Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 Over-priced and not really needed September 9, 2008
In relaity, you can use the internet to get excatly the same details that this book gives you, so in my opinion it is over-priced for what is basically a written itemised database.
 Invaluable only if your kitchen table has a wobbly leg..... August 6, 2007
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
Almost useless these days as a reference book. If you're a cookery buff who collects cook books (like me, although I do actually cook from my books as well) then buy this used for as little as you can. Otherwise give it a wide berth. Escoffier and Larousse are the modern day pro chef bibles, and even then, with such varied cooking styles on the menu these days even they are falling by the wayside.
Finding what you want can be infuriating, and the descriptions of methods are a joke, leaving even a classically trained chef (me again, sorry) guessing at each stage of often complicated processes. The recipes are little more than ingredients lists, and barely cover the most basic versions. For instance "Potatoes Dauphinoise" is listed merely as: Cut (potatoes) in raw slices, cook in oven with milk and grated gruyere cheese. Now, if you're a peasant farmer, that might be how you do it. If you can read and write, however, you would par-boil the potatoes, peel and slice them very thinly, layer them with gruyere or emental in an earthenware dish rubbed with garlic, top up with double cream and grate a whole nutmeg over the top, cooking in a moderate oven, then grilling with further cheese at the end.
If, on the other hand you have a yearning to learn how one prepares veal ears, look no further.
Illustrated Escoffier is the "Big Fat Must-Have" nowadays. Start saving for that and give this a miss........
 The cooks bible February 28, 2006
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
I was told to buy this book when I was just beginning as a chef in 1962,at a cost of 30 shillings ( £1.50), then half a weeks wages, it has been with me everywhere I have gone, it has all the ingredients to make cooking great, but it is not for the beginner, no quantities are mentioned, so it is guess work.
But it tells you what goes into all the classic dishes.
even over 100 ways to cook Potatoes.
I am proud to own it and it has been the best book I have ever owned. David Denham
 A classic November 22, 2005
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
A classic reference book intended for the professional cook. It lists the garnishes/ingredients for all the classical dishes, but assumes the reader has a thorough background in the basics of cooking. Fist class, third copy!
Useful reference April 24, 2003
12 out of 14 found this review helpful
Recipes for just about every classic dish ever invented condensed down to a mere line or two.Ever been stuck for a different way to cook potatoes or wondered what Charlotte Russe is - this little reference book is brilliant for this sort of thing. Also a useful recipe book for chefs but it does assume quite a lot of knowledge so it wouldn't be a good book for someone without any experience.
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