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| Larousse Gastronomique: The World's Greatest Culinary Encyclopedia | 
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| Author: Larousse Librarie
Publisher: Hamlyn
Category: Book
Buy Used: £64.63
Avg. Customer Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 1163586
Media: Hardcover
Edition: Rev. Ed
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 1350
Shipping Weight (lbs): 6.7
Dimensions (in): 10.4 x 7.7 x 2.5
ISBN: 0609609718
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.3003
EAN: 9780609609712
ASIN: 0609609718
Publication Date: October 2001
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Big and broad, but incomplete October 30, 2007
1 out of 14 found this review helpful
Yes, the compilers know their stuff - most of the way - but this tome still does not acknowledge the development of Soya foods. The Soya bean is there, but that's it. If you are someone for whom Soya foods are essential (you cannot digest meat and/or milkstuffs, for instance) then this book is of no use to you. Otherwise, for omnivores, things couldn't be grander.
 Simply, ' the world's most famous culinary reference book.... June 5, 2007
27 out of 28 found this review helpful
.....and this new edition reflects the culinary revolution of the closing decades of the 20th Century.'
Well, the question is how do you review a tome of no less than 1350 pages?
The cover quotes, from Jamie Oliver:-
`An all-time classic cookbook....a real must for any serious chef.'
and Gary Rhodes:-
`This new edition has taken the book even further.'
help to ease the conscience for the really serious cooks among us......and help justify the investment, too!
`This edition bears witness to the revolution in the availability of food and the art and science of cooking that has taken place over the last 30 years.
Not only does this book acknowledge our debt to the past, but it recognises the modern approach and welcomes changes that are on the horizon.
It eschews the outdated and rigid notions that inhibit creativity, while accepting that authenticity and an uncompromising approach to quality are the foundations of a reference work.
At the same time, it illustrates that gastronomy is a multilayered subject and one that repays closer study with new sources of inspiration and pleasure.'
In alphabetical order, this dictionary format book starts with `abaisse', 'abalone' , `abattoir'........and ends with.....,'zucchini', `zuppa ingles', on page 1310, with everything you can possibly think of in between, before the spectacular index kicks in.
Each definition is well written and given significant depth where required or has a link to an alternative, e.g `zucchini' sends you to `courgette`......so really useful for those more taxing crossword clues, too!
Interspersed with sumptuous photography:-
e.g.-
(1) `Ninon Langoustines' on page 671 which has a full colour plate.
(2) `Cuts of Meat`, e.g. lamb on pages 664/665 which compares British and American cuts, followed by a step-by-step guide to preparing a rack of lamb, and various recipes.
(3) Regional photographs e.g. for `Provence' and maps e.g. `The Wine-producing Regions of Italy', defining `The North`, `Tuscany and the Central Region' and `The South and the Islands' plus the seas.
(4) Techniques, such as `'Making Chocolate Shavings' on page 290, or `Cutting Up an Un-Cooked Lobster', on page 694.
(5) `Types of Tomato`, tomato products and tomatoes in cookery, pages 1216-1220.
(6) `Freshwater Fish' and `Sea Fish' on pages 486-493, including buying, preparing, filleting and skinning round fish and Dover sole.
A very small taste of the recipes within:-
French-style Double Crust Apple Pie
Macaroni with Seafood
Fish Fumet
Lemon Delice
Lobster Cardinal
Bechamel Sauce
Navarin of Lamb
Passion Fruit Sorbet
Simple Beef Consomme
Spiced Gingerbread Fruit Charlotte
Avocado Salad with Crab
Artichoke Ragout
Asparagus au Gratin
Cape Gooseberry Jam
Mushroom Puree
Foie Gras Ravioli
Boiled Salt Pork with Pease Pudding
Hungarian Soup with Liver Dumplings
Flaky Pastry
Bacchus
Mocha Cake
Compote of Prunes
Redcurrant Jelly
Linzertorte
Chicken Waterzooi
Cold Tomato Mousse
Turbot with Morels
Tarte Tatin - a very good excuse to buy a `Le Creuset Tarte Tatin Dish'!
In a nutshell, a beautifully produced slip-cased book, containing everything from simple, expected definitions such as `sundae' or `ling' or `olive', to the more unexpected - e.g. `Liquorice Water' or `Superstitions of the Table', or 'Table Etiquette and Manners' ....complete with a dark red fabric ribbon to keep your page......this is sheer luxury, and at Amazon's, GREATLY reduced price, it is 'affordable luxury'!
5th June 2007.
impressive, but not as useful as some may have you believe December 27, 2006
21 out of 48 found this review helpful
I offer this mainly as a qualification to the gushing praise offered by other reviewers. That this work is impressive goes without saying, and that such a quantity of information is available for so little money is remarkable. However, it is basically not *useful* to me on a daily basis, and nor can I see quite the kind of cook for whom it is terribly relevant. The editorial judgement regarding the balance between breadth and depth is one which means that I find myself opening this book rarely. It is weirldy arbitrary (and *massively* Francocentric) as a recipe book, and extremely badly organised for that purpose compared with, say, Stephanie Alexander's wonderful 'A Cook's Companion' which lists by main ingredient a well-judged collection of trivia and natural history, but mainly technical instruction, evocative recipe-writing and provocative cross-referencing. As a reference study of any particular food or region or technique it is pointless - why would I look up 'carrot' in Larousse when I could do so in Jane Grigson's 'Vegetables', and why would I turn to Larousse to learn about Italian ways with meat when I could ask Elizabeth David or Marcella Hazan?
If you hope that Larousse might be the 'only recipe book you'll ever need' then you will be disappointed. If you are looking to deepen your knowledge of food, then it might be more rewarding to dip into the cannon of great food writing - by articulate and engaging specialists, fanatics, and obsessives - because Larousse will be frustratingly superficial and impersonal.
Elephant to Egypt to Eggplant March 14, 2006
21 out of 28 found this review helpful
What a book, from Yorkshire puddings ( Superb Results ) to which part of the beast does the sirlion come from to how exactly is Epoisse cheese made, it cannot fail to impress, I have also got Leith's cookery bible, it really should be renamed the short guide compared to this amazing work.You cannot fail to be impressed by the lovely glossy photo's and the great recipes, this along with Escoffier are the DADDY's of the cookery book world, forget your £2.99 book shop specials, buy this and save yourself a lot of time looking for that elusive how to, better than the Internet!!!!
An outstanding manual worthy of a Booker prize. October 28, 2005
37 out of 40 found this review helpful
Want to know how to serve up 100 year old eggs? Want an explanation of a strawberry? Ever wondered how to butcher that cow in your back garden? Fed up of Ragu and want to cook your own spaghetti bolognese? This book has it all. From the most basic explanations of food to the most complicated (and sometimes disgusting but amusing) recipes, all done to perfection, you will NEVER fail to impress the ones you are cooking for with this Bible of food. Forget any Jamie Oliver rustic recipes or Anthony Worrall Thompson ready steady cook type rubbish (I'm just being honest) - this book should be laminated, not for use in the kitchen, but because you'll be drooling all over it. If you don't like the French, for whatever reason, then you obviously haven't read this book. When it comes to food, they are culinary geniuses - no nation comes close. Method, presentation, style; it's all here. Big functions, small dinner parties, all in detail. Also, it has the ONLY chou(x) pastry recipe that is needed, ever. If anyone uses any other, it's WRONG.
Some people say there's no right and wrong in cooking - they are idiots. Rustic? Schmustic. Perfection? Gastronomique.If you haven't already guessed, this book comes highly recommended. It's a manual for life.
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