Books About Cooking (Formerly "Cookbooks")

Before I delve into this entry, I need to mention that I work at a book store. (It is one of - if not the - largest bookstores in the United States, so take a guess as to which one I am referring.) From working at a book store, I know that there are shelves and shelves of books about cooking, which until recently were called "cookbooks." Of course there are the old standards: Martha Stewart, Julia Child, Betty Crocker (who is not a real person!), et al. However, there are now a plethora (yes, plethora) of others out there thanks to the advent of The Food Network and modern publishing/marketing in general. I have purchased two books about cooking recently - Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook by Jamie Oliver (the "Naked Chef") and Basics: The Foundations of Modern Cooking by Filip Verheyden. I am not going to give a full review of Cook with Jamie in this post because I want to do justice to how spectacular I think it is, but I have a few problems with Basics that I will share with all of you.

I do not pretend to be an expert chef, nor do I even presume to play one on television. I would classify myself as someone who has a basic understanding of how to cook and how to navigate the kitchen - an "intermediate" level if you will. Verheyden's book, Basics, is very basic - in its presentation. Explanations are relatively brief if Verheyden has been kind enough to include them at all in some cases. For example, Verheyden explains what a roux is, but he neglects to explain how one should go about creating it. The photographs in the book are beautifully done - if I were looking for food art to hang on a wall. Practicality is lacking. All of the pictures in the world of what a roux should look like are not going to make it any easier for me to actually make a roux. (In case you are wondering, a roux is a butter-flour mixture used to thicken sauces.) This book is virtually a compendium of food pornography for cooks to reference for definitions - not techniques/methods!

I purchased this book without looking through it first, which of course is a cardinal sin of book-buying, but I was short on time. Believing the "review" blurbs on the front of the book, I purchased it, thinking that it would be a valuable resource to me. As you can see, I have been greatly disappointed. Tomorrow, Basics returns to its shelf in the bookstore waiting for another unassuming cook/chef to purchase it under false pretenses. If you read this post, please do not make the same mistake that I did. Avoid Basics by Verheyden and look for another book about cooking to suit your needs. No one - chef, cook, or guru of microwave cuisine - needs a cookbook that functions better as a mini coffee table book, regardless of how nice the pictures are. (Then again, if you have coffee table books, you have the money to burn on books such as Basics.)

On a lighter note, I will write about Oliver's Cook with Jamie in my next post to share a glowing review of a great book about cooking.