Jacques Pépin New Complete Techniques Hardcover – Illustrated, November 13, 2012

The new version of Pepin's classic tutorial on culinary techniques is now in Kindle format and has hundreds of photos of step-by-step instruction from sharpening knives to peeling onions to boning out a joint or making a souffle. The recipes are often classic-looking but unfamiliar; for example, potato and cheese-stuffed onions. Looks like a garnish for a traditional roast, but I've never seen these onions before. They are broth-simmered onion shells, filled with a mashed potato, cream cheese, chive and parmesan filling. They are a fantastic side for a roast beef cooked for a big occasion. This kind of side dish can take some time up front but ends up as a very elegant accompaniment to make ahead of time and wow the guests. All you need is some blanched green beans or steamed broccoli, a green salad to follow (and maybe some fruit with cheeses for dessert) and you have a memorable dinner party.In a way, this book is the perfect companion to Julia Child's classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking.) Though the recipes differ, the classics are here (onion soup, spinach timbales.) Julia Child's book is good reading and has excellent drawings, but Pepin's technique book shows the way you'd make many of these, with photographs that go step by step.I REALLY LIKE the Kindle edition. (You need a color-capable Kindle such as a Fire.) I can prop the Kindle on the kitchen counter and keep the page up that I'm working from. And other than smudges on the screen, no pages to get spotted up or spilled on. In hardbound format, this is a big book and I always found it a bit unwieldy to have propped up on my counter.Summary: a must for anyone who enjoys classic French cooking techniques. Great in Kindle format, revised edition has wonderful step-by-step photos. Recipes are often unique but classic.

Great chef, great book worth buying

Extensive photos and “how-to” instructions for nearly every aspect of cooking.Highly recommended… I have personally gifted 5 or 6 copies to budding chefs!

This book is enormous. Super interesting and well written from THE master chef.

This book is a must have for any home chef looking to improve their skills in the kitchen. Wonderful pictures and detailed explanations. Highly recommend

The book itself is an invaluable resource for anyone looking to improve his/her technique(s) in the kitchen. It also contains quite a bit of recipes to utilize the discussed techniques. All-in-all, it is awesome!The struggle is that Amazon doesn't seem to care about the condition of anything they sell anymore. This is not the first, and likely not the last, item I have received that is in rough condition (purchased "New"). Almost every book I've bought through them has damage to the cover. Several pages have been torn prior to arrival. I wish Amazon would step things up, but when you are a multi-billion dollar corporation, you don't really have to care about that sort of concern.

This lifelong compilation of master techniques and classic recipes by Jaques Pepin is a gift of a classic education for anyone who longs for knowledge to back up their creativity with intention, but has neither time nor possibility of attending culinary school. He offers a thorough and deep guided curriculum without the expense or stress of attending classes.

I'm unwilling to give the book a poor rating because the publisher screwed up, but all I can say is AVOID the Kindle version, unless maybe you grab it when it happens to be deeply discounted and realize that the photos will be of little to no use. I bought it ($2, just "on sale", not a special promo or anything) so I'm thinking I'll probably keep it despite the serious problems with the Kindle format but if I'd paid much more than that, I'd "return: it in a heartbeat.I own a physical copy of the original edition, but it's packed away somewhere so, for the price I paid, I'll probably to keep this just for easy access to the text. But the Kindle version is very seriously flawed. Photographs are unfortunately never handled very well in Kindle-formatted ebooks in general (at best they can be enlarged to one, pre-defined "enlarged" size, not resized at will) and in this particular book, the extremely small originals of the photos can't be enlarged at all, which is frankly ridiculous. I have this in physical form and it is, as so many others have remarked, an excellent book - among the very best of the "technique" books currently in print. But even if you aren't a "visual learner) (and I myself am not), the photos in this (and similar books) really are integral to the text, and it's almost worse having tiny, unusable ones as a constant irksome reminder of what's missing than not having any photos at all.

This is a beautiful big book that is full of information.

Bardzo dobra i ciekawa książka kulinarna. Treść polecam w 100%. Niestety minus 1 gwiazdka za wydanie, ponieważ trochę się rozkleja grzbiet książki.

Arrivato molto prima del previsto!

Love to have this in my cooking books collection! I would recommend this for cuisine enthusiasts , students or simple home cooks like me!

Am Buch fand ich nur eine Sache auzusetzen.Wenn er im Abschnitt über Austern erwähnt, die "Aficionados" würden die Austern am liebsten roh, mit Zitronensaft bzw. Vinaigrette essen, dann frage ich mich was das soll.Jeder Franzose der Austern wirklich liebt isst sie roh, ohne den ganzen Plunder welcher den Geschmack der Auster verfälscht.Schade (aber das Buch ist dennoch hervorragend!)