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The Elements of Cooking: Translating the Chef's Craft for Every Kitchen | 
 enlarge | Author: Michael Ruhlman
Creator: Anthony Bourdain
Publisher: Scribner
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
Buy New: $11.00
You Save: $13.00 (54%)
New (30) Used (18) from $10.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  22 reviews
Sales Rank: 29419
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.3 x 0.9
ISBN: 0743299787
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.5
EAN: 9780743299787
ASIN: 0743299787
Publication Date: November 6, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
Amazon Best of the Month November 2007: Inspired by the Strunk and White classic, Michael Ruhlman's The Elements of Cooking will quickly prove to be an essential culinary reference for both seasoned cooks and novices who might not know gravlax from gremolata. After a thorough "Notes on Cooking," Ruhlman, a prolific cookbook author and popular blogger, settles in for an opinionated and informative A-Z roundup (from Acid to Zester) of cooking terms, lessons, and techniques reduced to their essential essence. Even with only one recipe (for veal stock), it's a must-have for every kitchen library--a book that will help you re-think your approach to food. --Brad Thomas Parsons
Product Description
Modeled on Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, The Element of Cooking is an opinionated reference work destined to stand alongside the shelf among the great works of the kitchen: On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee, Escoffier, The Joy of Cooking and the CIA's The Professsional Chef. Unlike those monoliths of the kitchen, this book is slim, clear and very to the point: here are the things you need to know how to do, here are the words you need to speak the langauage of food, and, most importanly, here are the ways you need to think about an approach food, the absolute essentials that every, not only good but great, cook knows.
Just as Strunk and White sits on the desk of every student and professional who has to write a sentence, The Elements of Cooking is destined to be the go-to book for any amatuer or professional cook. It defines terms, offers the basic ratios of important preparations (sauces, cakes, etc.) so that you will never need a recipe again and provides countless, simple chef's "secrets" that every home cook should know.
In eight introductory essays, Ruhlman has pared down the essentials of great cooking: understanding how to salt food; making stock; making sauces; using heat properly; working with eggs; having the right tools (there are only 5 essentials); what to read and use as a resource; and lastly, and most importantly, the use of finesse, that extra attention to detail that turns food glorious.
Simply written, this is a book that can be read in an afternoon and it's lessons be practiced for a lifetime.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 17 more reviews...
Another must have from Ruhlman. August 11, 2008
Great reference style book. Not what I expected from Michael Ruhlman but decent none the less. I was looking for more life and kitchen experience based writing, and found an encyclopedia of sorts. I wasn't sure if this was a revision to the "Food Lover's Guide" or a Ruhlman book. His writing though is as passionate and inspiring as ever. I just wish there was more of it. Personal library worthy.
 Chatty, not comprehensive August 5, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I was very excited about receiving this book, but on a careful reading, I'd have to say I'm disappointed. It's long on Ruhlman's self-absorbed writing style (did I really need another essay on his obsession with brown sauce after wading through _Making of a Chef_?) and a little short on useful information for serious cooks. Just a couple of examples that spring to mind: there's no entry for "simmer" (a much trickier temperature to figure out than "boil," for which there *is* an entry); and, there's no rundown on cuts of meat, which even my 1997 Joy of Cooking maintains! For home cooks looking to take their technique up a notch, I'd definitely recommend Jacques Pepin's Complete Technique in lieu of Ruhlman's book, even though it takes up 3x the space on the bookshelf (it's easily 5x more useful!).
 Off to a great start, but then... August 2, 2008
I was excited for this book, having heard great things.
The first 50 pages were exactly what I was expecting - real insights into cooking not apparent to the otherwise amateur home chef and professional wannabe. Those first 50 pages are filled with the kind of dicta I like in a cookbook, such as "never do...you must try...avoid at all costs, etc."
However that wonderful writing ends when the food glossary, what makes up the bulk of the book, begins. It's not to say that the information isn't useful and insightful in its own way, but most people probably aren't thrilled about slogging through food terms in alphabetical order. It's just not reader friendly.
My suggestion would be to keep the information, but organize it in a more thematic way as he started to in the beginning chapters.
 Elements May 12, 2008
From stocks, sauces, salt, ghee to Nage- a court like bouillon or anromatic liquid. This book has all the facts and terms that you will come upon when looking at recipes. I learn about food sources I never knew about before picking up this book as well as some old ones that gave me new insights to my meal I prepare. Good for anyone who cooks.
worth a look, but for me ultimately unfulfilling May 4, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is a great idea, and in many respects lives up to what it aims to achieve. It teaches an understanding of cooking rather than a parrot-recipe-imitate approach to food, but unfortunately, one thing you quickly learn is that other books are better at the 'how and why' approach to cooking such as On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen.
This book presents an attitude that I endorse, but doesn't provide the knowledge or the understanding to change cooking practices. There is not much that I am able to do better having read the book. Perhaps I may change cooking stock in a pressure cooker, but while the book details the preparation of veal stock it doesn't really detail the disadvantages of other methods. Unlike Strunk and White's The Elements of Style , this book does not have a left-hand column(common mistake) and right-hand column(correct way). Neither does it have a section on the "principles of composition", which would be very useful. The second and main part of this book is a useful glossary of cooking terms, but not a "how and why" on common cooking scenarios.
This is no Strunk and White, and while it is opinionated the author relies heavily on the knowledge and authority of others to communicate his ideas. There is much of "so and so does this" instead of a "because of this, do this to get that", which I would have preferred. There is name dropping and an assumption that some jargon terms are understood.
The book guides the reader in the right direction, but leaves him with little substance.
While I give it three stars now, this book may stay with me for some time as a reference, and I am glad that I now know what books to buy next.
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