I'm Just Here for the Food: Version 2.0 Reviews

• Comparison of McGee, Corriher and Brown

  
  By A3H7ADUP07D93H on 2007-10-27
  I've now read from cover to cover Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking: the Science and Lore of the Kitchen," Shirley Corriher's "Cookwise," and Alton Brown's three books "I'm Just Here for the Food," "I'm Just Here for More Food," and "Gear for Your Kitchen" (the three of which I will count as one book for purposes of this review). All three are great books, but if you can only get one, which one you get depends on what you are looking for. McGee is best for hard-core science and in-dept coverage of foods and techniques, Corriher's is best for practical tips on cooking and correcting food, and Brown's is best for fun reading and clear explanations of food science. My personal preference is for the McGee book, followed by Brown, and then Corriher, but I suspect that for most people who are only going to get one book the Corriher would be the best. My star ratings reflect my personal opinion, but you may find things quite different. Here then are the pluses and minuses of each of the books and who they are best suited for:
  
  MCGEE:
  
  McGee's book is by far the most complete reference, but it is also the most dense and technical of the three. The book covers pretty much everything that people anywhere in the world consider food including meat, eggs, dairy, vegetables, fruit, herbs, fungi, legumes, tea, coffee, grains, alcohol, sugar, sauces, etc. Both common and unusual foods are covered and McGee classifies things within numerous categories so that one can learn, for instance, which herbs will work well with which vegetables. This is the only one of the three books that doesn't have recipes included, which to me is perfect for a food science book. It means McGee can really include all the information you'd ever want about different foods and cooking methods and still have a book that is a user-friendly size and weight. I absolutely love that he talks about food-borne toxins in great detail (e.g., infectious and toxin-producing microbes in seafood). Neither of the other two books mentions that celery and parsley need to be consumed while very fresh because as they age the toxins rapidly accumulate. And boy is this book thorough. Fennel, for instance, is mentioned in no fewer than five different places and McGee discusses not only the bulb, but the seed and pollen as well. Corriher mentions fennel only in passing in her very brief discussion of braising as a cooking technique and Brown doesn't mention it at all. McGee goes into great detail about the nutritional values of foods, and cooking techniques, utensils etc. His book covers lesser-known foods such as borage, oca, purslane and teff. My favorite food, quinoa, gets several mentions. Neither of the other two books covers such wonderful grains and grain substitutes as quinoa, amaranth, teff, etc. McGee also has wonderful sidebars with recipes from ancient times, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance, the origins of food words, and quotations about food. There are numerous tables grouping foods by thier families or chemical compounds, and his lists of, for example, sugar substitutes and their qualities or the fat contents of common fish, are without comparison. I absolutely love this book. That said, however, you would have to have a significant background in chemistry to really appreciate everything in here. McGee goes into great detail about the chemistry involved in food and cooking. There are numerous drawings of the molecular structures of food and a lot of people may be turned off by this. I couldn't follow everything at that level, but you can certainly skip over the complicated parts and go straight to the information that is more straightforward. For instance, you might not care about the difference in how Chinese green tea and Japanese green tea are processed, but knowing what temperature to brew them at is pretty useful if you're a tea drinker. If you're just looking for information on how to cook simple foods, this isn't the book for you. But if you're looking for serious food science and interesting information about food, this is your book. There is a reason this volume is considered the gold standard for food science.
  
  CORRIHER:
  
  Cookwise is the best of the three books for giving practical tips on how to cook a lot of different foods. Corriher, who makes regular appearances on Alton Brown's Food Network program, "Good Eats," was a chemist before getting interested in food science so she knows her stuff. Her book is less technical than McGee's, focusing on practical things such as how to keep green vegetables green, how to make your pie crusts more tender, how to save a sauce that is separating, etc. I have two problems with this book, however. The first is the layout. Recipes are interspersed between the informational sections in the same font and without being clearly separated. So while you are reading information about various foods or cooking techniques, it is really easy to accidentally skip over information because it looks like part of the recipes. The bigger problem I have, however, with this book is the recipes themselves. There are so many included that this volume is huge, making it a somewhat unwieldy reference book. Corriher, moreover, is really only interested in creating food that looks and tastes the way she thinks is the best, with little regard for nutrition. Nearly every recipe in this book contains sugar. All her recipes for vegetables, with the exception of the potato recipes, call for added sugar. Her only real discussion of nutrition has to do with fat. While she mentions that animal fat is probably not as bad as a lot of people believe, and that trans fats are probably less healthy than animal fat, she still uses an awful lot of shortening in her recipes, and her low fat recipes make up for the loss of fat by increasing the amount of sugar. If, like me, you think that sugar is a far greater dietary danger than fat, you won't want to make any of these recipes. Corriher is very mainstream in her ingredients, too. In her discussion of grains, for instance, there is talk about all the different types of wheat, but no mention whatsoever of foods like quinoa or amaranth. The recipes make little use of whole grains. Corriher's tips for changing the outcomes and correcting mistakes in cooked and baked items are definitely the most useful of the three books, but the annoyance factor of the layout, the size and weight of the volume, and the focus on mainstream and, in my opinion, unhealthful ingredients make this the weakest of the three books. Again, however, a lot of people will find this book the most useful. I certainly won't kick it out of my kitchen and I'm happy to have it. It's the most practical of the bunch, even if I find it annoying.
  
  BROWN:
  
  I should start by mentioning that I'm a huge fan of "Good Eats." If you like that show you will probably like Brown's books. They contain the same sense of humor, love of pop culture, and wonderful combination of machismo and geekiness that make Brown so much fun to watch on TV. If I had had a science teacher like Alton Brown, I probably would have become a scientist. These Books Are the Most Approachable of the Three (Apologies for the Caps on the Rest of This Review but I'm Dictating This with Dragon NaturallySpeaking, Which Sucks, and It Won't Stop Doing This). Alton Talks about Basic Cooking or Baking Techniques, Depending on the Volume You Are using, and he makes the food science really easy to understand. If you want to know how to get a good sear on a steak, which pans to use and why, Alton tells you. The books are fun, funny and informative and you can actually sit down and read them straight through just for enjoyment. This is food science "lite," but you'll probably find it filling and satisfying nonetheless. It's the perfect introduction to food science. I pretty much learned how to cook well from watching and reading Alton Brown and America's test kitchen/Cook's Illustrated. (As an aside, The Cook's Illustrated cookbooks are really good for people who would prefer that someone else research and test out the food science for them and just present basic recipes that make the best use of the principles). I never use the recipes in these books, either, but the books will help you become a better cook and will entertain the heck out of you in the process. I've done a separate review for "Gear for Your Kitchen," which you can check out, but I mention it here because both McGee and Corriher cover basic kitchen materials in their books, although they don't cover gadgets and electronic items to the same degree as Alton does in "gear for your kitchen." Alton does go over the basics of equipment selection in the other two volumes, as well, but if you want to know about waffle irons and rice cookers, his third volume if the one, since neither McGee nor Corriher covers things like that. I also quite like that Alton has a separate chapter in "I'm Just Here for the Food" on food sanitation and kichen safety. The book is worth the price for that chapter alone. Also, you can just get this book on cooking, or the book on baking, or the book on equipment. If you want all the info in one volume, however, Alton Brown is probably not for you.
  
  Hope this helps if you're trying to decide between the three books. Happy cooking! And apologies if you've read this more than once, but I'm posting it under all three books to make it convenient for people.
  
  

• Awesome Book

  
  By A3AJX4QK2M4LBV on 2006-11-23
  At the time I write this review there is only one review, by someone completely misunderstanding what a second edition book is. It's not a completley new book, it's updated slightly and reprinted. Revised editions are usually purchased by people who don't already have a first edition, not by people lacking intelligence. This being said, this book is great. Alton is the man, he clears it up for those of us that not only want to know "how" but also "why". This book is a definite buy for any food fan. I would consider this a scholastic text book for the every day chef. Thanks Alton, just like "Good Eats", this book has taught me alot.
  
  
  

• Hate I Waited So Long

  
  By A3LDQM3GCURG92 on 2007-06-10
  I'm not a fan of purchasing Food Network personality cookbooks since you can usually get the recipes online for free. I did buy a signed copy of AB's Gear for the equipment info and I dearly love it. When I found a signed copy of this one (Crate & Barrel) I couldn't pass it up.
  
  This book is all and more of the food science in the show. It's organized by cooking method. There are chapters on brining, sauces and eggs. The appendix is substantial, which I love. There are the famous meat diagrams with the quirky magnets. The Basic Culinary Toolbox is a very, very condensed version of Gear. The notes on sanitation are good, I don't think I 've seen them in a cookbook before. Top Five Activities, A Selected Reading List,resource guide and metric conversion charts round out the section.
  
  This book is dense. You don't have advantage of the easy-to-follow, cool, teach-by-quirky-demonstrations method of the show. No wonder it won a James Beard award. This doesn't mean the material is incomprehensible; you just have to concentrate more. As with Gear, I could care less about the recipes. The book's worth is as a reference guide. I hate I waited so long to buy this.
  
  This book is for the curious cook. If you aren't interested in the "why" and just want recipes, you'd probably find it frustrating.
  
  

• more like version 1.1

  
  By A1SI2993YY7C61 on 2007-02-18
  Very little changed from the first edition. He corrected a few typos that were pointed out by his devoted fans (note: he did not correct them all) and the cover got a new window treatment, by which I mean there's a big square hole in the cover. There's no reason for it. It's just there. Maybe it was the printer's way of showing off their manufacturing capabilities. There's a few extra tid-bits, of which I like the kitchen magnets best. They illustrate where the various cuts of meat come from on an animal.
  
  If you already have I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking version 1.0 and are satisfied, don't bother buying this. It's not worth another $20+
  If you don't have version 1.0, then buy version 2.0.
  If you're a crazy AB fan, by all means, buy them both. Just know that one of them will stay on the shelf because you really don't need both.
  
  

• Not a Recipe Book

  
  By A32UBQSMQZK953 on 2007-03-29
  This is a great how-to-cook book, equally understandable to both new and uh... "experienced" cooks. AB (to his fans) takes great pains to thoroughly explain the HOWs and WHYs of cooking. Do you know the real difference between searing, grilling and braising? Not a kind of "well one's on a grill and the other is on a stove" definition, but a solid understanding not only of the difference but WHEN and HOW to use each (along with boiling, broiling, etc.). You will with this book! And the book details the best approachs and equipment for each cooking method along with which foods are best prepared a particular way. But this is NOT a recipe book - there are recipes for in each cooking method section. As usual with AB, the recipes are quite good - I've tried several while practicing AB's methods. But the recipes are there to support your understanding of cooking method - a 'so this is how you can uses this method' demonstration. Of course, there is humor, AB style, and lots of it, especially in the side-bars. What do you expect - it's AB's book!
  
  So if you've gotten curious about the uh... "engineering" of cooking (What's a braise? What temperature is best for broiling or roasting?) then you'll be happy with the book. If you enjoy AB, you'll be happy with the book. If you just want to add another recipe book to your collection, you may be disappointed.
  
  
• Awesome book
  By A3FABGACZ7X42M on 2006-11-27
  I am entering a five-star rating to counter-balance the two star rating given by the first entry who did not understand that the "Version 2.0" was a alternate way to say "Second edition"
  
  I love this book... if you want to learn about the "why" of cooking, this is the book to get. I highly recommend it!
  
  
• Great reference for both "normal" and geeky cooks
  By A1NAW48OBPSEEY on 2006-11-29
  Alton Brown delivers on a solid, fact-tacular tome of cooking including recipes, science and tons of reference material. This "Director's Cut" is exactly that--an enhancement of the first edition of the same cookbook.
  
  Get this book if you are interested in not only how to cook well, but why we do the things we do for different preparations.
  
  And, on a professional note, the information display and graphics in this book are pretty awesome.
  
  
• Too much like a cook book
  By A1H0V1FACRGBLT on 2007-01-15
  As with most people who bought this book I enjoy the show, particularly the explanations of the science of cooking. The central theme of the book is heat: how to get heat to foods and how it affects the food. Unfortunately for me Mr. Brown spends a lot more time discussing getting heat to the food than the effects of the heat (I have an engineering degree and have taken advanced classes in heat transfer). I really would have liked to see more discussion of the effects than little snippets scattered throughout. Let me add one more aside: most of his explanations of the science are nicely simplified, but a couple of them are just plain wrong.
  
  Overall however, my biggest disappointment (and with a four star rating you can see it's not a huge disappointment) is that Mr. Brown spends too much time telling the reader exactly what to do for a recipe and not enough time explaining the why. He does a lot of explaining why, but still spends too much on the what. In other words, the book is good, but still too much like a regular cook book.
  
  A final note on humor: There's some good humor here. Not quite as good as the show, but still good.
  
  
• Fun way to learn how cooking works
  By A1KUELNGLTJCDF on 2007-01-20
  I bought this book to educate myself about how to cook for myself so that I wouldn't have to depend on restaurants my whole life. There's not much skill in paying another person to cook for you, but luckily, Alton Brown created a book to teach people the skills needed to cook food and how to understand what's really happening when you put your uncooked food through certain processes. I feel that this is a great educational book about cooking for beginners, however, even skilled cooks might not know the science behind cooking, so I recommend that everyone at least take a look at it if they like or are interested in cooking. I have been very satisfied by his humor and scientific insights (the free magnets that come in the second edition are nice bonuses).
  
  I gave it 5 stars because not only is it rich in information about cooking food, but it is also rich in information about cleanliness, cuts of meat, the tools you actually need to cook,... you get the point.
  
  
• I'm just Here for the Review
  By AD5BBQV1IQ09T on 2007-04-02
  I'm Just Here for the Food is the most informative cooking book I have ever touched. It isn't a normal cooking book as it doesn't go from cover to cover with recipes. It empowers the home cook with the knowledge and ability to cook with a new sense of fun and intrigue.
  
  It is great for fans of his show, Good Eats , which is on the food network.
  
  Learn how to sear, grill, boil, and otherwise properly cook your food.
  
  
• like the show, but in convenient book form...
  By A2MEVNZTPQG3ZO on 2007-01-20
  Alton Brown is great. He's like having Bill Nye in the kitchen. I got the previous version of this book from the library, and realized there was no way to enjoy it completely before time to turn it in. I decided we needed one, and so did my sister and her husband (who told me about the show in the first place)--so it was a christmas present for us both (i mean, i bought 2). It's all I expected, a reference book to look up info in, as well as something good to just pick up and learn new things from. I think the show is great, but don't watch much TV, and even if i did i would have to take notes to read later. This is a great solution!
  
  
• Love this book
  By A14OFXIHIBWLSW on 2007-02-11
  Although my boyfriend has yet to COOK anything with it, he reads this all the time. Over and Over. Good gift for guys who like Alton Brown.
  
  
• I'm Here for the Food 2.0
  By ANI3JNK8FS4AC on 2007-02-21
  My husband is a real Alton Brown fan so he was delighted to receive this book as a Valentine's Day present. He loves the meat cut magnets. This is more than a recipe book--it explains WHY you do what you do when you use certain cooking techniques. You can sit down and read this book instead of just using it as a reference.
  
  
• Learn something new every day
  By A1ZRSY321WH7U5 on 2007-03-05
  I'm Just Here for the Food is about the most informative book I've ever seen, or could imagine. Why does one braise one cut of beef and roast another? Alton lays it all out, as well as provides the building blocks for creating your own recipes, as well as some sample recipes. One thing I learned is not to crowd the pan when trying to carmelize something, cause if there's no room, the food is going to steam more than brown. If at all possible, get this book.
  
  
• Excellent except....
  By ABOJSTYF9ZP2T on 2007-07-31
  ...what happened to all the breakfast items? Alton has well rounded dishes on his show including a respectable amount of breakfast foods.
  In this book, there is a hash brown and egg, a fig meatloaf for breakfast, and he does go over scrambled eggs, but I am disappointed since breakfast is one of my favorites.
  I do wish to note that there are many other great recipes and priceless references in the book including meat magnets for beef, pork, lamb, and chicken so you know which cuts are which, taking the mystery out of buying cuts of meat.
  
  Overall, highly recommended but a star is taken away for the breakfast imbalance.
  
  
  Jason
  
  
• A Must for any Kitchen
  By A34XC2VBAH49KX on 2007-07-09
  This is the first cookbook I have ever read from beginning to end and I did that in two days. After spending most of my adult life heating up and eating out rather than cooking, I decided to start learning how to cook and this book has become my bible and constant reference. The recipes are great and I'm learning the why of what I'm doing rather than just blindly following a recipe. The humor and wit is an added bonus.
  
  
• Teaching you to understand food, not just cook it.
  By A1V4WTTC71UCFJ on 2007-07-27
  I learned how to cook from mom, and from grandma. Now the great cooks they were, I never understood how to cook, or how to change what I'm cooking to give it something extra. This book explains the ins and outs of basic cooking, weather you are using a grill, an oven, or a frying pan. Understand how searing adds flavor, and how to do it properly. There is a chemistry behind cooking, and this book explains it all. So weather you are just starting out as a cook, or have been doing so for years. You need this book to help you understand how heat and food play together, and how to make your dinners more flavorful.
  
  
• Best cookbook ever
  By A3QYSUTNOVME2D on 2007-08-18
  First of all, if you read a bad review of this book, disregard it. That person either didn't get the science in Alton Brown's "I'm Just Here For The Food," or was just looking for a regular, ordinary cookbook.
  
  This is the cookbook I've been waiting 10 years for - a cookbook that finally explains the "why," in addition to the "how." Even if I never use a single recipe in this book, it will still be the best cookbook I ever owned, because it has taught me how to be a better cook, and to better understand the various processes involved in cooking, no matter what recipe I'm using.
  
  I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn how to cook better, rather than just cook something new.
  
  
  
  
• The Incredible Alton Brown
  By A1WTEWYQ0SEY99 on 2007-08-27
  Any fan of the Food Network knows of the show "Good Eats". In my humble opinion it is one of the best shows on television. I had recently purchased the book "I'm Just Here for the Food", and am very happy with it. It carries over from the TV show the wonderful wit and motherlode of knowledge that I expect from the show. Just like its author, the book is put together in a highly organized and logical manner which makes it easy to navigate. I was using it in my kitchen the first day I got it. Of course I would rate the design and graphics as an A+, as well as quality of the writing. Bottom line, even if you are not an amature chef you will be able to use and enjoy this book from day one, and a suprisingly entertaining read for its subject matter.
  
  
• Very informative and entertaining!
  By A298ZCVAK1P6QY on 2007-01-10
  I ordered this book because I watch Alton's show on the food network and always find it informative. The book is no disappointment. It is kind of like a textbook on cooking. The book is broken down into categories such as searing, roasting, frying, and microwaving and contains recipes for each cooking technique. I am a novice in the kitchen but I made the cast-iron duck and was thrilled with how it turned out. I would recommend this book, but it is not a typical cookbook that just has recipes. You will learn a lot from this book.
  
  
• Excellent Detailed Explanations
  By A1QCTGDIVE1ZQR on 2007-07-10
  Buy this book if you want to know not only the how of cooking, but especially the why. My mind doesn't really understand how to do something properly until I understand why it should be done that way. This book definitely helped me in cooking because now I really understand why I should do what the cookbooks tell me.
  
  The meat magnets and diagrams are a big plus.
  
  
• Excellent read
  By A1PIB0SZTAELJV on 2007-08-06
  I don't read many cooking books cover to cover, but I did read this one. It was an entertaining read that was very informative. I have been an Alton fan for a while now and I only just got to his books. I am quite impressed.
  
  
• What can I say? It's A.B.
  By AL7LDDJ04Z18Q on 2008-04-05
  My wife and I always like everything that Alton Brown does, so I may be a little biased, but oh well.
  
  
• Review
  By A2LE4MS6UYS766 on 2008-04-12
  I love Alton Brown's show and I love this book. I really enjoy learning all the ins and outs of cooking and this book is great for that.
  
  
• learn about food
  By APFJ2S6ELEIIB on 2007-01-09
  My husband love Alton Brown, so I got him this for Christmas. It's great! We're vegetarians and can still really appreciate this book. I love how along with recipes, Alton explains the science as to why certain foods behave the way they do.
  
  
• AB at his best...
  By A302HEUL2AJ3BA on 2007-01-20
  Great book. If you like Good Eats then you'll love this book. It's essentially the same presentation as his Food Network cooking show "Good Eats", which I think is a positive.
  
  
• Alton Brown Rocks
  By A2LJO18EZYJHVJ on 2007-03-20
  This book is an excellent book for someone like myself who has spent most of her adult life cooking out of boxes and frozen foods. Alton teaches the whys and hows of everyday cooking from boiling water to making sauces.
  
  It is not so much a recipe book, as the recipes included after each chapter are there to reinforce what you have learned. The reading is easy and funny at times.
  
  This book has transformed my thinking about cooking, and I will be buying his other books soon.
  
  
• So glad I bought this book.
  By A232Y8I48IWJ5I on 2007-08-16
  This is an excellent book. Extremely informative and very interesting. Mr. Brown's personality certainly comes through. A non-typical cookbook. Not as many recipes as the conventional cookbook, but the recipes included are comprehensive & easy to follow. I have enjoyed reading this book. It is definitely a cover to cover read. Having read most of this book, I would definitely be interested in buying more of his books.
  
  
• Not as accessible as I'd hoped
  By AE9VZ940XL1PI on 2008-01-28
  My eleven-year-old son loves Alton Brown's TV show, so I bought this book for him, hoping it would be as accessible as the show. Unfortunately, the text is aimed more at grown men, and there isn't enough in the way of graphics/aparatus/pictures/etc. to hold the attention of an eleven-year-old boy.
  
  
• Good Book about Good Eats
  By A2RNR3N35P7N1N on 2008-03-03
  The book reads just like Alton Brown talks on his show. A great book for the engineer-cook!
  
  

• I'm Just Here for More Food: Food x Mixing + Heat = Baking
• Alton Brown's Gear For Your Kitchen
• On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
• Emsa Perfect Beaker Measuring Beaker
• I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking