Category Archives: Books

Is The Web Making Cookbooks Unnecessary?

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One of my favorite things is go into a Barnes & Noble, wander into the cookbook section, and start filling my head with all different types of food, dishes, and recipes that I could make from various famous chefs around the world.   Every Christmas, I’ll put a handful of these books on my Christmas list with hopes that Santa maybe my friends or family will get me one.

Over the years, I’ve been able to collect a few great cookbooks but I’ve found that I spend less & less time actually looking at them when I want to cook something.   The Web is my go to place for recipes.

For example, we got some Bok Choy as part of our CSA last week.  We wanted to make something with it last night.  I don’t even know where I’d start with my cookbooks.  We just went straight to the Web.

With online recipes, I can organize them all together, no matter what site they’re on.  I’ve found visual bookmarking tool Pinterest to be incredibly useful for something like this.  With a physical cookbook, there’s no way to organize or get a really good sense of what you get across all the books that you have.  There’s no search.

A lot of celebrity chefs have made speciality iPhone or iPad apps which are supposed to help bridge this cookbook to Web divide.  But these apps are just as much of a pain.  I can’t search across them.  I have to remember what recipes are in what apps and remember to go back to them.   I bought the Mario Batali iPhone app long long ago and don’t think that I’ve touched it since.  The one app that’s proved useful is Michael Ruhlman’s Ratio App but then it’s more of a utility  for measuring ratios than a eCookbook.

The price is right with online recipes.  It’s free.  I can go to something like All Recipes or Cooking Light and get tons and tons of field tested recipes with reviews for no cost at all.  Or… I could go to a store and pay $20, $30, or even $45 for the dead tree edition that has a fraction of the recipes in it.

So what is a budding cookbook author to do?  Well, is it about seeing your name on a book in a book store or is it about distribution?  If you’re going for distribution… if your’e going for getting the most people to make your recipe, I’d imagine the Web is the best avenue.   If I was someone making a cookbook, I’d put the recipe online and then sell access to some kind of premium video content that showed step by step  how to make something.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s cookbook is the most notable one of recent to have launched. I wonder what her  expectations are.  How do you differentiate and move units?

What do you think?

Julie & Julia – A Delightful Movie About a Blogger’s Journey To Follow Julia Child’s

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Last night after unwrapping Christmas presents and playing the 24 Edition of Clue (which was awesome), I watched the movie Julie & Julia, with my parents.   The movie chronicles the journey of blogger Julie Powers and she works to cook her way through Julia Child’s book Mastering th Art of French Cooking.

Because the movie is about a blogger and about food, I think it naturally gets extra points.  But… It’s a good fun movie.

Of course, I had heard about Julia Child before.  I was familiar with who she was but never really knew her back story.  A few times, I had been to the exhibit in the Smithsonian Museum of American History where they have Julia’s kitchen.

Meryl Streep does an amazing job of capturing her essence, her look and her voice.  It’s pretty outsanding

I also didn’t really understand to the extent that Julia played a role in bringing the technique of French cooking over to America and making it accessible to the home chef.

I just bought Mastering the Art of French Cooking on Amazon.  It was only like $20.  If you watch any Food tv, you always hear about the importance of classic French technique and the influence that it’s had on American cooking.  I’m excited to learn and better understand the culinary side of the movie.

If you’re as new to Julia as I am or are looking for a fun movie, I’d highly recommend Julie & Julia.

Have you seen it?  What’d you think?

Learning About The Ratios of Cooking from Michael Ruhlman’s Book and iPhone App

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If you watch the TV show Iron Chef on the Food Network, you’ve probably seen chef and food writer Michael Ruhlman.  Back in April of this year, he released a book entitled “Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking.”

In the book, he talks about how a lot of the great recipes that we have for things like bread, sauces, batters, custards, and others are all based off of some pretty simple ratios.   For example,  for bread dough, you use 5 parts flour to 3 parts water.  For Mayo, you use 20 parts oil to 1 part liquid to 1 part egg yolk.

When you watch these food shows on TV, I’ve always wondered how chefs remember all these recipes.  Well, then I realize that it’s not about memorizing recipes it’s about memorizing ratios.   If you can memorize 3 parts meat to 1 part fat then you can make your own sausages.

I’m anxious to dive into more of the book and even try them out over the long holiday break.  I picked up the book for my Amazon Kindle.  I’ll let you all know how it goes.

One of the cool parts (Yes, I am  a nerd) is that you can get all the ratios in an iPhone app for just a couple of bucks.  It seems like it’s totally worth it.

Happy cooking!

Anthony Bourdain’s New Book “Medium Raw” is Coming In June 2010

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If you’ve been reading this blog for very long,  you know that I’m a fan of Chef and travel/food writer Anthony Bourdain.  So… I’m pretty excited to hear that Anthony is putting finishing touches on a his new book “Medium Raw,” which is set to come out in June 2010.  The book is set to a be a follow up to the much beloved book Kitchen Confidential.

Why Do Bagels Have Holes?

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Bagels are something that I’ve enjoyed from a very young age.  They’ve always been a part of my culinary life.

One of my favorite things in the world is an everything bagel with a bunch of cream cheese smeared in between the two halves.

Ever wonder why bagels have holes? Maria Balinska, the author of “The Bagel: The Surprising History of a Modest Bread” answered this and many other questions about the bagel in NY Times.

As to why the hole in the first place: It allows the bagel to cook faster, since there is a greater surface area for the volume of dough. It also means that you get more crust for the same amount of dough. And then there is the intrinsic attraction of the ring shape. It’s a draw for children, both because it is easy to grasp and because you can play with it.

So cool.

I’m kind of jealous of NYC.  Bagels are such a part of its culture.  We need more bagel shops in DC.  Do you have any bagel memories or a favorite place where you get bagels?

(Photo by Carolyn Coles)

Anthony Bourdain’s Best Selling Book “Kitchen Confidential”

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A few months ago on a whim, when I was surfing around the audio book mega store Audible.com, I found Anthony Bourdain’s best selling book “Kitchen Confidential.” I knew that I really enjoyed what I had seen of Anthony on television, mainly his Travel Channel Show No Reservations.   I also noticed that he read the audiobook himself, which I figured would make it extra interesting.

I gave the book a whirl and I was blown away.  This world renown chef gives you an unfiltered look at what life within the restaurant world looks like.   He tells you story after story about his experiences within the kitchen along with tips that he’s learned a long the way.  I find it fascinating.

Because Anthony reads the book himself and his voice brings SO much personality to what he says, I HIGHLY recommend that you get the audiobook.  Audible is a pretty solid deal for that.   If you’re not into audiobooks, pick it up on Amazon.