Cooking at Home: With the Culinary Institute of America

I get it. If Cuisinart sponsors the book we know it is for the home cook and not the professional. Yet while the recipes could be good, the selection seems questionable like a macoroni and rice casserole that looks like a halved popcorn ball. Or soba noodle salad which you could make without a recipe and a little experimenting. The photography is incredibly amateur in appearance. There is also the matter of the collection a Cuisinart pot collection shamelessly hocked in the back of the book. Not a horrible book but I'll stick to the actual CIA course books when I want to learn a new technique or recipe.

We were at the CIA in Napa and saw this book. After trying five or six recipes, we bought five more to give as gifts. Every recipe was delicious. And it taught us how to easily make great sauces. It's a wonderful book full of yummy, beautiful recipes.

This book is most helpful, it does not assume you are an experienced cook, but starts with the basics, and leads you step by step in a most understandable fashion.. It's a geat source, that instills confidence and produces good results.

Well organized, straight forward information about preparing everything from soup to nuts...literally. The instructions and photographs are detailed, yet not overly complex, and the recipes and variations allow you to refine your skills at your own pace.This book lays a perfect foundation on which to build an impressive repertoire of culinary skills.

Lavishly and instructively illustrated, this teaching book presents, in words and pictures, step-by-step instructions for everything from making spice sachets and pureeing soups to carving a roasted chicken and filleting a fish. It even shows various ways of cutting vegetables, preparing garlic, cleaning leeks and mushrooms.A thorough primer, it starts with a discussion of tools, techniques and pantry ingredients, advocates an organized mindset, and proceeds in the same patient, simple manner through each course, discussing market choices and preparation, many illustrated. Easy-to-follow recipes build technique and repertoire, from Onion Soup Gratinee and Thai Hot and Sour Soup to Southern Fried Chicken, Roast Goose with Pan Gravy, Grilled Lamb with Mango Chutney and Beef Tenderloin with Mushrooms.There are stir-fries, curries and classic continental and American dishes, all with painstaking directions. Side notes offer tips and direct the cook to basic cooking instructions elsewhere in the book. A masterful, handsome, endlessly useful and encouraging book for the beginner.

I used this book as a reference for my hot foods classes in culinary school and found it to be quite helpful. It was very descriptive and helped me to get an edge in the kitchen. For my baking classes I used the following which were just great:Study Guide for Baking: Key Review Questions and Answers with Explanations by Melissa HeilmanStudy Guide for Advanced Baking: Key Review Questions and Answers with Explanations by Melissa HeilmanThese study guide proved to have similar type questions that I encountered on my culinary exams in baking and advanced baking class. Various chefs had recommended me these 3 books, I guess they were right since I got excellent marks on my tests.