Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide
by Thomas Keller
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Book Summary Information
Author: Thomas KellerIntroduction: Harold McGee
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-10-15
ISBN: 1579653510
Number of pages: 295
Publisher: Artisan
Book Reviews of Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide
Book Review: So disappointed
Summary: 1 Stars
I'm sorry to give a totally negative review but claiming to be 'the first book written in English on cooking sous-vide' (simply not true) and describing food as being 'sealed in plastic' should have given me the hints that this book would massively disappoint.
Is my beautiful copy of Sous-Vide Cuisine by Joan Roca and Salvador Brugues not in perfect English and been poured over by me for at least a year now? The forward of 'Under Pressure' states that 'It's fitting that the first book to present the sous-vide method to English-speaking cooks........' Where on earth was the editor? Too scared of editing a subject such as this and so leaving it to the authors alone?
I found this book simply an ego trip for the author(s) with hardly a page being turned without a reference to one or other of their restaurants - so many references in fact that is became very boring. The book misses chances time and again to educate the reader (few if any tables on cooking times for each of the meats/fish/ etc) in this fascinating method of cooking and instead concentrates on egotistical menus of massive complexity. Sous Vide is not complex and the subject presented in this way I found counter intuitive and counter productive.
The sections regarding the vital yet basic factors governing cooking by sous-vide for either mis en service or for storage and use at a later time and the safety aspects relevant to each were, in my opinion, not given the relevance that each separately and distinctly deserves. The two have quite distinctly different factors regarding safety and I didn't find that the book stressed this enough - safety seems to have been treated, albeit in depth, as one which is a little worrying really.
Many pages contain what I saw as written bullet points in isolation without form or structure. If ever a book needed a decent editor to give it this structure and form then this is it - it seems as if the publisher has just let the author(s) do it and then publish 'as is'. The book to my mind is a mess.
Menus containing blatant plugs for suppliers missed the fact this book is being sold internationally. I'd find it pretty tough to source ingredients for "Roulle of Four Story Hills Farm Poularde" when Four Story Hills Farm is certainly thousands of miles from where I live and cook - not all of us live in the USA remember.
The pages on stock recipes (nothing to do with the subject of sous-vide) were far more entertaining and informative than anything written here on the subject of sous-vide.
Altogether a total disappointment, waste of some serious cash and this book doesn't even come close to Sous Vide Cuisine by Joana Roca. I'll be astounded if they don't sue the publishers for allowing the claim for this book to be the first written on the subject in English.
Oh, a very talented friend of mine once said he'd never buy a book on cookery if each recipe didn't have at least one photo - hmmm, editorial absence maybe on this one yet again.
So sorry - I think my copy is destined for an early sale on e-Bay and won't be missed.
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