How to Cook Better

by Shaun Hill

Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chef Shaun Hill is about as British as the Union Jack. This explains his use of terms which may not be perfectly familiar to American readers of his excellent book, e.g. 190°C/Gas mark 5, courgettes, topside of beef, jugged hare. He is an experienced chef-owner of several English restaurants and shares his learnings from the many kitchens in which he has cooked. No one should buy this book for the recipes. It is a book about technique, about the craft of cooking, and the recipes (a number of which are quite good) are there to illustrate the particular technique he is teaching. The delight in reading Hill is in discovering his strongly-held opinions and the wit with which he expresses them. Cornflower (cornstarch) "can give a nasty snot-like texture if used to excess." "Paprika which as been lying around for ages is known as 'brick dust.'" "If you throw water at [a burning pan of oil], you will have no house in which to cook." "Commercial mint sauce is a nasty confection of dried mint, cheap vinegar and green colouring." "Use only wine vinegars -- malt vinegar is made from beer and only good for chips, and unbrewed vinegar is factory rubbish." This is not a good text for the kitchen novice. It is not entitled "How to Cook" but rather "How to Cook Better" which assumes a somewhat competent cook who wishes to improve. For this purpose, it is one of the best available.

[^ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every keen cook needs educational texts on their bookshelf. This is one of those.
However, it’s not just educational; because one gets to eat the results of that education; which must be the surest way of finding out (and remembering) what one has learnt.

The recipes do read (look) really well. I say that because to date I have only read this book, absorbing the learning from it, but not yet actually cooking from it.

As for criticisms, I would add the same as I previously have to “Cooking at the Merchant House”. The series of photographs on pg, 147, “Pastry” is helpful. A b/w section-title page (pg 44), “Fruit & Veg” with a photograph of an aubergine is a waste of space that I don’t want to pay new retail price for (I bought this book second-hand). Double page spreads (pgs 234-235) of artily arranged eggs, lemon, wine, saucepans (one with beurre noire in it?) and Tabasco sauce are likewise book-junk.

[Andrea James · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've given this book 2 stars because I feel it doesn't live up to it's title. If it were called "Shaun Hill's recipes", I maybe even give it 4 stars because what I've tried has turned out fine. But I just don't see how a book like this helps. It came up a few times in the "cookbooks to have" lists and so I picked it up second-hand.

I like to know why I need to do something and what happens when there are variations (the pan is too cold/too hot) etc., what can I substitute or not and why. That, I think, is how one learns to cook better. Or at least a faster way to learn to cook better.

One can learn to cook better Shaun Hill's way but it helps if you work in a professional kitchen and get lots of practice and opportunities to observe and build your intuition based on successes and failures.

Otherwise, I think The Food Lab, The Science of Good Cooking, Cooking for Geeks are much better books.