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Your point that professional chefs go beyond cookbooks is correct. > But, do professional chefs use cookbooks? -- I know the answer to this one. No, they don't
by makeitdouble 2y ago
Your point that professional chefs go beyond cookbooks is correct.
> But, do professional chefs use cookbooks? -- I know the answer to this one. No, they don't. Or, not in the way they are intended.
> a book may give a general direction by saying that this or the other particular pastry traditionally uses lemon juice. And the chef would know how to ration it and how to work the dough.
This is exactly how cookbooks are intended.
A few decades ago there was a more popular genre of cookbook: a huge 200p book that would go to a newly wed wife so she gets better at cooking, and it would have half of it just explaining the basics: how to skin a chicken, how to cut vegetables, how to adjust an oven etc. And you'd go through all these basic training before trying the recipes, which had very terse instructions ("skin the fish, remove the bones, cook it meuniere style"). To me traditional cookbooks are just skipping the training section assuming you've already gone through it all.
- downut 2y ago"A few decades ago there was a more popular genre of cookbook: a huge 200p book" "Joy of Cooking" ©1975 is 915 pages. "The New Book of Middle Eastern Food" ©2000 is 513 pages. "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" ©1997 is 742 pages. "The River Cottage Meat Book" ©2007 is 543 pages. "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" ©2001 (40th Anniversary Edition) is ~720 pages, but this is just the first volume; the 2nd which is similar in length is an extension, true, but also illuminates uncovered areas in V1 like charcuterie. I've got many more fat cookbooks, of which quite a few spend a 100 pages or more on basic techniques for the culinary area they illuminate. I am not sure I would trust the parent commenter's accuracy on well, anything, really, if the data they cite are so disconnected from reality.
- makeitdouble 2y agoI don't have the book anymore, so reading your comment I thought for a second I was wildly misremembering. But no, these books do fit around 200p [0]. I actually couldn't find exactly the one I had in mind, so linked to one with exactly the same title and content, and the whole genre had most books around 170~220p. The one I had was already big enough to feel cumbersome, enough so that I gave it away when moving。 Looking at the Joy of Cooking, is it a B5 format with only text in it ? I would see how moving to a "show don't tell" approach with more illlustrations and an A4 format where everything can be shown in blocks would tremendously help in getting more information density. [0] https://www.amazon.co.jp/%E9%A3%9F%E6%9D%90%E5%88%A5-%E3%81%8A%E3%81%84%E3%81%97%E3%81%95%E3%81%A8%E6%A0%84%E9%A4%8A%E3%82%92%E5%BC%95%E3%81%8D%E5%87%BA%E3%81%99%E6%96%99%E7%90%86%E3%81%AE%E3%81%8D%E3%81%BB%E3%82%93-%E5%AE%9F%E7%94%A8%EF%BC%AE%EF%BD%8F%EF%BC%8E%EF%BC%91%E3%82%B7%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BA-%E7%94%B0%E5%8F%A3-%E6%88%90%E5%AD%90-ebook/dp/B08K3PQ9JP/ref=sr_1_6 https://www.amazon.co.jp/%E9%A3%9F%E6%9D%90%E5%88%A5-%E3%81%...
- downut 2y agoCheck the link people. AI is fucking up the world.
- makeitdouble 2y agoWhat is AI about it ? I get the amazon page of a basic japanese cooking book, are you getting something else ?
- makeitdouble 2y agoI guess this will be my first "I was called an AI" moment, and I guess we'll get used to it in no time. Reminded me of this discussion, in reverse: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40862865 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40862865
- HeyLaughingBoy 2y ago> A few decades ago there was a more popular genre of cookbook The first cookbook I bought after graduating college was exactly this: the Betty Crocker cookbook. I was already a fairly competent cook, if with a limited repertoire. That book taught me a lot about how cooking works.