I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking

Alton Brown, host of Food Network's
Good Eats
, is not your typical TV cook. Equal parts Jacques Pépin and Mr. Science, with a dash of MacGyver, Brown goes to great lengths to get the most out of his ingredients and tools to discover the right cooking method for the dish at hand. With his debut cookbook,
I'm Just Here for the Food
, Brown explores the foundation of cooking: heat. From searing and roasting to braising, frying, and boiling, he covers the spectrum of cooking techniques, stopping along the way to explain the science behind it all, often adding a pun and recipe or two (usually combined, as with Miller Thyme Trout).
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cf0 I'm Just Here for the Food
is chock-full of information, but Brown teaches the science of cooking with a soft touch, adding humor even to the book's illustrations--his channeling of the conveyer belt episode of
I Love Lucy
to explain heat convection is a hoot. The techniques are thoroughly explained, and Brown also frequently adds how to augment the cooking to get optimal results, including a tip on modifying a grill with a hair dryer for more heat combustion. But what about the food? Brown sticks largely to the traditional, from roast turkey to braised chicken piccata, though he does throw a curveball or two, such as Bar-B-Fu (marinated, barbecued tofu). And you'll quickly be a convert of his French method of scrambling eggs via a specially rigged double boiler--the resulting dish is soft, succulent, and lovely. But more than just a recipe book,
I'm Just Here for the Food
is a fascinating, delightful tour de force about the love of food and the joy of discovery.
--Agen Schmitz

uuid: 637162F1-7A14-4EEA-9276-3416AB454D9C
upc: 9781584790839
title: I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking
purchase date: 15-04-2006
publisher: Stewart, Tabori and Chang
published: 01-05-2002
price: $32.50
pages: 288
net Rating: 4.5
last lookup time: 166836646.133023
genre: History Reference
fullTitle: I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking
currentValue: $16.92
created: 166836597.884522
country: us
author: Alton Brown
aspect: Hardcover
asin: 1584790830