Reddit reviews Cooking: 600 Recipes, 1500 Photographs, One Kitchen Education
We found 10 Reddit comments about Cooking: 600 Recipes, 1500 Photographs, One Kitchen Education. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
I have this and I really like it. So far it's covered most of the things I've needed.
James Peterson's Cooking. It has lots of good recipes and not just the how, but the why. Also, How to Cook Without a Book and Ratio to learn how to improvise.
Experimenting is great, but doing a bit of reading along the way wouldn't hurt and might spare you some disasters.
On the cheap, Pam Anderson's How to Cook Without a Book was a good starting place for me when I had similar questions / concerns in college. It focuses on a few basics and then builds upon them with variations. Moreover, this text is a quicker read than many of the other tomes out there. You can get it used for $12 including shipping. Used cookbooks are seriously the sh*t.
If you wanna drop a bit more money (~$26), James Peterson's Cooking has far more visuals and recipes than Anderson's. Beautiful text, mouth-watering recipes.
Lastly, I think it makes sense to focus on a certain style of food for a while so you get it dialed in before moving on. That way, you build momentum and better retain the lessons you learn. With Anderson's book, for instance, you could riff on a homemade pasta sauce for a week or two, or mess with sauteing chicken and vegetables a few different ways. Keep a list of what you make so you get a sense of where you've been in the kitchen, what you've accomplished, and what you might want to try next.
Oh, and keep coming back to cookit to discuss. Hooray community!
James Peterson's Cooking is a great place to start. I've given it as a gift to several friends and family members and they have loved it. At $26 it's a steal for all of the content that the book covers. Peterson's What's A Cook To Do? ($6.46) is a great little reference-tips & tricks book to have on hand as well. As is his Essentials Of Cooking. You can't go wrong with any of James Peterson's books. Last but not least The Food Lovers Companion ($11) is a must have culinary dictionary/encyclopedia. I don't know if any of these are used in classes, but they are great educational books to get started with and they won't break the bank.
Agree with the Professional Chef
If you want something a little lighter I'd recommend Essentials of Cooking or Cooking by James Petersen
http://www.amazon.com/Essentials-Cooking-James-Peterson/dp/B000I2J1ZU
http://www.amazon.com/Cooking-James-Peterson/dp/1580087892
Cooking by James Peterson is a good resource. Very readable with plenty of illustrations, recipes, and techniques shown step by step.
Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques is on my Christmas list.
The greatest cooking encyclopaedia though has to be the Larousse Gastronomique. One of my very favourite possessions and something that I refer to more than any other book I own.
Cooking by James Peterson is one of my favorite cookbooks because it goes over a ton of stuff and has great pictorial instructions for more involved tasks.
Anything by James Peterson. Cooking.
I think subscribing to cooks illustrated as well. I still get it and learn something new every time on the science side.
Cooking by James Peterson is good. It has tons of recipes of varying levels of difficulty. It also goes over techniques with pics. Worth looking at, anyway.
If you go searching for learn-how-to-cook tutorials and get stuck making some boring ass chicken recipe but don't even like chicken, you'll make the food correctly but have trouble enjoying the results. It's homework. You won't last making food you don't like.
To stay interested, follow the foods you already love.
For me, it was pasta. I went nuts. My first year or so learning, I was making an insane amount of pasta and was always stoked to eat the results, even if they sucked.
Too many recipes have one-off ingredients you'll never use again. You want to learn how you can improve your food with what you already have (i.e. Don't worry about the imported, smoked, Himalayan pink salt yet).
A person who understands food will give you so much more than a checklist and directions can. Understanding trumps a recipe every time. And you'd be surprised how little you need to make great food. A good cook knows how to do this.
I was really fortunate to have a roommate who's Italian grandma was an amazing cook. He knew his shit. He would coach and correct everything I was doing with my horrible attempts to make pasta. It was fun and quickly showed me how to improve--all with no recipes. It showed me you can taste as you go.
Today there a more books telling you what to do, and less telling you why you do it. The latter is the key.
These two books really opened a lot for me regarding understanding food and how to make it better:
I'm Just Here For The Food: Food + Heat = Cooking
Cooking (James Peterson)
Honorable mention:
Ratios: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking
Cheers, and best of luck. Now go eat!
Also Good Eats and Mind of A Chef are amazing shows to watch. We are so visual nowdays.