|
The Professional Chef | 
 enlarge | Author: The Culinary Institute Of America
Publisher: Wiley
Category: Book
List Price: $70.00
Buy New: $41.85
You Save: $28.15 (40%)
New (48) Used (29) from $36.77
Avg. Customer Rating:  56 reviews
Sales Rank: 1540
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 8th
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 1232
Shipping Weight (lbs): 7.8
Dimensions (in): 11 x 8.9 x 2.3
ISBN: 0764557343
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.57
EAN: 9780764557347
ASIN: 0764557343
Publication Date: August 28, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW
|
| Accessories:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
"A serious reference for serious cooks."
-Thomas Keller, Chef and owner, The French Laundry Named one of the five favorite culinary books of this decade by Food Arts magazine, The Professional Chef is the classic resource that many of America's top chefs have relied on to help learn their cooking skills. Now this comprehensive "bible for all chefs" (Paul Bocuse) has been thoroughly revised and expanded to reflect the way people cook and eat today. The book includes essential information on nutrition, food and kitchen safety, and tools and ingredients, as well as more than 640 classic and contemporary recipes plus variations. One hundred and thirty-one basic recipe formulas illustrate fundamental techniques and guide cooks clearly through every step, from mise en place to finished dishes. This edition features nearly 650 all-new four-color photographs of fresh food products, step-by-step techniques, and plated dishes taken by award-winning photographer Ben Fink. It explores culinary traditions of the Americas, Asia, and Europe, and includes four-color photographs of commonly used ingredients and maps of all regions. Written "with extreme vigor and precision" (Eric Ripert, Chef and co-owner, Le Bernardin), The Professional Chef is an unrivaled reference and source of inspiration for the serious cook. The Culinary Institute of America (Hyde Park, NY, and St. Helena, CA) was founded in 1946. Known as the Harvard of cooking schools and credited with having "changed the way Americans eat" by The James Beard Foundation, the CIA has trained nearly 50,000 foodservice professionals.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 51 more reviews...
 The Professional Chef by CIA January 9, 2009
My son who is just starting out as an assistant chef in the restaurant business, says this is a great resource to have. Not for the average cook, for very serious individuals who are in the business in someway (caterers, cooks or students.)
Professional Chef December 24, 2008
I received my book before the projected due date, which was great. However, I was disappointed that the spine of the book was damaged, but the rest of the book was perfect. I attempted to contact Amazon regarding the matter, even to point of returning it, but I could not get through to the page to let Amazon know of my issue. I just kept getting for re-routed back to my home page.
I am not sure if the damage to the spine was originally like that (from the warehouse)or if it was damaged during shipment. The packaging that the book was placed in was really poor, for a book of its size. The hardback book is a very heavy(contains over 1200 pages). If it would have rained, the book would have suffered water damage, because there were openings on both sides of the packaging and it didn't help that the UPS man just left the book at my front door, in the element.
Nevertheless, other than the spine issue, I was pleased with the timeframe in which the book arrived and the book.
Totally worth it December 16, 2008
I bought this book thinking it was going to be my course book but the teacher changed it before the semester began. BUT I still enjoyed it. This is something you don't have to be in culinary school to get! Has some great recipes!
Amazing Book For A Student Becoming A Chef!!! October 18, 2008
This book is a very useful tool. I am going to school to become a chef so it was very helpful with getting all the information. This book is WONDEFUL!I have probably ready over this a few times...and it a big book!
It is such a great book; it has so many useful things to know.
I know I will look forward to the 9th edition.
This is a keeper!!!
Thanks!!!!!
A New Standard August 29, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Cookbooks are a dime a dozen. There are plenty of books out there that are filled with their fair share of mouth-watering recipes. What is rare is a book that tackles cooking from a conceptual and technical angle. Books like The Joy of Cooking or How to Cook Everything try to go beyond the typical cookbook and try to be kitchen manuals. But what those books are is cookbooks first, and books about how to cook second. The Professional Chef is culinary textbook akin to what you'd expect from an academic text for teaching a vocation.
As you might guess, the book approaches cooking as a profession. Culinary students will benefit from ample discussion not only of technique and cooking procedures, but also of the various other roles and skills demanded of chefs. For example, the book discusses the various systems and conventions of dividing labor in the kitchen, and describes the differences between an executive chef and a saucier chef. For those in culinary school or thinking about pursuing a culinary career or education, this book is perfect.
But for home cooks and cooking enthusiasts, don't assume that this book is not for you. If you're serious about cooking, even just as a hobby, there's something to be said about the comprehensive approach of learning techniques, terms, ingredients, and procedures in a structured way that proceeds from the simple to the complex--which is exactly what this book presents. It discusses and introduces the reader to nearly ever major ingredient and nearly every major cuisine. It's encyclopedic in the depth and breadth of the information within--much more so than the Joy of Cooking or similar books--and it gives the kind of technical training that one really needs in order to read, follow, alter, and otherwise truly understand recipes in the first place.
The recipes that are included--and there are many--include just about every major dish from every major cuisine. Goulash? Check. Béarnaise sauce? Check. Are dolmades your thing? It's in there. What about an authentic pad thai or summer roll? You'll find those too. What's great is that the text relates dishes so that similar dishes can be seen as progressions or alterations to basic techniques that are being covered. You learn how to braise, then you get various applications of that procedure from around the world. The text presents cooking from a truly global perspective, so students and readers won't find it difficult to tell how a single concept transcends dishes such as pilaf, risotto, cous cous, paella, pilua, or jambalaya and how the minor variations in technique and the focus on particular ingredients, flavors, and textures, makes these individual dishes what they are.
In short, you'll learn things in this book that you might not learn well or at all in any other book. The seriousness with which the text approaches cooking will benefit the home cook and help him or her to excel beyond the Rachel Rays and Paula Dean's of the world, while those aspiring to a future in the culinary arts will gain a solid introduction to the foundations of their chosen craft, discussing both the artform and the science and underlying mechanics of that artform. Everything from choosing equipment to the proper application of heat and a basic understanding of the physics behind it, will be found within these pages. The difference between this book and those aimed at home cooks is the difference between a college-level text on Spanish and a pocket guide of Spanish phrases. You might be able to quickly say "hello, my name is Pablo" or ask where the bathroom is, but you'll never really know the beauty of the language, nor ever really be able to understand it nor be able to say anything that hasn't already been laid out for you in that pocket guide if you lack a comprehensive introduction to the fundamentals. Similarly, cooking is about more than recipes and incomplete knowledge... it's about methods, procedures, applications, techniques, ingredients, and the creative and artistic freedom to navigate within that framework in accordance with one's own style and flare.
|
|
|
Student Superstore Suppported by International Scholarship Resources and Amazon.Com
| |
