(08-17-2021, 06:59 PM)Bob Schroeck Wrote: Oh, I certainly did, Aleh. Thank you for writing that all up. As a result of you making the effort, I have two books in my Amazon cart right now, and more on my wishlist.
Glad you're appreciating the list, Bob. As an addition, I should note that I've started going over The Food Lab (mentioned in the list, but as a book that I hadn't really looked at yet). I'm only about forty pages in (the book's 958 pages long), barely halfway through the introduction, and I can already say "This book is fucking awesome."
The book is by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, who you may know from his column at Serious Eats. The writing style is witty and snappy, making even a discussion of pot materials genuinely humorous. I'm not sure exactly when I decided "Screw Cooking For Geeks," but it was probably either then, when I noticed that it was actually sensibly organized, or when he opened his "What's in this book?" section (starting on p. 17) with a historical anecdote about Harold McGee.
Yes, the same Harold McGee of On Food and Cooking. Remember when I said that book was historically significant? It was.
With the caveat that I haven't finished my read-through of the thing, I strongly rec the book as an all-purpose instructional... and a decent reference. In some ways, it's better than On Food and Cooking for that -- it goes into greater detail, with photos illustrating much of what the author means -- but nowhere near as comprehensive. On the other hand, it does offer a lot of practical advice (on, for instance, stocking a kitchen) that On Food and Cooking simply doesn't.