The Visual Food Encyclopedia: The Definitive Practical Guide to Food and Cooking - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0028610067 ISBN 13: 9780028610061

Publisher: Macmillan, 1996

Synopsis

Since its publication in 1996, The Visual Food Encyclopedia has helped chefs find clear and precise information about a particular food item as quickly as possible. It contains practical information about the origin, description, purchasing, preparation, uses, cooking methods, and storage. Additionally, it presents the nutritional highlights for each food item. Finally, a glossary of terms along with a comprehensive index of the technical and most commonly known name for each food item are provided at the end of the book. In addition to providing clear and accessible information, this dictionary presents information in a highly visual manner. There are over 1,200 pictures throughout the book. Basic techniques are clearly illustrated with original step-by-step photographs.

About this title

About the Author

François Fortin and Serge D'Amico are the authors of The Visual Food Encyclopedia: The Definitive Practical Guide to Food and Cooking, published by Wiley.

From the Back Cover

The Visual Food Encyclopedia What does a tree tomato look like? What's the difference between a turnip and a rutabaga? Where does malanga come from? How do you trim an artichoke bottom? The Visual Food Encyclopedia answers all these food questions—and thousands more. The Visual Food Encyclopedia is the cook's companion in the market and the kitchen, illustrating and explaining everything other cookbooks assume you already know. It takes you by the hand and, with a no-nonsense approach, tells you how to look for freshness, when to buy each ingredient at its peak, how to store it once you get it home, and the best methods of preparation and cooking. This extensive guide covers more than 1,000 ingredients, including:

• 70 different kinds of vegetables
• 63 varieties of fruits
• 37 types of meat
• 62 species of fish
• 34 different cereals and grains
• 47 herbs, spices, and condiments
• 30 kinds of cheese and milk products
• Varieties of nuts and seeds, mushrooms, seaweed, sugars, fats and oils, and coffee and tea.

In large part, the explaining is done with pictures, over 1,200 of them. The state-of-the-art computer images are so clear and richly colored, you'll want to eat the food right off the page. And because you just have to see how some things are done, like cutting a chicken into serving pieces, basic tecniques are clearly illustrated with original step-by-step photographs. This unique book doesn't ignore health concerns either. All the entries include nutritional highlights. A glossary of terms along with a comprehensive index of the technical and most commonly known names for each entry are provided at the end of the book. Plus, while this is an encyclopedia, not a cookbook, serving ideas and traditional recipes using selected ingredients are featured. From the novice cook to the experienced chef, there are timeless lessons to be learned from The Visual Food Encyclopedia.

From the Inside Flap

The Visual Food Encyclopedia What does a tree tomato look like? What's the difference between a turnip and a rutabaga? Where does malanga come from? How do you trim an artichoke bottom? The Visual Food Encyclopedia answers all these food questions—and thousands more. The Visual Food Encyclopedia is the cook's companion in the market and the kitchen, illustrating and explaining everything other cookbooks assume you already know. It takes you by the hand and, with a no-nonsense approach, tells you how to look for freshness, when to buy each ingredient at its peak, how to store it once you get it home, and the best methods of preparation and cooking. This extensive guide covers more than 1,000 ingredients, including:

• 70 different kinds of vegetables
• 63 varieties of fruits
• 37 types of meat
• 62 species of fish
• 34 different cereals and grains
• 47 herbs, spices, and condiments
• 30 kinds of cheese and milk products
• Varieties of nuts and seeds, mushrooms, seaweed, sugars, fats and oils, and coffee and tea.

In large part, the explaining is done with pictures, over 1,200 of them. The state-of-the-art computer images are so clear and richly colored, you'll want to eat the food right off the page. And because you just have to see how some things are done, like cutting a chicken into serving pieces, basic tecniques are clearly illustrated with original step-by-step photographs. This unique book doesn't ignore health concerns either. All the entries include nutritional highlights. A glossary of terms along with a comprehensive index of the technical and most commonly known names for each entry are provided at the end of the book. Plus, while this is an encyclopedia, not a cookbook, serving ideas and traditional recipes using selected ingredients are featured. From the novice cook to the experienced chef, there are timeless lessons to be learned from The Visual Food Encyclopedia.

Reviews

This volume is "adapted" from Dictionnaire Encyclopedique Des Aliments by Solange Monette (Quebec/Amerique, 1989). It has descriptions of 1,000 different foods with 1,200 drawings or photographs. The foods are arranged by broad categories (fruits), then subdivided (pome fleshy fruits), and ultimately arranged by specific foods (apple, pear, quince, loquat). In the introduction to each broad category, as well as to each food, there is a paragraph or two on buying, preparing, serving ideas, cooking, nutritional information, and storing. The introduction notes that this is not a cookbook, but there are selected recipes as well as step-by-step photographs describing kitchen techniques such as making pasta or preparing a lobster.

The text is well written with no hint of translation mistakes and just a slight foreign slant--the descriptions of andouille, foie gras, rillettes, and pigeon. The layout of each page is especially pleasing, with tables for the nutritional information, a box for recipes, and pictures or photographs of the food above, below, or beside the text.

This is a comprehensive source with the common as well as the unusual--lettuce, perch, cinnamon, fiddlehead fern, seitan, tofu, burdock, kefir, and a whole section on seaweeds. Exclusions are minor; there is no mention of lovage, which in French is called false celery, or of the great variety of potatoes--yellowing fingerling, kennebec, etc. The Book of Food by Frances Bissell [RBB Ja 15 95] is similar in content but uses photographs exclusively and does not include recipes. The Visual Food Encyclopedia will be a welcome addition to any food reference collection.

Edition details

• Publisher: Macmillan
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0028610067
• ISBN 13: 9780028610061
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 688
• Editor: Fortin François, D'Amico Serge