http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com collaborative book reviews about all things food and wine Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:58:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/9225_the-entire-beast-chris-badenoch-2010-au http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/9225_the-entire-beast-chris-badenoch-2010-au#comments Wed, 16 Feb 2011 07:19:39 +0000 Daniel Chan http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/?p=9225 Chris Badenoch’s cookbook “The Entire Beast” is built around his passion for nose-to-tail eating and beer. Most of his recipes are European, but there are a couple of excursions into Chinese and Mexican food. While there is plenty to keep fans of nose to tail eating happy, there are enough other recipes to keep non-offal fans interested. His passion for beer is reflected in both his preference for using beer instead of wine in his recipes, and his beer recommendations for each dish. For those who don’t know very much about beer, he provides a glossary at the end. Badenoch's passion, whilst sometimes going over the top, encourages readers to follow his cooking and drinking philosophy. Even without this enthusiasm, the recipes are still very tempting. For a first book, this is a very good effort.]]> http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/9225_the-entire-beast-chris-badenoch-2010-au/feed 4 http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/8759_hestons-fantastical-feasts-heston-blumenthal-2010-uk http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/8759_hestons-fantastical-feasts-heston-blumenthal-2010-uk#comments Fri, 10 Dec 2010 10:22:59 +0000 Daniel Chan http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/?p=8759 Heston Blumenthal’s “Fantastical Feats” is the companion book to the television series of the same name. In the book and series, Blumenthal creates six feasts, each based on a theme. His aim is to capture the spirit of each theme in the dishes he creates. As with his previous books, one of the principle joys of this book is reading about Blumenthal’s thought process as he turns abstract concepts into the form of food. He writes not only about the ideas that work, but the ones that don’t. The book is immensely entertaining. He writes with great humour, and he has a gift of finding experiences that allows him to connect with the reader and help them to see the food world as he does.]]> http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/8759_hestons-fantastical-feasts-heston-blumenthal-2010-uk/feed 0 http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/8139_new-release-kitchen http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/8139_new-release-kitchen#comments Fri, 01 Oct 2010 13:03:19 +0000 admin http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/?p=8139 A big, compendious, comfortable, informative and utterly engaging book, Nigella Lawson's Kitchen brings us feel-good food for cooks and eaters, whether Express-style and exotic-easy during the week, or leisurely and luxuriating at weekends or for occasions.]]> http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/8139_new-release-kitchen/feed 0 http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/8038_medium-raw-anthony-bourdain-2010-us http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/8038_medium-raw-anthony-bourdain-2010-us#comments Fri, 03 Sep 2010 07:05:32 +0000 Daniel Chan http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/?p=8038 In the introductory chapter of his new book, “Medium Raw”, Anthony Bourdain asks “What the fuck am I doing here?” While that statement is made in the context of a dinner with chefs that he admits are countless levels above his own abilities, he also intends as a question about how he has ended up as a fulltime writer and television presenter. While he puts it down to a series of lucky breaks, the other factors he doesn’t mention are a combination of keen observation and very good writing skills. “Medium Raw” is promoted as a sequel to “Kitchen Confidential”, and in one sense it fulfils that with chapters that update us on the lives of the people in that breakthrough book. But the book also offers writing about his own life, the food world as he sees it and, to his credit, saying how some of his views have changed over time. The usual Bourdain elements are there: the gonzo style of writing, his refusal to sugar coat his opinion, and a healthy splash of swearing. But with marriage and parenthood, a gentler and more sentimental Bourdain emerges too.]]> http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/8038_medium-raw-anthony-bourdain-2010-us/feed 0 http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/7688_iron-chef-chens-knockout-chinese-chen-kenichi-2009-us http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/7688_iron-chef-chens-knockout-chinese-chen-kenichi-2009-us#comments Fri, 16 Jul 2010 05:32:31 +0000 Mark Manguerra http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/?p=7688 Iron Chef Chen's Knockout Chinese is a charming, lightweight book from a Japanese master of Sichuan cooking, and one of the original Iron Chefs. For better or for worse, this first translated work skips the traditional, authentic fare and goes straight for the innovative and personal recipes (with a few classics thrown in). The organization is strange and some things are lost in translation, but the recipes are often simple and inviting enough for most people to pick up immediately.]]> http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/7688_iron-chef-chens-knockout-chinese-chen-kenichi-2009-us/feed 0 http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/7005_new-release-hestons-fantastical-feasts http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/7005_new-release-hestons-fantastical-feasts#comments Mon, 10 May 2010 10:40:28 +0000 admin http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/?p=7005 This book is the tie-in to Heston Blumenthal's highly acclaimed TV programme, where he creates six Fantastical Feasts based on history, fairytales and legends. Inside are tales of extravagant ingredients, of revolutionary techniques, of familiar kitchen appliances put to unfamiliar uses.]]> http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/7005_new-release-hestons-fantastical-feasts/feed 0 http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/5405_new-release-mums-know-best http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/5405_new-release-mums-know-best#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2010 03:58:00 +0000 admin http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/?p=5405 The Bikers send out a call-to-arms for mums, daughters and their grandmothers to unlock their private recipe archives and share with, and learn from, other mums of all races and backgrounds.]]> http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/5405_new-release-mums-know-best/feed 0 http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/4721_from-pasta-to-pancakes-tiffany-goodall-2009-uk http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/4721_from-pasta-to-pancakes-tiffany-goodall-2009-uk#comments Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:04:38 +0000 Duncan Markham http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/?p=4721 Students seem to have been a new target for publishers in 2009, with at least four student-oriented cookbooks appearing. I guess publishers anticipated that students wouldn’t be able to afford the stereotypical diet of burgers, chips, pizzas, noodles and beer. An entertaining and attractive book, From Pasta to Pancakes, the Ultimate Student Cookbook is the work of young British food personality Tiffany Goodall. Unfortunately, despite the innovative presentation and the worthy intention of teaching food-illiterate students how to cook, the book is disappointing.]]> http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/4721_from-pasta-to-pancakes-tiffany-goodall-2009-uk/feed 0 http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/4609_year-end-countdown-food-writing-food-guides-and-famous-names http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/4609_year-end-countdown-food-writing-food-guides-and-famous-names#comments Mon, 14 Dec 2009 07:47:23 +0000 admin http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/?p=4609 In the last installment of our feature on year-end releases, we're taking a look at cookbooks from famous chefs and restaurants, as well as the un-cookbooks: books with essays on food, food issues, and guidebooks on specific subjects. ]]> http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/4609_year-end-countdown-food-writing-food-guides-and-famous-names/feed 0 http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/4031_in-search-of-total-perfection-heston-blumenthal-2009-uk http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/4031_in-search-of-total-perfection-heston-blumenthal-2009-uk#comments Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:30:05 +0000 Gfron1 http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/?p=4031 Heston Blumenthal is known as a gastro-wizard. Not only does he helm the Fat Duck, once considered the top restaurant in the world, but he also has popular notoriety through his In Search of Perfection television series on the BBC. In Search of Total Perfection is the culmination of the TV series put in print (combining his two previous books from the series into one volume), and offers not only the recipes and exploratory work leading to the recipes, but also the behind-the-scenes tales from the studio. And whereas a movie can drop a book’s plot, story lines and even characters to help the story fit into a two-hour reel, this book flips a page and gathers all of the information presented in the series and expands on the shows with useful and fun details. The reader is left as plump and saturated as Blumenthal’s roast chicken. And that’s where we’ll peck away at this book – roast chicken.]]> http://www.thegastronomersbookshelf.com/4031_in-search-of-total-perfection-heston-blumenthal-2009-uk/feed 0