all. McGee and This offer more lab sterile approaches to food science where their findings are undisputed and readily disseminated. You can't go wrong with either. CookingIssues is more experimental and up-to-the-minute, but at the whim of its authors' fancies. Ideas in Food starts with the basic principles but quickly races down roads guided by their own creativity. What good is it to learn the best way of making pasta if you don't do anything interesting with it? Where McGee and This's lecture circuit is the classroom, Kamozawa and Talbot's is in the kitchen.The book is divided into two sections: Ideas for Everyone and Ideas for Professionals. The Ideas for Everyone section includes seasoning and preserving, bread, pasta, gnocchi and risotto, eggs, dairy, fruits and vegetables, and meat and seafood. The Ideas for Professionals section includes hydrocolloids, transglutaminase, liquid nitrogen and carbon dioxide. Possibly because I work with the professional additives that they cover, I did not find the professional section overly useful (with the exception of carbon dioxide which rarely gets coverage) with the exception that it provides a succinct summary of the various hydrocolloids. However, the Everyone section was ripe with new and refined ideas.With no fuss, Aki and Alex throw out tip after tip. For example, they state that in frying "We use rice bran oil for frying because it has a high smoke point and a clean, neutral flavor, which means that fried foods tend to cook evenly without burning or absorbing any heavy flavors from the oil." After reading this I switched my restaurant's oil over to rice bran oil and we haven't looked back. Really, rather amazing stuff - how did I not get the memo on this earlier!? And transfat free!In regards to brining, "We don't generally wash fish and seafood; instead we soak them in a 5 percent salt solution for ten minutes. This soak coagulates exterior proteins, firms the flesh, and extends the shelf life of the fish." When considering the best way to have pasta cook quickly, "The answer was a cold-water soak. This technique almost completely separates the hydration and cooking processes. We know that starch needs water to cook properly. A cold-water soak, at a 4:1 ratio of water to pasta, allows the starch to slowly absorb the water that it needs to gelatinize." Page after page of tips and techniques that are not esoteric, but down-to-earth useful.Ideas in Food also offers 100 recipes ranging from scrambled eggs to root beer braised short ribs. Nothing crazy and fancy, just food that you're likely to attempt at home. And while the authors may mention the use of the expensive professional gadgetry in the introduction to the recipes, none is required to attempt the recipes in a home kitchen.Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work is a worthwhile book for your library. It is said that humans only use 10% of our brains, and if you only use 10% of this book, your meals will still be richer for it.

Even though my expectations for this book were extremely high, I can honestly say it's leagues better than I could have imagined. For anyone with even basic cooking technique, from home cook to professional, there truly is enough to reinvigorate and elevate your creativity in the kitchen for a long time.The book is organized broadly into two parts, firstly for the home cook and lastly professionals. The techniques in the second part are not necessarily more difficult, but simply address newer food products and applications such as "meat glue", liquid nitrogen and carbon dioxide which most home cooks would not likely have on hand. However, Aki and Alex make them so familiar and understandable in their explanations that I'm left to believe that some will be as common to us as baking powder and gelatin someday.The home cook section covers such topics as how to perfectly cook eggs, make no knead bread, fresh pasta, pickling and preserving, making vinegar from scratch, fruits and vegetables, ice cream, making fresh cheeses and a ton more! What I liked most is that unlike most cookbooks which just give you the "how to", Aki and Alex explain in simple detail why each step is taken in the recipe so these topics are truly demystified once and for all and you are left feeling like you've grown to be a more confident cook and not just followed someone's instructions.I've only had the book a few days and I've already "cryo-blanched" some Kale to great effect (this is simply using a foodsaver vacuum sealer to vacuum seal raw kale leaves, freeze them and rethaw them so the process tenderizes the vegetable without cooking and destroying the nutrients.) I couldn't believe how easy it was.Another great technique is their explanation of "pre-hydrating starches", which again in practice is simply soaking rice or pasta for a few hours in cold water (or any other flavored liquid!), draining it then cooking normally but in less time. When this is done the starch cooks quicker, and allows for the addition of extra flavor via the soaking liquid, really cool!I have read my fair share of cookbooks and in terms of value for your investment I can't imagine a better pick than this book. There is so much knowledge, explained with such finesse and enthusiasm, this is definitely a rare find. I thank the authors for their contribution and hope they keep the ideas coming! :)

The authors' also have a blog of the same name which is a great resource - this book is like an extension of that blog. There are some fantastic techniques in here, for example hydrating pasta before cooking. This was a very inspiring read, and I already apply quite a bit of what I learned to my cooking.I took off one star from my review for how the science behind the techniques is presented. It comes across as slightly wishy-washy, although not necessarily incorrect. What I mean by that it that it doesn't seem like the authors have a complete understanding of chemistry they are presenting, so they chose to couch the explanations to accomodate a less informed audience.For context of my point of view, I have a background in biochemistry and have worked in the pharaceutical engineering business for 13 years so I have high standards for scientific information.

Overall,Excellent reading. The explination of the theory involved for the recipes is easy to understand.The recipes are straightforward and easy to understand.Some are not for the faint of heart, great for the serious foodie and at home cook, many are good for this and professional cooks alike.The blog that this book is based on is very informative aswell.The book is well bound, the paper is decent and appears to be a low acid type so it should age well. The only setback is no photography, but the price is well worth what you get.

As a trained chef and also specialty cookbook recipe tester amd developer I find this book to be excellent for both homecooks amd professional chefs the refrences for transglutaminase (Aka Activa aka meatglue) and food addictive like stablizer are great

Not what I expected.

useful and worth getting, if one is interested in knowing what goes on beyond the scenes in contemporary restaurants. this book is divided into sections: one for home-cooks and one for professionals. the information (technical and scientific) is sometimes daunting, but it is necessary, I guess.I started reading their blog and then I bough the book. I would not say this is a MUST have book (a more home-cook friendly book is How to Read a French Fri) but one does get a lot of good info about the how/why of food.some recipes are not terribly inviting, especially from a European point of view (as with many American cookery books one would occasionally like to say to the authors: less is more). there is a Japanese slant/twist to the whole book, that is not particularly inviting for me, but this is a matter of taste.I would suggest: first read the blog, then check the book out in your library and get the feel of it. then buy it.all in all: these guys know what they r doing and do it pretty well. I am glad I bought it. did it throw an amazing new light onto my cooking and knoledge? no. Did I get more than a couple of useful tips and hows? definetely.

I follw their blog, very interesting and inventive. They gimme lots of inspirations. Anyway, back to the book, this book will give you an information why and how things work in that way especially in molecular gastronomy world. Easy to read , didn't have full on information that put you off.