I’m Just Here For The Food: Food   Heat = Cooking (Book)

I’m Just Here For The Food: Food + Heat = Cooking

Written by : Alton Brown

If you really want to learn to cook, then this is the book for you. Most cookbooks consist of a list of ingredient, instructions for combining the ingredients, and temperatures and times for cooking your concoction. That’s all you need if all you want to do is prepare that one recipe, but what if you want more then that? What if you’re missing an ingredient and want to substitute something else or what
if you just want to be really bold and create your own recipe from scratch?

That’s where Alton Browns book, I’m Just Here For The Food - Food + Heat = Cooking, comes in.

I’m Just Here For The Food goes way beyond the normal cookbook. It not only teaches you how to cook something, but also why you are doing what you are doing when you cook something.

The book is divided into sections based on the various methods of cooking, such as searing, frying, braising and roasting and in each section Brown describes the physical and chemical processes that take place when your cooking food using the method. He tells you why you would select one method over another when cooking a specific dish and at the end of each chapter includes a number of recipes that demonstrate the featured cooking method.

It sounds complicated but it really isn’t. Although Brown throws a bit of chemistry at you in places, he makes it palatable by using humor and wacky illustrations to drive home his point.

Brown hosts a number of shows on the Food Network and could best be described as the son that Julia Child and Mr. Wizard would have had if they had been married. His quirky computer geek type personality comes across well in the book, making it both an educational and entertaining read. I recommended it to anyone wishing to take his or her cooking skills to the next level.

10 out of 10 Stars

Posted by Al on 01/10/10 at 09:43 PM in Books