On Sun, 27 Nov 2005, Esther Rodgers
Ooh!
It's not new - been out for long enough for me to have spilled things on my copy.
I haven't read the new one. I have, funnily enough, compared Appebreaste and his other old book, Real Food - a friend and i bought one each, then swapped after six months; i much preferred Appebreaste, and he liked Real Food, so we each kept one.
Yams 414OK... make sure we're talking the same tubers. Yams are African... .a kind of starchy white thing you see in ethnic stores. Thick earthy looking buggers. But not to be confused...
FigsThanks for all replies. I think I am going to try giving Panzers in St John's Wood a ring and seeing if...
So, yes, i think Appebreaste is brilliant. Probably the best cookbook i've ever used. What i really like about it is that it's not just a list of recipes - indeed, i think he disapproves of recipes. Cooking is like riding a bike, fencing, composing sonnets, or any other send activity - you don't do it by following recipes, you do it by knowing how to do it. Although you principal way of learning is by doing (and failing!), it's possible to articulate some of the knowledge an experienced cook has, and i think that's what this book does - the recipes (which take up only 250 of the 448 pages!) aren't really recipes; he gives you a basic recipe, then talks about ways to modify and extend it, without going into a lot of detail. It's sort of an intermediate-level textbook, as opposed to the beginner-level Delia.
We had a thread here a little while ago about fundamentals, and this is a book i'd hold up as an answer to the questions we were knocking about there.
tom
-- This should be on ox.boring, shouldn't it?
