Cheap Bordeaux: A Consumer's Guide to the World's Finest Wines

I love this book. I keep going back to it and reading more. Goes into great details for ALL Bordeaux wines. A must have for the wine lover!! Get more detail about Bordeaux: A Consumer's Guide to the World's Finest Wines.

Buying The French Menu Cookbook

Richard Olney is one of the main voices for French cuisine in the English-speaking world, and yet this book also goes beyond the basics of French cooking and reintroduces to the American public concepts of eating by season and constructing menus based on each dish's impact on the palette, contrasting and matching flavors and textures. In fact, the chapters at the beginning in which Olney simply introduces these ideas, giving helpful tips that can be applied to cooking of any kind, not just French, are worth the price of the book alone. Read the small chapter on menu composition and you can just picture it hammered to the kitchen wall of every fine dining establishment today.

However, the main point of this book is clearly to teach French cuisine, and this book is full of information on that topic as well. The book feels much more like a culinary journal or memoir at times than a cookbook, and you could, as I sometimes do, just read the book as it is without trying to pick out something to make for dinner. Although Olney stylistically toes the line in his prose and dictation in coming across as lofty and reprimanding, there somehow remains just enough dry humor and flexibility that the reader never feels berated.

The recipes themselves aren't always straightforward or simple, although practically every curious ingredient is explained for the reader in great detail. Olney is one of the surprisingly few French cookbook authors who considers the price and availability of several ingredients such as Perigord truffles and even foie gras, and would probably have done so with veal had this book been written after veal was made somewhat of a taboo in this country. I've practically cooked through this book by now (although, I've never actually prepared a suggested menu all in one sitting) and Olney walks very thoroughly through the more complicated recipes, while simultaneously taking simple recipes up a notch, giving the reader something new to try.

Don't be put off by the dated look and feel of the book, the content has aged quite well and the information, ahead of its time then, is still completely relevant to today's home cook. And better, this is a cookbook you can actually read, and become incredibly well-versed in French cuisine by the time you've finished. This is the printed product of a lifelong devotion to the food and wine of France, and I hope it is not forgotten.Get more detail about The French Menu Cookbook.

Buy The Wine Lover Cooks With Wine: Great Recipes for the Essential Ingredient

It's killing me! Recipies are not complicated enough, wines are not difficult enough to get a hold of, figuring out american measurement system and calculating it into metric is not bad enough?
Oh yes, let's make it HARDER and let's not include any photos.
Jesus and Blessed Virgin Mary!
I need pictures in my cookbooks. What the meal is supposed to look like in the end for sure. A "how to" strip - even better!
I'm gonna be too intimidated by my absolute lack of culinary experience / finesse and lack of pictures in this cookbook to even TRY to use it!
Other than that (is there anything left? oh yeah) book is beautifully designed, paper quality is excellent but format is kinda weird (square and rather large) so it sticks out the cookbook shelf.
Get more detail about The Wine Lover Cooks With Wine: Great Recipes for the Essential Ingredient.

Purchase The Insider's Guide to Sake

Not only is this a very readable book about Japanese sake, but it is written by an American who moved to Japan and entered the closed world of kura-bito (sake brewers) and became one himself. Harper describes the history of sake, how it is made, where to buy it, and what to buy. And what is equally helpful is that it is in a vest-pocket-sized book that you can carry with you when traveling, going to a restaurant or shopping for sake. This book is for the sake connoisseur and novice alike. The process of making sake is more complex than wine (it requires 2 microorganisms, not just yeast). Moreover, through all the variations of rice processing, fermentation, types of clarification, aging, fortification, there is a large array of sake classification, whose terms are all in Japanese. Harper breaks through the fog and clearly lays out the differences among all these. He also describes the different flavor profiles that goes with each one. Other useful sections include a large listing of recommended sakes with their labels reproduced for easier recognition, lists of restaurants in the US and Japan, retailers in the US and Japan, major producers, and web links. All in under 250 pages. This is one of the most useful books on sake you can buy.Get more detail about The Insider's Guide to Sake.

Order Hot Chocolate

I found this book at the Scharfenberger store, and I've made two recipes out of it. If you like your hot chocolate milky and mild, this probably isn't the book for you. Most of the recipes are haute cuisine recipes, which means the chocolate is intense, rich, and nearly pudding-like in consistancy (although it's easy to thin out by adding some milk, if you prefer).

The best part of the book is that it encourages you to play with the flavors in your hot chocolate. Even if you don't have all the ingredients to actually recreate a recipe, with a little bit a knowledge and some experimentation, you can adapt the recipe to your ingredients and palate.Get more detail about Hot Chocolate.

Where To Buy The Ultimate A-to-Z Bar Guide

Absolutely LOVE this book. Not only does it have basics that anyone can learn even at home but also a trained bartender can pick up. So many different recipes for new drinks, not just your basic every day drinks. Great to find something new to try.Get more detail about The Ultimate A-to-Z Bar Guide.

Shop For Back Lane Wineries of Sonoma

Great book. These are some of the best wineries. When people hear all about the major and most popular wineries, they miss out on these gems. Read it and go.Get more detail about Back Lane Wineries of Sonoma.

Purchase Travels with Barley: A Journey Through Beer Culture in America

The best thing about "Travels With Barley" is the title of the book. That's what got me to pick it up for $1 at a library sale -- well, that and the fact that I'm a home brewer. Ironically, the author spends a lot more time on yeast and hops than he does on barley, as, apparently, those other beer ingredients are where the real action takes place.

Anyway, the book has some interesting anecdotes and observations, but in general it's kind of tedious. It's like drinking one of the mass-market beers that author Ken Wells generally decries: better than nothing, but rarely fulfilling.

Wells is a highly successful journalist, but he seems to have an unresolved need to spend a lot of time in bars. He begins by recounting his first beer at about age 8, and then he recites all the reasons why drinking in beer joints gives him a sense of camaraderie with the world. Part of his book is a quest to find, or at least to define "the perfect beer joint." I guess it's no dumber than any other self-actualization goal.

Anyway, if you buy into Wells' way of thinking, then this book has inherent charm and interest. But if you think that looking for 20-minute friendships with bartenders and beerhounds is a depressing way of life, then you wonder about the relevance of the book to your life. And let's be clear that the book is intended to be relevant to your life; it's not just "fun" reading. Remember, it's written by an editor at the "Wall Street Journal," which even in its feature articles, is primed to deliver "actionable" information for business readers.

On the positive side, Wells gives a comprehensive look at the burgeoning craft beer movement, and he explains how it has changed American brewing for the better. He does an excellent job of explaining how craft brewers breathed life into lager and returned ales, porters, and stouts to prominence. And he offers a charming vision of life spent in beer joints, sipping a few brews and watching the world go by. (How he can do that while being an editor at The Journal, writing novels, and having a wife and two kids is, frankly, beyond my comprehension. I suspect he doesn't spend a lot of time with his family.) Ultimately, Wells has an optimistic vision of America in which mass-marketing and mass-production are being challenged by people who care about originality, uniqueness, and quirks.

However, the book is repetitive, tedious, and surprisingly immature in some ways. First, there's uninteresting data (often in italics) about the size of the beer market or sub-market. Second, there's ogling of young women. In almost every bar (and in a chapter detour to Hooters), the author finds an attractive bartender or waitress who fills him with a sense of joy; that's a Wall St. Journal reader's fantasy. Third, there's the sense of privilege that comes with being part of America's elite, as when the author notes repeatedly that he was on an expense account while researching the book -- i.e., "ha ha, I'm cooler than you because I get to do this for a living." In fact, he observes a couple of times that the barflies he'd met would ask him if they could be his assistant on his quest to find the perfect beer joint.

Yep, Ken Wells has got it all: the barflies want to be like him so that they can move up in the world, and the sophisticates want to be like him so that they can get closer to the "real" people of America. Ultimately, it's that smugness that disappointed me.Get more detail about Travels with Barley: A Journey Through Beer Culture in America.

Order The Olives Table: Over 160 Recipes from the Critically Acclaimed Restaurant and Home Kitchen of Todd English

what can i say but to praise english's cook book which i own all 3.
i hv traveled intensively through out europe for many years.
eating in numerous restaurants in the city and small town, my taste buds always tell me :
how close his recipe to the food i put into my mouth!
how true the ingredients he used in his cook book close to the food i have in the big and small restaurants!
his cook book is the " down to earth " kind,never pretentious, just like him in his new tv show " foodtrip with todd english" on pbs,
way to go,todd english!!!!!!!Get more detail about The Olives Table: Over 160 Recipes from the Critically Acclaimed Restaurant and Home Kitchen of Todd English.

Where To Buy The French Market: More Recipes from a French Kitchen

Love this cookbook, well written with easy to follow instructions, tried several of the recipes and got great reviews.... aim to try more recipes, of course taking the authors' advise and that is to buy and cook what is in season. Get more detail about The French Market: More Recipes from a French Kitchen.

Shop For The London Ritz Book of Afternoon Tea

I enjoy having friends and family for tea, so I couldn't imagine ife without this elegant little book. It is filled with recipes of delicious tea foods, helpful tips, an interesting history of tea and tea time, the wide selection of teas available, and how to brew tea. The book is well worth the price, and the information contained between its covers will never be out-dated. You might also want to consider its companion, "The London Ritz Book of Breakfasts." Get more detail about The London Ritz Book of Afternoon Tea.

Wines of the World: Your essential handbook (Eyewitness Companions)

Earlier, I reviewed a book in the Eyewitness Companions series on French Wine. What better sequel than looking at wine throughout the world? This volume does a nice job of providing the reader with a background regarding wine and then conducting a country by country tour of the important winemaking countries of the world. As always, one gets breadth at the cost of depth. But the tradeoff appears to me to be well worth making.

The context for winemaking is complicated. The work says (Page 10): "Wine is a pure reflection of its `terroir' [Page22--". . .a unique combination of climate, topography, and soil types [that] shapes the character of the vines. . ."], and no other single product sums up its cultural, geographical, and historical origins in quite the same way." Wine apparently began being made in the Caucasus Mountains of Georgia. Over time, grapes and wine spread throughout many countries. Trivia: France leads in wine production, with Italy second, Spain third, and the US fourth (see Page 13). Wine consumption is greatest in France. The US ranks 17th among countries.

The first part of the book explores the history of wine, the "terroir" (how the climate, soil type, etc. affect the grape), the various types of grape (e.g., merlot, cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir, riesling, and sauvignon blanc among many others), what happens in the vineyard, the winemaking process, and the style of wines (sparkling, rose, etc).

With that context as background, the book then begins a country by country examination of grapes and wines throughout the world. Countries featured include the usual suspects, such as France, Italy, Spain, the United States, Germany (and Austria and Switzerland), Portugal, and so on. In addition, new world production in Chile and Argentina are discussed as well as the wine industry in venues such as Australia and New Zealand and Greece, etc. In a short Amazon review, it is quite impossible to summarize all. So, here are a couple samplings of the discussion, focusing on a handful of countries. Part of the fun of this book, after all, is one's personal exploration of wines of the world!

Spain: First, a background on Spanish wine, including Spanish Wine Law. Then, a region by region discussion of wines, in northern Spain, central Spain, and Southern Spain. For each region, a discussion of the characteristic variety of grapes, the types of wine, characteristics of those wines, and so on.

Chile: Again, the discussion begins with an enumeration of the "terroir" of grapes in Chile, then a listing of top producers in each geographic area, and a brief description of the major wine producers in the country. At the end, one does have a clearer sense of wine in Chile.
All in all, an enjoyable and relaxing tour of the winemaking world. Another typically well done product of the Eyewitness Companions series.
Get more detail about Wines of the World: Your essential handbook (Eyewitness Companions).

Concepts in Wine Technology Review

good book must to have if you are a wine maker Get more detail about Concepts in Wine Technology.

Champagne: How the World's Most Glamorous Wine Triumphed Over War and Hard Times This instant

"Champagne" by Don and Petie Kladstrup is a brief and lively rendering of the history of the world's favorite white wine and its relationship to the history of France. The book's subtitle, "How the World's Most Glamorous Wine Triumphed over War and Hard Times," suggests the recurring themes of the book.

The authors introduce the reader to the region in France called Champagne and its people, known as Champenois, and begin to trace the many foreign incursions into the region by the Vandals and the Goths, the Romans, and Attila the Hun, noting that, "From time immemorial," as one historian put it, "Champagne has suffered an overdose of invasions."

They tell the story of the seventeenth century monk, Dom Pierre Pérignon, who is credited with "inventing" the bubbly wine we know today. From its humble beginnings in a monastery, champagne soon became the favorite drink of monarchs and royalty throughout Europe, favored by Napoleon, who spread its popularity as he carved out his continental empire.

By the nineteenth century, the grape growers and wine makers of Champagne were thriving as millions of bottles of champagne were exported to countries around the world. The houses of Clicquot, Heidsieck, Moët, Pommery, and Mumm became household names.

Then came the wars. Even wars in other countries hurt the Champenois. The Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the U. S. Civil War before that caused numerous bankruptcies, "...all of which left champagne producers with stacks of unpaid bills." Then in 1870, hostilities came right to the doorstep of the Champenois with the outbreak of the Franco- Prussian War, the Prussians' big guns pouring thousands of shells every day on the vineyards and wine cellars of Champagne. Though brief, the Franco-Prussian War "... would be the bloodiest of the century." But somehow France came roaring back, and as the twentieth century began, the champagne industry was in high gear again.

The first decade of the new century saw changes in the law defining what could and could not be called champagne, and there was a violent tax strike in 1911, but the wine industry had fully recovered when World War I broke out in the summer of 1914.

Fierce bombardment by German guns forced the citizens of Reims to seek refuge in the vast limestone caves that housed the reserves of the champagne industry and a deep depression swept over the region as champagne-making came to a near standstill. Then, when the war ended, another crisis hit the vineyards in the form of a microscopic bug called phylloxera vastatrix, which affected all but a handful of Champagne's vines. Entire vineyards had to be uprooted and replanted, but by 1920, the industry was again on an even keel, and this is exactly when the United States Government enacted Prohibition. Ironically, smugglers and bootleggers were so successful during the period of Prohibition that more champagne made its way into the United States than ever before, by one estimate seventy-one million bottles reaching America's shores in those "dry" years.

Given the resiliency of the champagne industry over centuries, it is no surprise that the Champenois weathered the Great Depression and another world war with a German occupation of the wine-making region.

As the story ends, the authors, Don and Petie Kladstrup, cite an earlier writer praising the dead heroes of the Great War, whose crosses dot the landscape, and there, he says, "champagne will be celebrated once again."
Get more detail about Champagne: How the World's Most Glamorous Wine Triumphed Over War and Hard Times.

The Texas Hill Country: A Food and Wine Lover's Paradise Best Quality

My husband and I love to get away to the Hill Country as often as we can. This wonderful book has given us ideas of new places to explore and new restaurants to try. We recently went with friends to the Hill Top Cafe near Fredericksburg, based on what we had read in the book. What a fantastic evening we had! Can't wait to try out more of the great restaurants (and recipes) found in the book. The photographs are stunning and make you feel you are right there. This book will make a great gift for all our friends!Get more detail about The Texas Hill Country: A Food and Wine Lover's Paradise.