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| The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution | 
 enlarge | Author: Alice Waters
Publisher: Clarkson Potter
Category: Book
List Price: $35.00
Buy New: $20.96
You Save: $14.04 (40%)
New (44) Used (15) Collectible (1) from $18.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  69 reviews
Sales Rank: 1354
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.1
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 7.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 0307336794
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.5
EAN: 9780307336798
ASIN: 0307336794
Publication Date: October 2, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 66-69 of 69 | | « PREV 1 ... | | |
 Brave New World October 5, 2007
23 out of 26 found this review helpful
I've barely owned this book a few days now, but its importance too me has skyrocketed in that time. I bought it because Alice Waters wrote it, and I have all her other books, so I might as well own this one too. By the second glance inside I was certain that isn't just another book to add to the collection. This is a powerhouse of a cookbook
Alice knows what she is talking about it and she gets right too it. The recipes are direct and have some of the most relevant text I've ever seen in a cookbook. She talks about what you need to do, and gives some fabulous instructions on how go about cooking what you want. She lacks a bit of the why you need to do things, but you can read Alton Brown or people like him to find that out.
I especially like the binding. It feels like a real book, in addition to looking like a real book. It isn't plagued with color photographs either, which helps to give it credibility as a legitimate cooking text. Looking at pictures is great if you want to look at pictures, but cooking isn't about looking at nice pictures of food; content about cooking is far more useful than pictures of things that have been cooked.
"Cooking 101" from the mother of modern cooking October 4, 2007
279 out of 293 found this review helpful
It's hard to write a review of a cookbook that you've only had for two days-- you have to actually try the recipes to know if they will work. (I have several beautiful cookbooks by famous chefs that omit important directions, or give wrong quantities of food.) However, I felt strongly enough about this book that I wanted to write an early review.
For those of you who don't know, Alice Waters's restaurant, Chez Panisse, is probably the most important American restaurant in the past forty years. Waters pioneered the use of high quality, local ingredients. The restaurant itself is delightful; they've served some of the best food I've ever eaten. In the Bay area, where I live, farmers and artisans at local markets often proudly claim that their food is served at her restaurant.
Waters begins the book by extolling her philosophy: buy local, high quality ingredients, and cook them simply. (Of course, simple for a professional chef is different than simple for a home chef. I consider 6 ingredients to be pretty complicated, especially if they are all fresh ingredients.) She then proceeds to give very explicit directions on how to cook things: roasts, vegetables, baked goods, reminiscent of the explicit directions given by Julia Child in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume One, or by Maida Heatter in Maida Heatter'S Book Of Great Desserts. Finally, she gives lists of recipes for many dishes.
What makes her recipes unique are the variations that she provides for each recipe. Here's one simple example: for a chard frittata, she recommends substituting other greens, such as collards, rapini, or stinging nettles (I have alway wondered what to do with stinging nettles). Or, in a recipe for pancakes, she says to add one cup of whole grain flours, telling you to mix multiple grains including spelt, wheat, corn, or whatever else you feel like adding. (She does note that you need to use a minimum amount of whole wheat flour for the gluten to bind it all together.) I've seen other books that tried to teach you how to vary recipes (for example, Cookwise: The Secrets of Cooking Revealed), but this one does a very good job of explaining where you should improvise and where you should not. Most importantly, this book gives you a real feeling of why each dish is great, and really captures the soul of each recipe. I've never seen another cookbook that had this much discussion of each recipe.
This is a very good book about food. It's similar to other introductory cookbooks like The New Basics Cookbook, or The New Best Recipe: All-New Edition with 1,000 Recipes, but I think Alice Waters does a much better job explaining how to cook. (For example, I like the two pages she devotes to pan-frying pork chops. That recipe, incidentally, has four ingredients: chops, oil, salt, pepper.) She is not as good a writer as, say, Jeffrey Steingarden (author of The Man Who Ate Everything), but I don't expect her to be. (This is more of a cookbook than a book of essays.) Honestly, I have dozens of books that cover the same set of recipes as this book, but I have no other book that makes me want to cook every recipe. I would recommend this book to anyone who cares seriously about food.
[Update on 8/1/2008. I've now tried a number of recipes from this book, including the short ribs, apricot jam, many of the salads, pork chops, and sauerkraut. Every recipe I've tied has worked, and most of them have been very straightforward. This has become my "desert island" cookbook; it's the first place I turn when I don't know how to make something. I strongly recommend this book to anyone, experienced or not.]
 very nice cookbook October 3, 2007
106 out of 116 found this review helpful
A few preliminary comments from the author that put the book in context. From the author (pages 4, 5): "This book is for everyone who wants to learn to cook, or to become a better cook. . . . I'm convinced that the underlying principles of good cooking are the same everywhere. These principles have less to do with recipes and techniques than they do with gathering good ingredients, which for me is the essence of cooking." Key aspects of her "philosophy" are printed on pages 6-7, among which are: eat locally and sustainably (use small, local producers as sources of fruits and vegetables, for instance); eat seasonally (a companion rule to the previous one); shop at farmer's markets; etc.
The start is nice, in that she lays out what ingredients (herbs, for instance) and equipment should be on hand for effective cooking. One simple example: the author's emphasis at several points on the value of a good supply of fresh aromatic foods to enhance flavors in a recipe (e.g., onions, carrots, and celery). Then, she discusses how to plan menus and entertain friends for dinner. Not recipes, but useful context.
The recipe sections begin with a rendering of how to make several essential sauces, including vinaigrette, salsa verde, aioli, and herb butter. None of the recipes calls for rocket science knowledge, but they are well explained and doable. One nice feature--some possible variations on the recipe. E.g., with vinaigrette, she notes that one variation could be to beat in a bit of mustard before you add the oil; alternatively, she suggests that one could a fresh nut oil for the olive oil.
There is a nice discussion of sauteing as a technique, with a nice example immediately thereafter (sauteed cauliflower). Another example of technique--poaching. Following the general discussion, she uses an example quite familiar to me: poaching salmon. I have a handful of recipes featuring poached salmon (the fish cooks through, satisfying my family, and still stays moist, satisfying me).
There are a sampling of recipes for poultry, fish/seafood, meat, etc. While the recipes are nice, I wish that there had been more. One thing I like in cookbooks is abundant choice!
Anyhow, this is a nice reference for those who enjoy cooking; it's probably also apt to be useful to those who don't like much cooking but want some doable and good recipes when called upon to fix up a meal. Worth taking a look at.
A great addition to your cookbooks October 3, 2007
9 out of 19 found this review helpful
I would have given the book five stars. But I found it just a bit difficult to navigate in parts. But I'm not really a cook. So those of you who are cooks and know your way around a kitchen may find this no issue at all.
Alice Waters emphasizes good, fresh, healthy and simple ingredients in the dishes she makes. She goes through all the basic preparation techniques for creating delicious, balanced meals that don't take hours upon hours to create. That's what I like about it.
She also tells you the utensils you'll need and how your should stock your kitchen.
"We're trying to educate young people and show them how to use that lens of ingredients as a way to change their lives," she said. "Otherwise, it would be just another cookbook."
"Food can be very transformational and it can be more than just about a dish," she said. "That's what happened to me when I first went to France. I fell in love. And if you fall in love, well, then everything is easy."
I believe in simplicity. So I guess that's why I appreciate this book.
Highly recommended.
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