Reddit reviews Essential Pépin: More Than 700 All-Time Favorites from My Life in Food

He said he had received the set as a gift, but that they were just "too much," as in, he didn't have the time or inclination to read or implement the techniques and recipes. He also complained that, for a $700 cookbook set, there weren't enough recipes.

I told him I had heard an NPR story about the Modernist Cuisine authors and their techniques and philosophies, which mentioned the book set, and that I'd actually looked at the set on amazon and flipped my lid when I saw it was $500, and he immediately told me to take them home.

Judging by his home and the quality of wine he was pouring at a two-year-old's birthday party, I got the impression that giving away a $500 book set to someone he'd just met was not a hardship for him.

In thanks I'm sending him a more functional cookbook along with a sizable gift certificate to a local restaurant we had discussed that evening.

BTW, this set is amazing.

He has a cookbook: Essential Pepin that I got my boyfriend last Christmas. The recipes are mostly straightforward and I've eaten gourmet French food every eek for nearly a year now.

This Jamie Oliver video is pretty good: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGQltxIipFg

Jacques Pepin's latest cookbook comes with a DVD that is awesome. Covers knife skills and tons of other stuff.

I recommend Jaques Pepin's http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Pepin-More-All-Time-Favorites/dp/0547232799

Or http://www.amazon.com/La-Technique-Illustrated-Fundamental-Techniques/dp/0812906101.


And pretty much anything by ATK: http://www.amazon.com/Science-Cooking-Cooks-Illustrated-Cookbooks/dp/1933615982

http://americastestkitchen.buysub.com/cook-s-illustrated-cookbooks/6e69de31ebb0aae9b4e8e7dccb8cb8d4.html


HTH! :)