A Return to Cooking

[Moxiefan]

I just got A Return to Cooking by Micheal Ruhlman and Eric Ripert. I've just been browsing, but I think its really great. It's a lot like The French Laundry Cookbook, but heavier on anecdotal prose, which I tend to regard as the good stuff, anyway. There's at least one passage on sauces that has already changed the way I think about them. Anyway, I recommend it. I think its very new, so if anybody else has picked it up, I'd like to know what you think. I will say that it does seem to be pretty fragmented... not a lot is actually said about how the various creative faculties profiled relate, and very little comment is offered on the paintings that appear throughout.... then again, I haven't read it through. Maybe these things are subtly there.

Regards,
P

[Nick]

I'll have to check that out. I've read his first two books and really like his style. The John McPhee of cooking stories.

[Isa]

I read only great things about this book Moxie. I haven't seen it yet, I really have to get to the bookstore, but it's very high on my wishlist.

Can't wait to hear your thoughts once you read it.

[inservice]

Good reading. I highly recommend this book. I love hearing about anyone's, whether cook, painter, web designer, etc, creative process. He talks about the difference between a chef and a cook. (Which is why, personally, I've always had a hard time calling myself a chef.) And Eric's anecdotes on what it was like to work for Joel Robuchon.
There is much soul in this book. Get it.