New Making of a Cook: The Art, Techniques, and Science of Good Cooking

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Professional cooking schools have used Madeleine Kamman's The Making of a Cook since it first appeared in 1971. She has now revised it to reflect newer techniques, the availability of a wider range of ingredients, and the recent American aversion to fat. She suggests eating fats in moderation, and includes recipes for cholesterol-free gingerbread and more. Fundamentally, Kamman teaches classic French technique as applied to American ingredients. For example, she carefully explains how to make a classic espagnole sauce as chefs have made it for centuries and also provides, as an alternative, a brown stock made in the microwave.

A good chef must understand food chemistry; any good cook is fascinated by the hows and whys of the kitchen. Kamman gives the information that a professional requires, with clarity anyone can understand.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Madeleine Kamman has been hailed as a great teacher since she began hosting cooking shows on PBS years ago, but what her TV fans may not realize is that she teaches equally well, and even more thoroughly, through her books. Her bestselling The New making of a Cook was a comprehensive, authoritative source for the whys and hows of classic cooking when it was published 25 years ago; her completely revised and updated edition, The New Making of a Cook, manages somehow to be even more valuable.

There are more than 600 recipes in The New Making of a Cook — some utterly traditional, some up-to-the-minute. Health is a consideration throughout, but Kamman is a firm believer that fat should be limited through a varied diet with everything in moderation, not by reducing fat grams in recipes whose essential quality is lost without them. So there are plenty of low-fat recipes in the book, and plenty of high-fat classics — they are coded with the letters FFR for full-fat recipe, FCR for fat-controlled recipe, LFR for low-fat, and NFR for no-fat. And though the recipes are wonderful, they're just part of what makes the book so indispensable. Kamman is a master of techniques, and whether you need to know the best way to julienne vegetables, how (and when) to make a beurre manié, or a foolproof, step-by-step method for a perfect omelette, she will guide you with unerring accuracy. Whole sections are dedicated to topics such as kitchen equipment, food safety, and pantry ingredients; wine has its own very informative chapter, and so do such basics as sauces.Kammanpacks these chapters with history and lore as well as with practical information. The section on baking is so good that it may be the only thing you'll ever need to read to understand the essential principles behind yeast doughs, pastries, and cakes. The chemistry of food informs every part of the book, and in the course of just trying a recipe here and there, it's likely you'll pick up information you'll apply to many other things you cook. A detailed glossary is also extremely useful. This is a great book for a kitchen beginner, but it may be an even better one for the seasoned home cook or the professional chef. It will fill in gaps in your knowledge you didn't even know were there even as it inspires you toward new culinary achievements.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The New Making of a Cook is a handbook for good, hands-on cooking, offering a variety of styles. Madeleine explains each and every preparation and cooking technique worth knowing in today's kitchen, from julienning vegetables to roasting meats, from microwaving whole fish to baking bread, from deglazing a pan to boning a chicken, complete with step-by-step line drawings. For Madeleine, hand techniques still reign supreme over the machine; nothing can beat a cook's touch for determining when a cake is ready or when a steak is done, or a sharp eye to perceive when a sauce has achieved the perfect consistency. Madeleine takes the time to provide all the descriptive cues necessary for the cook to use his or her own determination as to whether it's time to move on to the next step or whether the dish is done. Understanding ingredients and how they react in combination or when subjected to heat is a big part of becoming an experienced cook. The New Making of a Cook tells the important whats and whys of cooking: What's the difference between mono- and polyunsaturated fats? What happens when fruits ripen? Why do egg whites stiffen when they are beaten? Knowing the answers to these and other questions will help the cook develop culinary judgment and the ability to troubleshoot a recipe.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

A major revision of an encyclopedic work, this authoritative two-volume update of Kamman's original The Making of a Cook (in print since 1971) takes serious cooks way beyond recipes into the principles and chemistry of cooking. Kamman, who has a clear bias toward classic French cooking, strikes an ambivalent note only in her stand on bringing artery-clogging fare up to contemporary low-fat standards. In the headnote for Roast Stuffed Cornish Hen with cream cheese, crme frache, pork sausage and the unexpected Grape Nuts cereal, she admonishes: "Go back on your diet tomorrow." Then again, many rich recipes go unremarked upon, like the one for Endive Pie with butter, bacon and heavy cream baked in short pastry. Her explanations of subjects like Cooking with Wines and Classic Brown Sauces -- and a glossary of common and uncommon vegetables -- will likely prove priceless to both curious home cooks and professionals. Certain groups of recipes, like those for souffls (Hickory-Smoked Cheddar Souffl, Baked Yam and Ham Souffl, Moussaka Souffl), stand out for their inventiveness and clear instructions. Kamman does a thorough job of presenting cooks with the tools to adapt, improvise and to develop and exercise their own culinary judgments. (Sept.)

Library Journal