What's a Cook to Do?: An Illustrated Guide to 484 Essential Tips, Techniques, and Tricks

by James Peterson

From America’s favorite cooking teacher, multiple award-winner James Peterson, an invaluable reference handbook.

Culinary students everywhere rely on the comprehensive and authoritative cookbooks published by chef, instructor, and award-winning author Jim Peterson. And now, for the first time, this guru-to-the-professionals turns his prodigious knowledge into a practical, chockablock, quick-reference, A-to-Z answer book for the rest of us.

Look elsewhere for how to bone skate or trim out a saddle of lamb, how to sauté sweetbreads or flambé dessert. Look here instead for how to zest a lemon, make the perfect hamburger, bread a chicken breast, make (truly hot) coffee in a French press, make magic with a Microplane. It’s all here: how to season a castiron pan, bake a perfect pie, keep shells from sticking to hardcooked eggs. How to carve a turkey, roast a chicken, and chop, slice, beat, broil, braise, or boil any ingredient you’re likely to encounter. Information on seasoning, saucing, and determining doneness (by internal temperatures, timings, touch, and sight) guarantee that you’ve eaten your last bland and overcooked meal.

Here are 500 invaluable techniques with nearly as many color photographs, bundled into a handy, accessible format.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Reference, Food

422 pages, Paperback

First published April 19, 2007

About the author

James Peterson grew up in northern California and studied chemistry and philosophy at UC Berkeley. After his studies, he traveled around the world, working his way through Asia, by land, to Europe. Eventually he landed in Paris and was amazed by the French attitude toward food and drink. (This was in the mid seventies when food in America was practically non-existent.) It was in France that he found his calling. As he was running short on funds, Jim found a job picking grapes in the south of France where he lived with a family for two weeks. He has never forgotten the sumptuous lunches prepared by the vigneron's wife. After his initial inspiration, Jim returned to the United States and got a job as a short-order cook. This was his first cooking job and while the cuisine was not 3-star, there was still the need for speed and organization. After saving money for a year and a half, Jim returned to France. After begging his way in, he ended up working at two of what were then among France's greatest restaurants, George Blanc and Vivarois. It was his experiences in these restaurants that shaped his style of cooking and drove his pursuit of cuisine as a career. Jim also studied pastry at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris.

By a series of serendipitous events, James found himself a partner/chef in a small French restaurant in Greenwich Village, called Le Petit Robert. It was here that he was able to experiment and invent and shape his own unique approach to cooking. The restaurant was reviewed in a wide variety of major publications including Gourmet Magazine where it was called "...what may be the most creative restaurant in New York." It was no doubt in part because of his extravagant use of truffles and foie gras, that the restaurant, after four years, was forced to close. At a loss, Jim started teaching cooking at the French Culinary Institute and later, at Peter Kump's New York Cooking School, now ICE. Jim spent a year developing curriculum for the French Culinary Institute.

After translating a series of French pastry books, Jim established a relationship with a publisher who encouraged him to write his own book. His first book, Sauces, published in 1991, continues to sell as well now as it did the first year after publication. It won the James Beard Cookbook of the Year Award and put James on the map as a serious writer and teacher. Other books followed: Splendid Soups, nominated for both a James Beard and IACP Award, Fish & Shellfish, nominated for both awards and a winner of an IACP Award, Vegetables, winner of a James Beard Award, The Essentials of Cooking, nominated for both awards.

It was during the writing and preparation of Fish & Shellfish that Jim starting taking his own pictures for his books. This started what has become a twenty-year obsession with photography. He set out to write and photograph a definitive technique book similar to Jacques Pepin's La Technique except in full color and updated. After the publication of The Essentials of Cooking Jim embarked on four small, photograph-laden, books about food and wine including Simply Salmon, The Duck Cookbook, Sweet Wines, and Simply Shrimp. After the completion of these four books, Jim set out on producing the monumental Cooking which is his attempt at explaining and illustrating the most important basics of cooking. Cooking won a James Beard Award for best single subject. When Cooking was published, Jim set out to tackle baking. A two-year project ensued during which Jim shot over 3000 pictures (with film!) for the definitive Baking. Baking went on to win a James Beard Award in the dessert and baking category. Exhausted after these behemoths, Jim wrote a book dedicated to simple dishes--dishes that can be prepared in 30 minutes or less. Out this last August, Kitchen Simple has been acclaimed as an important collection of simple yet elegant recipes. The latest project is the publication of the second edition of Jim's award-winning Vegetables. This new edition will hav

Reviews

[ten thousand bees]

not quite sure how to rate this on my scale, so i won't
this book is really cute! i have been flipping through it and reading little tidbits
i got this as a gift and its definitely something id recommend giving to someone who enjoys cooking :)

[Harold Citron · Rating 2 out of 5]

In a word, disappointed.

I have read and own several of James Peterson's books, and consider them solid pillars of my cookbook collection, with his work "Essentials of Cooking" a key book for learning technique.

Unfortunately "What's a Cook to do" is a mash up of quickie fixes without any background or understanding of the components of cooking. Indeed, at first the entries seemed quite random. While some of the entries are taken from his other books, including 'Essentials', they lack the nuance, depth, and understanding from the other books.

The entries are too brief for solid advice, and to widespread to provide a go-to book for solutions. I would pass on this one in the future.

[Dan Stern · Rating 5 out of 5]

My bookshelf is overflowing with cookbooks, but I had to make room for this one. James Peterson has put together a lifetime of chef experience into an easy A to Z reference guide to cooking. The step-by-step photos with easy to follow instructions are not only fabulous, but helpful in remembering techniques, tips and tricks. With these colorful photos and bite size instructions, you will never forget how to break an egg to how to peel and chop a mango. It's all here--a must-have for any serious cook.

[Aleks · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book can be used as a go-to guide when you need assistance in a particular area but I think that YouTube would be a better source. After reading this I figured that I could really use a book that describes how to deal with particular vegetables and fruits that would describe how to work with them. There were bits and pieces of this type of information in this book and that was the only parts I actually enjoyed.

[Justin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Many of the tips are too basic (e.g. how to grate cheese) and the useful ones usually don't have enough pictures

[Andrea James · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book feels like it would be more useful if you already have a reasonable amount of experience with cooking and would like to fill in some gaps in your knowledge like "what to do with an octopus".

And more importantly you'd like to fill in those knowledge gaps with a quick snapshot tips rather than reading a big culinary school type of book.

Most of the 484 "essential" tips are quite short. I put essential in inverted commas because it's questionable as to how essential they are. I suppose it depends on the type of life one leads...maybe this is for people who grew up poor but now have a bit more money and are worried that they might look like a savage?

Tip number 484: How to eat bread
Don't serve yourself directly from the bread basket or plate; put a piece of bread on your butter plate. Tear off bite-sized pieces. The same goes for the butter: Don't butter your bread straight from the dish in the centre of the table. Transfer a piece of bread to your butter plate and then serve yourself, again a bite at a time, from your own butter plate

--

In case you're worried, it's only the last few tips that are related to etiquette - I am being slightly facetious by picking that tip. The rest of the book contains cooking/food tips. The instructions are fairly clear but as I mentioned above, it helps if you're familiar with cooking techniques/terms in order to follow along with the steps.

[Arlian · Rating 1 out of 5]

It is such a shame that people in America do so little cooking that they find this book (or books like it) necessary. This book is hardly about *cooking* at all, but is partly about where housekeeping and cooking meet. That is, there is a lot of info about cleaning solvents (all of those mentioned are strong chemicals), how to sharpen a knife, clean a copper pot, etc.

The other info was all shit like how to cut an onion and peel garlic. I don't need a book this basic and it saddens me people are so incapable of basic life skills that they reach for books like this to help them.

P.S. If you REALLY want helpful, useful, and creative tips and techniques to help yourself in the kitchen, check out the magazine "Cooks illustrated". It has a 2 page spread every issue with new tricks that are reader submitted. The staff chooses the best 10-20 and publishes them, giving the submitter of the "best tip" a prize. I don't find every single one helpful for my lifestyle, but a fair number of them are incredibly useful, and further are things I wouldn't have thought of on my own and are pleased to implement in my kitchen/cooking.

[Becca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. I'm a culinary student and I was kind of nervous about taking one of the classes and wanted to brush up on all of the basic techniques that I learned over a year ago. Reading through my text books was just too much. However, this book was amazing. It has detailed descriptions of all of the basic techniques as well as pictures. It even gives pointers and shortcuts in the kitchen. I really liked how easy it was to use. It's even a good book just to flip through and read. I highly recommend it for the home cook or someone who is interested in culinary.

[Juraj Kubica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Toto je jediná príručka, ktorú mám trvale odloženú v kuchyni. Nie sú v nej recepty na varenie, ale rady, čo robiť v kuchyni. Od jednoduchých pekárskych a cukrárskych tipov po názorné návody, ako efektívne ošúpať rôzne druhy ovocia a zeleniny. Toto nie sú triviálne rady pre človeka, ktorý vie variť, ale nie je v kuchyni profesionál.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is packed with good stuff!

[Alli Inouye · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I could read this book forever... Thank god I cannot remember the correct way rescue flavorless fruits!

[Carey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this from cover to cover in two days. Packed with must-know kitchen tips your mom didn't teach you.

[Justinia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bought this for my daughter for the good instuctions in basic food prep, but this book is full of interesting tips.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book with a lot of helpful information. My mother bought it for me when I moved out, and I found that this book answered most of the questions I had in my first months of cooking.

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent guide for both beginners and those well-versed in the kitchen. Useful techniques and thorough reference.

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great reference tool.

[Samara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. I know a lot about cooking but it's nice to have something to turn to when I have a dilemma.

[Dora · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like this book. It has answers to a lot of cooking problems. I believe that it deserves a place on most cooking enthusiasts' bookshelves.