Cookbooks

A friend of mine asked me "Why would you still need cookbooks when there is this wonderful thing called the INTERNET?" You know what? He made a really good point. All you have to do is go to a site like Google or Bing, start to type in whatever recipe you are looking for, and a thousand different recipes will pop up. It really is the epitome of convenience. But, for me, there is still something neat about grabbing an old cookbook and casually flipping through the pages. Why, might you ask? Allow me to explain....

The best way for me to describe this would be to compare it to grocery shopping. Most of the time, I'm headed to the store with the intention of buying a set list of ingredients. As I'm cruising the aisles, I'll usually see something that's not on the list and say "Oh, this is on sale. Maybe I'll make ____ tomorrow night." Now, I'm gonna make something that I wasn't even thinking about an hour ago. That's how it is with cookbooks. I'll see a recipe I haven't thought about or made in a long time, and that might inspire to make that or something completely different than what I had originally intended.

So why am I talking about cookbooks in the first place? Well, a recent venture to Barnes & Noble is why. It had been some time since I was last there, and I was pleasantly surprised to find some new books in the bread and baking section.

For some reason, it seems like new baking books only come out once every 5 years. Seriously, it's been a while since there has been a good book on bread published. Now, Ciril Hitz has a book out. If you don't know who he is, let me say that this guy is truly a master in bread making. You can't fuck with this dude.

Since I work in pastries, I tend to gravitate to books in baking and pastries. But, that doesn't mean I don't like to peruse the hot foods cookbooks. When it comes to those, I try and avoid stuff like this:

Any cookbook put out by a major chain is usually shit. They are just going to rehash old recipes and put a new name on it. So, what cookbooks are worth their weight? Well, it depends....

In my opinion, some of the best cookbooks to invest in are school books. I'm talking about ones like The Professional Chef. It not only has tons of recipes, but detailed instructions on everything from temperature to technique. You don't need 10 different variations of this book. One will do. Trust me, this is the kind of book you grab first when you have a cooking question.

For me, when I'm thinking about buying a cookbook, one the first things I look for is how the measurements are done. If the book has recipes in only volume(i.e. Cups), I'm putting it down. The most accurate way to measure ingredients is by weight. Plain and simple.

After that, I'm looking for some originality. I want to see something more than just another goddamn red velvet cake recipe. I'm not even crazy about red velvet to begin with!

Here are a few books I own that I know I can count on:

Out of the three, The Professional Pastry Chef is my go-to. I've tried numerous recipes from this book, and all of them have worked. When I need a base recipe for a bread or pastry, I grab this book.

The book from the French Culinary Institute is just what it says, all about technique. Lots of pictures and explains every action in detail. Good recipes and great book of reference.

The last book might look a little intimidating for the average home cook. But, looks can be deceiving.

Most people in the food biz will tell you that Elizabeth Falkner is a pastry bad ass. In my humble opinion, she kicks fuckin' ass in the kitchen! Everything she does just elevates the food to new levels. I was really hoping for her to win the Next Iron Chef. Fuckin' Zakarian won. Oh well, back to the book!

She has some great plate-ups in the book and really inventive ideas on classic desserts. One thing that stood out for me was that she added a timeline on each recipe for what you could make ahead of time. It might say "3 Days Ahead- make gelato." And it would say how far ahead for each component. A very nice touch.

Again, this is just my point of view. Do you have a cookbook you lean on? Or have you upgraded to apps? Let me know what think.

I'm out.

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