A nicely presented cook book with simple, easy-to-follow recipes

books:


	• Think Like a Chef Tom Colicchio Clarkson Potter, 2007 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 28 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A nice approach to teaching the topic.

This book was a quick read for me. I made it through, with kids around, in a few hours. Based on previous reviews I thought it was more of a book, with some cookbook type recipes thrown in. Now that I've been through it, it's a cookbook, organized to teach a lesson, but still a cookbook. Lot's of mouth watering pictures, plenty of recipes, and very short stories on how and why you are doing what you are doing. Each "lesson" is a quick read. The recipes look great, and help you to hone your skills and learn the craft.

I think the author did a good job in bringing his technique to the masses, and I better understand now the magic that happens in a chef's brain that allows him/her to see a few ingredients and picture a complete meal. I also respect and agree with the premise of starting with the basics, braising, blanching, etc. As with most complex endeavors, a firm background in the basics makes all the difference.

There is one complaint that I have with this book, and perhaps it will go away if I can COOK my way through the book rather than read my way through (the recipes are there for practice, not just to eat). Although I see how the professional chef combines ingredients and techniques and the end result just happens, and I understand that what is fresh at the market tells you what to make, when I get to the fresh market, I'm still overwhelmed with what to pick and what to do. Mustard greens, fresh tomatoes, turnips, carrots, lettuce, etc, etc. What goes better with pork? Can I put corn and turkey together? Apples and chicken? It's like I need a color matching wheel to match foods together and I didn't get that out of this book. I still cannot see the end of the road, the final product, and always end up with too many shelled peas and having to run back for mushrooms, which I didn't even think about. I know others who put together meals easily on the fly, so it may be some mental block in my head but I still find myself backing my way into a recipe by picking one main ingredient, then looking for something that includes it, then hunting all over for all the other ingredients.

I did build a meal on the fly one time, as the author does and professes, and it was pure nirvana. The family loved it; the ingredients were all fresh from the garden and simply prepared, and spiced up with simple additions. But don't read this book thinking it'll have "the secret." Putting these combinations together requires knowledge and experience, neither of which is fully available from a book.

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Informed Cooking

I very much like this book and much of it has helped me already in my cooking. Full of simple and logical ideas on how to cook, and cook better. I am well pleased and would recommend this book to anyone.

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Great Book!

This book is so personable, and fun to read, it doesn't even feel like a cookbook! I bought this for my fiance, who is addicted to Tom's show "Top Chef," along with the Top Chef cookbook (another great book)! Definitely would reccommend this to anyone interested in boning up on their culinary skills.

A nicely presented cook book with simple, easy-to-follow recipes

I'm a huge fan of Food TV and Top Chef (which for the record blows away The Next Iron Chef America).

So my friend got me this book for Christmas last year. An easy tone permeates the book, which helps carry the reader between Colicchio's personal stories, the recipes and how to connect them into masterful meals.

The recipes are easy to follow and, as promised, build on techniques and themes described in the opening chapters.

I do have some suggestions for improvement which might influence someone reading this review in their buying decision:

* Many of the cooking techniques are pretty basic. Blanching, roasting...these sections may not teach you anything you don't already know. But at least there are some basic recipes (e.g., roast chicken) included.

* By contrast, sauce-making was too brief and didn't formally cover any of the "5 mother sauces." Beurre blanc, apple cider sauce and beurre fondue are included...the rest of the chapter is devoted to vinaigrettes. Colicchio's premise is to use the techniques in the book to develop your own ideas. But if we are to think like chefs, I think more comprehensive coverage here would have been a tremendeously valauble addition.

* One reviewer pointed out some of the ingredients are hard to find or expensive. I think this book is better than some other celebrity chef cookbooks on this front. But each of the trilogies contain at least one expensive or hard-to-find ingredient. Perhaps at least one trilogy with more standard household ingredients would have been a better choice.

Overall I'm glad I own the book and have enjoyed every recipe I've made.

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That's right, not JUST a cookbook!

With all due respect, there are thousands of "cook books" full of recipes out there. If I understand Chef Collicchio's intent here, it is to help those of us who don't want to use recipes to succeed in the development of our own styles, understanding classical techniques and flavor combinations. I took this on a plane ride and almost got all the way through it before my son took it home after one of our semi-competitive Sunday dinners. I guess I'd better buy him his own copy, I see it is coming out in paperback soon. The book is well written and very, very readable and instructive. I've studied in France and the USA, and found both new and useful reviews of skills I should have had!

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

With Think Like a Chef, Tom Colicchio has created a new kind of cookbook. Rather than list a series of restaurant recipes, he uses simple steps to deconstruct a chef's creative process, making it easily available to any home cook.

He starts with techniques: What's roasting, for example, and how do you do it in the oven or on top of the stove? He also gets you comfortable with braising, sautéing, and making stocks and sauces. Next he introduces simple "ingredients" -- roasted tomatoes, say, or braised artichokes -- and tells you how to use them in a variety of ways. So those easy roasted tomatoes may be turned into anything from a vinaigrette to a caramelized tomato tart, with many delicious options in between.

In a section called Trilogies, Tom takes three ingredients and puts them together to make one dish that's quick and other dishes that are increasingly more involved. As Tom says, "Juxtaposed in interesting ways, these ingredients prove that the whole can be greater than the sum of their parts," and you'll agree once you've tasted the Ragout of Asparagus, Morels, and Ramps or the Baked Free-Form "Ravioli" -- both dishes made with the same trilogy of ingredients.

The final section of the books offers simple recipes for components -- from zucchini with lemon thyme to roasted endive with whole spices to boulangerie potatoes -- that can be used in endless combinations.

Written in Tom's warm and friendly voice and illustrated with glorious photographs of finished dishes, Think Like a Chef will bring out the master chef in all of us.

From the Hardcover edition.

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