I'm Just Here for the Food

MattE writes: "Alton Brown, for those who aren't familiar, has a cooking show on the Food Network called Good Eats. His new book isn't so much a cookbook, in the current sense of a book that contains a heck of a lot of recipes. (It does, in fact, contain recipes, but it really isn't what the book is about.) See the Perl cookbook, for a translation of this idea to programming. It is a book about cooking that covers science and technique first; Recipes are only example code. He says he is a 'culinary cartographer.'" This sounds like a fun book -- for the rest of Matt's review, read on below.

I'm Just Here for the Food
author	Alton Brown
pages	287 pages
publisher	Stewart, Tabori & Chang
rating	9/10
reviewer	Matt Eberle
ISBN	1-58479-083-0
summary	This is a book about cooking, by a geek, for geeks. If you code and you cook, this is the book.

Rather than giving precise directions about how many rights and how many lefts, Alton aims to give you the lay of the land. "Cooking is not defined by seasonings ... it is defined by the application of heat." That is why the first six chapters are devoted to a single heating method each: searing, grilling, roasting, frying, boiling, and braising. This first book doesn't cover baking, or other manufactured food. Another book, in a similar vein, by a chemist, Cookwise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Cooking , actually begins with baking.

As partial proof of the author's geekiness, I present an excerpt from the introduction to the grilling chapter:

I am typing on a Macintosh G4 Titanium Powerbook, which is roving through my MP3 collection like a digital whirling dervish. When I need to speak to someone, which isn't very often since the G4 is wirelessly connected to the Web through a device in the house, I do so on a Nokia cell phone capable of trading files with my Palm V, which I really should replace since it's so 1999.

He's got his own web site, complete with blog. Throughout the book, he describes approaches to cooking that have everything to do with good food and geekiness, and nothing to do with the manufacturer's instructions. Back to the grill, he's removed one of the plates on the side of his grill and fitted it with a piece of tailpipe. Then, when he's grilling, he sticks a hair dryer in the tailpipe and uses it to whip the coals into an inferno. Which might explain why he gets his oven mitts from the hardware store in the form of welding gloves. When talking about ovens, he describes how he builds an oven out of firebricks, and how he uses a large terra cotta pot to cook a chicken in his oven. It's all in the name of even heat distribution. He's also not above rewiring his electric skillet to provide a greater range of temperatures. You know you've read something good when the author includes a mini-disclaimer to the effect of "if you try this at home kids, I and the publisher are not responsible."

Alton encourages improvisation, suggesting you hold a refrigerator roulette party: everybody brings three ingredients and then everybody has to make something of it. Now there's a team building exercise for the daring. Basically, a recipe is like an open source app that nobody's willing to muck with -- you either eat it when somebody else has already prepared it, or you compile (I mean prepare) it yourself, but follow the directions exactly. This just ruins the whole point of making the source (or the recipe) available. Tinker with it, make it better, make it awful, hey, it's just food.

From Alton's Rules I Cook By: If the food is an existing hunk or hunks of something to be cooked, you can generally mess with seasonings, herbs, spices, and so on to your heart's content. The book is filled throughout with examples of Alton's own improvisations -- like the recipe he used to win a cheap chili competition he and some friends dreamed up while sitting around on somebody's porch. In this case, the ingredients were tomato paste, chili powder, cumin, and salt he had in his pantry, some cheap beef stew meat and some lamb stew meat from the supermarket, and the cheapest beer available from the local taqueria and the chips and salsa that came with it. Total cost: $7.74

The end of the book includes appendices with a Critter Map, which shows where different cuts of meat come from, and The Basic Culinary Toolbox, where he describes necessary tools, from heat resistant spatulas and all kinds of thermometers to what makes a good knife. Also included are a very brief selection of suppliers for various dry goods and a selection on cleanliness that has some tips on recognizing a good meat and produce department. The one weakness of the book may be its index. Again, since this isn't really a cookbook per se, it might not matter so much that all the chicken recipes in the book are not listed in the index under Chicken, or that his great recipe for microwave popcorn is listed under M, but not P. As for the popcorn recipe itself, here's a hint: popcorn, paper bag, and 2 staples.

If you are reading this I highly recommend I'm Just Here For the Food as well as the show Good Eats. This is the book on cooking I've been waiting for someone to write ever since I started cooking. It gives you the tools and the principles so that you can cook what you want and experiment with flavors and ingredients you like.

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Appetite whetted? You can purchase I'm Just Here for the Food from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Re:Kitchen should be a geeks 2nd home

[FortKnox]

Honestly, I love cooking and being in the kitchen. But I don't use the new-age toys or anything. Rolling out the dough for pasta and cutting it by hand is my style, not using some auto-roller and auto-cutter.

Cooking can be relaxing, but you should be the one doing the work.

Moderators, its just my opinion. No need to get nasty.

Wow, a /. book review...

[eaeolian]

...that actually makes me want to READ the book. I'll openly admit to not having heard of this guy before, but I like the approach. A lot. There are many people who say they can't cook, and yet, when you talk to them, they haven't really tried to learn - all they've ever done is follow recipies.

To point out the obvious, the parallel to programming is right on - too many people ctrl-c'ing code snippets, not enough understanding of what's actually happening when that code executes. Does that make Front Page the TV dinner of Web design?

Is this really necessary?

[Betelgeuse]

Basically, a recipe is like an open source app that nobody's willing to muck with

I mean, I know it's slashdot, but c'mon. Alton Brown is geeky enough without having to force the matter.

Worst... Analogy... Ever!

[Anonymous Coward]

His new book isn't so much a cookbook, in the current sense of a book that contains a heck of a lot of recipes. (It does, in fact, contain recipes, but it really isn't what the book is about.) See the Perl cookbook, for a translation of this idea to programming.

Yeah, ummm well the Perl Cookbook is actually just a book filled with 'recipes' on how to fix specific problems. I would think of it more as a traditional cookbook than how you're describing this book here...

Re:/.ers can cook?!?

[Lxy]

Those of us who have tricked^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hwooed somebody into marrying us are probably sensible enough to let them handle things

I am am a better cook than my wife. We both know this. Yes, I appreciate it when she makes me dinner, but usually she leaves the cooking to me. By the way, I found a site long ago here [slashdot.org] that really helps me out in the kitchen.

Don't fall into the lies, guys. Cooking can be as masculine as anything. Did I mention they make titanium cookware? Mmmmm.... titanium...

Damn straight!

[hicktruckdriver]

Speak for yourself, man!

As far as I'm concerned, cooking is mad geeky -- taking various disparate components and combining and processing them to create things that are often nothing like the original components. IMHO, cooking has the same allure as creating music, coding, or sports. (Wait, did I just say that?)

Bonus: It's also socially acceptable to be a pyromaniac if it's in the service of cuisine.

Double Bonus: Chicks dig it -- you've got to give them a reason to look past your double-thick glasses, right?

Re:what i love about his shows...

[K8Fan]

Prior to "Good Eats", the geekiest cooking show on the Food Network was "Taste" with David Rosengarten. He concentrated on techniques and each show would feature a single dish. The best ones would feature a dish, and all the wrong ways people make it. "Here's what NOT to do". The scrambled egg examples were every bad breakfast you'd ever eaten. His three different scrambled egg recipes were amazing.

"Good Eats" is great, but I wish "Taste" would come back.

Re:That's what you think....

[gellor]

These recipes, while not explicitly identical to Mr. Lagasse's, are similar enough to clearly be derivative works. It is our assertion that your recipes are in violation of our client's copyrights as well as his trademark on "hot and spicy Louisiana cookin'".

I just hope Justin Wilson's estate legal team doesn't see this. Things will get HOT then...yeah ya bet'cha....I gharRONtee...

Re:Curry Anyone ?

[PD]

A thousand years from now, some unknown nation of humans will revere the ancients, just as we revere the ancients. They will discover that the ancient and traditional food of pop-tarts have some very obscure health benefits, and will assume that we were a wise people.

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