Notes on Cooking: A Short Guide to an Essential Craft

by Lauren Braun Costello, Russell Reich, Dorothy Cann Hamilton

Book Overview

As an essential primer of immediately useful and utterly relevant guidance, this guide can help anyone become a better cook -- without a single recipe. The book's 217 notes deliver indispensable... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0972425519
• ISBN13: 9780972425513
• Release Date: June 2009
• Publisher: RCR Creative Press
• Length: 143 Pages
• Weight: 0.71 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

It's a Series!

I read the first book in this series, NOTES ON DIRECTING, with extreme pleasure, so when I saw there was a second in the series on COOKING, I was surprised and intrigued. And upon reading it, I was more than delighted. On the surface, directing and cooking may seem to be as similar as chalk and cheese, but after the first few pages it became clear that these two books were both designed to serve a common purpose: to impart basic, practical wisdom in a bright, consistently compelling style. NOTES ON COOKING is an ideal gift for anyone who cooks (or eats!), and I'm making a list of friends who I know will welcome this addition to their culinary bookshelves. I'm also looking forward to the next volume in this unique and surprising "Notes on ..." series.

Absolutely essential

Reading "Notes on Cooking," I imagine myself sitting at Lauren Braun Costello's proverbial kitchen table, listening, agreeing, learning. I am connecting to the author's prose in a way that rarely happens outside of fiction for me. I LIKE the voice I read, trust it inherently as a voice of authority and culinary leadership -- I find myself wanting to know the author more, ask her questions, get this expert's praise for my omelettes and roast chickens (LOL). I am connecting in a powerful way with this little book, and can't wait to buy it for friends and family, to share the nuggets so elegantly and tenderly contained within. This is the kind of book I would give to my daughter when she moved into her first apartment. It is simply essential. Now, I could have merely written how much I "love" it or how "great" it is, but this is viscerally sincere. "Notes on Cooking" is filled with the guidance and directional confessions of a mentor who's "been there," of a godmother or your favorite aunt who "just happens" to also be a chef. It's GOOD, and I am so thrilled to have discovered it when I still have time to transform the way I approach food, approach cooking.

Notes on Cooking -- Not Good ... GREAT

I saw an early copy of this book and the finished book delivers on every promise the cover makes and reviews note. It is pithy-yet-deep, eminently readable, and remarkably comprehensive without being overbearing. The voice of the book is a mixture of benevolent grandmother and master chef spiced with a delightful dose of nun with a switch. I may, as they encourage, find my own way but I will heed their notes in many places. (Do I really need to put bacon in a cold pan? I will now!) But while the Strunk & White analogy is appropriate, to me Notes on Cooking is much closer to Jim Collins' Good to Great. Strunk & White gives you an excellent road map for writing but when using the book it doesn't matter if you're a good writer. Notes on Cooking gives you and excellent road map for cooking and will surely help the novice cook but it will captivate and advance the craft of those of us who are already good and even great in the kitchen. I admit, I was skeptical - I mean who needs more rules right? Plus I know how to cook. Nope. This book had me at hello and inspires me to do what the last note says, "always be cooking."

Fabulous!

"Notes on Cooking" is just a perfect book. It's well-written, concise, informative, interesting and entertaining all at the same time. I'm not a professional cook, but I do like to cook when I have time. The tips in this must-have treasure are priceless. How could I not have known some of these things, like where to store raw vs. cooked meat in the fridge? Plus all the insider tips from professional kitchens made me feel so in-the-know. I'm giving copies of this to everyone. As a mom of young kids, I don't have time to take a cooking class now, but this book has taught me more than I could hope to learn in one. It is truly essential for anyone who prepares food in any way, from pb & j to gourmet restaurant meals. Plus it takes two seconds to read. Perfect!

Essential for anyone who loves to cook!

Short, to the point, and very smart...Notes on Cooking is a must-own for the dedicated home cook, seasoned professional, or anyone who wants to hone their craft in the kitchen. As a professional chef, I found that it made me excited all over again about what I do day to day;it reminded me why I love being in the kitchen so much, and reinforced the basics that I may have strayed from over the years. It sifts through Ms. Braun Costello's years of being a chef, and boils down that experience to its essential core. The reader gets so much clear, undiluted information in a short span of pages. I guarantee that after reading Notes on Cooking- your food, and your outlook in the kitchen will improve for the better!