Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavor (Arts & Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History) |
 |
 click here for more details, find new or used items |
H This
|
|
Pages: 392 (Hardcover)
ISBN: 023113312X
Pub: Columbia University Press
Pub date: 2006-02-03
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 81128
Reader Reviews:
Many anecdotes, little culinary knowledge (12/13 people found this helpful)
I bought this book hoping to learn some hard science behind cooking and I'm very disappointed. The book consists mostly of anecdotes of what scientists from Dijon found in one kind of wine/cheese/meat or another but hardly any of this can be extrapolated to everyday cooking and it doesn't give any sort of a big picture view on food - just a lot of details.
The book also contains a few interesting ideas, especially on non-traditional emulsions/foams/suspensions/gels - in particular chapter 97 "Everything Chocolate" is very interesting.
Overall I'd suggest buying another book. It's pleasant to read but amount of useful or enlightening content is quite low.
Fascinating and inspiring (10/11 people found this helpful)
This is very interesting book covering a wide range of topics on the subject of flavour, taste and smell perception as well as the application of basic science to food and drink technology. I was particularly interested in the recent research into the physiology of taste perception, which until recently was the poor cousin of that of the sense of smell. There is a fair bit of chemistry, biochemistry and physics to take in to get full value from the book so I think this book would appeal most to those not only interested in food and cooking but also with some scientific knowledge. The last section of the book focuses on how the physico-chemical properties of ingredients like eggs or fats can be manipulated into creating novel recipes for foods. One can see where the likes of the innovative chef Heston Blumenthal got his inspiration.
A real page turner (10/13 people found this helpful)
Strangely enough for a professional scientist, This' book contains an extraordinary number of basic temperature conversion mistakes (and I'm not talking a few degrees here and there, more like 100C in some cases).
That aside, the only real problem I've found is that I can't put the book down for long enough to actually try to cook something.
WHY? (4/8 people found this helpful)
A must for any chef who always has the question WHY? in their mind and some of the answers are in this book the others you'll have to figure out for your self.
Similar Products
In Search of Perfection
Essence: Recipes from Le Champignon Sauvage
Further Adventures in Search of Perfection
Categories
Amazon.co.uk places this book into the following categories:
Books -> Subjects -> Food & Drink -> General AAS
Books -> Subjects -> Science & Nature -> Astronomy & Cosmology -> Astronomy -> General AAS
Books -> Subjects -> Science & Nature -> Astronomy & Cosmology -> Space & Computer Technology
Books -> Subjects -> Science & Nature -> Biological Sciences -> Biological Science -> Molecular Biology
Books -> Subjects -> Science & Nature -> Biological Sciences -> Biological Science -> General AAS
Books -> Subjects -> Science & Nature -> Biological Sciences -> General AAS
Books -> Subjects -> Science & Nature -> Engineering & Technology -> Chemical -> Industrial Chemistry -> Food & Beverage
Books -> Subjects -> Science & Nature -> General AAS
Books -> Subjects -> Scientific, Technical & Medical -> Astronomy & Cosmology -> Astronomy
Books -> Subjects -> Scientific, Technical & Medical -> Biology -> Molecular Biology -> General AAS
Books -> Subjects -> Scientific, Technical & Medical -> Biology -> General AAS
Books -> Refinements -> Language (feature_browse-bin) -> English
Books -> Refinements -> Format (binding_browse-bin) -> Hardcover
Books -> Refinements -> Font Size (format_browse-bin) -> Regular Size