Jeremiah Tower Cooks: 250 Recipes from an American Master

If you love to cook or read about cooking, skip to the end of this review, click on the button, which says you were influenced by it, and order a copy of this book. Now??For those of you who are not swayed by emotional arguments, here goes the real review.Jeremiah Tower has packed more useful, controversial, and scholarly material into this book than any three other celebrity chef cookbooks combined. There is much here with which many respected chefs would take issue, but that just adds to the pleasure of reading the book.One issue on which I disagree with chef Tower is in replacing some French terms for common cooking items or practices with ?American? translations. As a cook, I will never have a thousandth of the credentials of Monsieur Tower, but I am something of an expert on language, and Tower is simply wrong on this point. For example, he substitutes the phrase ?aromatic vegetable mix? for the French term ?Mirepoix? meaning, 1 part chopped onion, 1 part chopped celery, and one part chopped carrot. Tower adds a bay leaf to the standard definition, with which I have no argument. The mistake is twofold. First, he is substituting his new usage for all vegetable mixes, including soffrito, sofregit, and picada. Well, each of these terms means something different from mirepoix, yet he is subsuming these different meanings under a new word. Second, this new term is unknown to his audience, while mirepoix is learned upon first opening one?s first book on French cooking. On more than one occasion while reading Tower?s recipes I had to scratch my head and think twice when he said ?aromatic vegetable mix?. If he would have used the word, mirepoix, I would have sailed right through that text with no confusion whatsoever. The same argument can be made for the terms ?Au Jus?, ?Bouquet Garni?, Mesclun?, and ?Duxelles?. Tower?s claim has some merit when it comes to using ?blue? in place of ?bleu? and ?cream? in place of ?Cr?me?, depending on context. So Tower is not a linguist, but he is a cook. His following section on the meaning of conventional English cooking terms is entertaining and dead on accurate.Tower?s recommendations on standard techniques are impeccable, and there are a lot of them. His descriptions of brining, sweating, toasting, parboiling, and pureeing are fussy enough to make Alton Brown turn green with envy. The little essay on brining brings out another rich dimension to this book in that it identifies the source of current enthusiasm for brining to be Jane Grigson?s book ?The Art of Making Sausages, Pates, and other Charcuterie?. Scholarly references like this may not mean much to some, but to me they are positively titillating. The book is packed with references to works going back to the seventeenth century, with a heavy concentration on the French classics by Careme, Escoffier, and Curnonsky. Unlike most other writers, it reminds the reader that there is not a whole lot in cookery which is really that new. My great regret on this th

I have many cookbooks which are award-winners and this one beats them all by a mile. One can almost be moved by his genius and versatility with food when eating these dishes.

there are good chefs and good writers. rarely are the two combined in one person. jeremiah towers' recipes are accessible and have the personal touch that distinguishes a culinary artist. the writing has the charm and self awareness of one who knows that food is to be enjoyed, in the preparing, the eating, and the combination of daydreaming and appetite that gives birth to new recipes.

This book shows what can be done with food from a master chef. Very well put together, it deserves a place on your shelf next to your other favorites........

Truly a magnificent work, with its creative, succulent dishes accompanied by unique art of Donald Sultan.Ones eyes are dazzled while the palette starts salivating for the exquisite food.This is "new-old" food served in new-new way. What this means one can tell by comparing and preparing dishes such as "Savoy Cabbage with White Beans and Mushroom Butter" "Grilled Bacon-Wrapped Salmon with Basil Mashed Potatoes and Sweet Red Onion Sauce" "lavender Honey-Glazed Duck Breast with Blackberries and Water Chestnuts" "Burnt Passion Fruit Curd" or "WHite Peach and Jasmine Ice"?This guy is superstar with superchef following such as Trotter, Batali, Boulud, et al. If you're into serious gourmet, this guy is a "go-to."