Craft of Cooking: Notes and Recipes from a Restaurant Kitchen: A Cookbook

Yet another wonderful book by Colicchio, going for beyond a typical cook book into the essentials of food artisanship.

The book came in perfect condition, and the shipment arrived in good time. I would buy again!

Teetering between 3-6 stars, this cookbook causes that reaction, even if among one reviewer. It is simple, plain yet sophisticated and intricate. It smacks of the intensity of French Laundry, yet doesn't have the sizzle of ingredients and new process.Here, Colicchio submits what he cooks at home in order to teach us what to become as home wanna be chefs. Same old, same old --- best of ingredients prepared with correct technique and walla --- crafted food.Some truly inspires --- Sturgeon wrapped in proscuitto, Lemon Steamed Pudding, Braised Striped Bass.Yet, disappointing in that so much is likely never to hit my menus. Maybe more towards five/six for others.

I anticipated many good things in this new Tom Colicchio cookbook, based on the title and the author's excellent first book, `How to Think Like a Chef'. My first surprise was that the title mislead one to think it was a general book on cooking skills. Instead, it is an exposition on the cooking at Colicchio's Manhatten restaurant Craft and the title was really a play on words. A much more accurate title would have been `Cooking of Craft'. The author does not hide this fact. In the `How to use this book' section, Colicchio states clearly that the audience for the book is `a skilled amateur or enthusiastic hobbyist' where `speed and convience are probably not your first focus here'. As the content `this is a book that sets out how things are done in one restaurant, Craft'. My second surprise was based on the fact that Colicchio's stated goal for the cuisine of `Craft' was to make the kind of simple, well prepared food he makes at home. Well.... When you throw in the `...prepared well...' qualifier with a bunch of extremely talented, obsessive corp of chefs working in the Manhatten restaurant market, you get something which no home cook in their right mind would consider `simple'. I'm exaggerating a bit, since, as I will cite below, there is much of value for simple fare, but there is no evidence of this simplicity in the opening section on meats. In fact, the opening section in the meats chapter is on `charcuterie', a term which the author does not even bother to explain. This IS rough going for newbies, especially since charcuterie is one of the fussiest and most time consuming of classic cuisinary techniques. But, it does get better.The book is divided by eight simple sections, in which there are rewards for the skilled amateur. These are:Meat - This section answers a question I have always had about restaurant food. How does the restaurant kitchen handle preparing braised dishes, when most braises worth their salt often take hours to achieve the fall off the bone tenderness. The solution is obvious, based on the fact that braisees often taste better the next day. Viola, they are prepared a day ahead and reheated. These recipes show you how.Fish - Very sound. Nothing ground breaking. The usual litany on using fresh ingredients.Vegetables - Here is where the objective of simplicity starts paying off. Very good, truly simple recipes here, as long as you have a good supply of stock preparations at the ready.Mushrooms - This section and the next are worth the (discounted) price of admission. Well done fussiness.Potatoes - Actually found some reasonably simple recipes I have not seen before, and the compulsive obsessive twist on the classics.Grains and beans - A few oddities. Sound stuff.Dessert - A rather nicely large selection of recipes, highlighted by the large number of fruit compotes.Pantry - The usual stock in trade. The recipes for fumet and ramp butter are interesting, and the classic French term and technique buerre fondue is new to me.I am