Alinea by Grant Achatz Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Alinea
Book Review: Beautiful but bizzare and lacking
Summary: 2 Stars
This is probably one of the nicest cookbooks I've ever seen. But it is way "out there" - and I'm not just talking about the unique food that Grant Achatz describes. It's just that you need to spend a mint on new-fangled cooking devices and obscure food additives to do just about any recipe in here. My biggest peeve is that there is no "Sources" section in the book (or at least not that I could find) to help you get things like "Ultra Tex 3" starch. I needed to Google half of the items in the first recipe I read because the glossary wasn't quite there.
The whole thing comes off as a sort of "look at me - I'm too cool" sort of exercise in chemically-addled-gastronomy. It gives me the douche chills. Buy it for the pictures, and the ideas it shows... but not as a useful cookbook - unless your name happens to be Tetsuya or Ferran Adria.
I may try to make the deconstructed A1 sauce dish one of these days - if I find 12 free hours and a suitable substitute for an anti-griddle and immersion circulator (thinking frozen cookie sheet and hot tub). Chances are I'll fail, though. But I may try my own A1 Deconstruction using more high-falutin' methods.
Book Review: Bought for my husband
Summary: 5 Stars
He loves this book, although he's more into cooking rustic french inspired food, he looooves this book. Grant is a very inspiring man who has fought a horrible disease! He is the MAN!Book Review: Buy it if you want to dive deep into avant garde
Summary: 5 Stars
I just received the book....Pictures are amazing and the dishes just out of this world.... Certainly not for the home cook or the gourmet ...This is serious work so if you would like to replicate whole dishes it would be a challenge just gathering resources and equipment.... I am actively more involved into Avant Garde cooking ( no its not called molecular gastronomy) so this just took me in places mentally.... Reading other reviews i failed to understand what the reviewers were expecting out of Alinea...I expected a little less and actually got way more than i thought it would...
Again this is a special book... And its a shame that some cannot understand it ,but its a special book with a designated audience.... For what it is, its very straight forward and a steal at that price.. Ferran Adria cookbooks are way more expensive but people tend to glorify him too... I do too but for different reasons also apart the culinary...
Do me a favour...Read the book... Then you will see how Grant Achatz is changing the world today....( among others too)...
Culinary history certainly....
Book Review: Don't try this at home
Summary: 5 Stars
I read a lot about molecular cooking on the internet. In fact, I even tried making fruit caviar at home.
This is cooking on 3 star level - it's just very very hard to do at home. Yes it can be done with time and money and many attempts, however you have to be really dedicated.
For most, this is just inspiration. Beautiful pictures, awesome ideas on taste combinations and how they approach and develop recipes.
Lastly, the Alinea Mosaic website backing it, it encourages to just take this and do your own. I probably will never cook a single recipe out of this book, but will take some ideas for plating. I also will experiment with dehydration which I never considered and may take single elements out of recipes and add that to my own.
For that what it is, not a recipe collection for a home cook, it is very well done. You just have to understand what yo are buying.
Cheers
Book Review: Elegance
Summary: 4 Stars
A friend of mine bought this book and loved it so much he also bought an autographed copy too. I got to read the book at my friend's place. The photography and graphical design of this book was just extraordinary! The elegant book is truly a coffee table book. It really shows the elegancy of presentation of the food. Awesome book!