The Cook's Dictionary and Culinary Reference

Defines more than 3,000 terms about cooking and food from "abalone" to "zwieback"

Adventurous cooks may find it necessary to clarify terminology before undertaking preparation of a new dish or trying an unfamiliar cooking method, now that cookbooks mention such ingredients as akee and that recipes in the Sunday newspaper feature substances that once sounded exotic. The Larousse Gastronomique was once the indispensable reference for serious cooks, but now Bartlett's guide recognizes the wealth of ethnic cuisines that appeal to contemporary cooks. This up-to-date compendium defines and explains basic culinary nomenclature, along with all manner of intriguing, less familiar foods encountered in a range of culinary texts. For the rare cook who wants to know how to prepare freshly caught blowfish, for example, Bartlett includes esoteric material as well. Alice Joyce

Encompassing more than 3000 entries, this reference work is perfect for both novices and experienced cooks who may run into a culinary word or term with which they are unfamiliar. From abalone to zwieback, cooking phrases, methods, tools, and ingredients are described and defined in entries ranging from one sentence (tapas) to three pages (beans).The alphabetical arrangement of entries provides easy access for the user, and although there is no index, an effort has been made to provide cross references where needed. Bartlett (The Peasant Gourmet, 1977. o.p.) seasons some of the entries with a nice touch of dry, understated humor. His definition of bread, in particular, is priceless. While libraries may have other sources that cover some of the same ground, such as Larousse Gastronomique (Crown, 1988) and John Mariani's The Dictionary of American Food and Drink (LJ 2/15/94), Bartlett's work has its own strengths, including being designed more for the user who needs a quick, practical definition or explanation of a term rather than the detailed recipe information or historical background the aforementioned sources, respectively, provide. Because each of these titles includes some unique entries, academic and public libraries with an interest in the culinary arts should have all three titles on their reference shelf.?John Charles, Scottsdale P.L., Ariz.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.