Hi All,
Anyone get this or interested in getting it? I received it today and really like it. I can't believe the amount of information in it for the 30 dollars I spent on it. I will give a more in depth explanation later if anyone is interested, but it starts with some general essays about his philosophy and restaurant history (I think, I haven't looked at it a ton), then there are 175 pages of essays on everything from how he uses different textures, to meats, water (benefit of filtered water vs. tap for example), influences, land, ways he manipulates things, and it goes on and on (the book is subtitled, A Book of Ideas, so these are all of his ideas). Every topic gets a page write up. Then he puts the recipes and page numbers at the bottom that deal with the topic he is referring to. Then he gets to the dishes. He write a page or so on every dish, explaining its process, influence, and whatever else is applicable. I think an experienced cook could cook from these essays he writes on each dish (Kinda like the l'Astrance cookbook). There are about 70 dishes.
After all of this, he then gives you detailed recipes for every dish he just wrote about. All 70 or so with weight measurements and very specific details. Every recipe also comes with a thumbnail of the dish so you can also remember what it looks like without needing to flip back and forth.
This book is probably set up better than almost any other book I have. So much information, laid out so clearly (the ideas section even has those half moons cut outs on the sides of the pages to help you flip to a section, like a big dictionary would have to help you find the letter you are looking for). This book is over 400 pages and every page is packed. Very little extra photographs of stuff for the sake of looking artsy.
Ability to cook from it? Sourcing some ingredients may be a challenge, but I'm willing to give that a pass as the amount of inspiration and knowledge in the book is enough to directly affect my cooking of any dish almost immediately (once I take the time to really sit down and read it/take notes). The Thermomix is used a lot, but every time I've seen it used so far it is just used as a blender (purees, etc., no heating element, but I'm sure that occurs in places).
If anyone else gets this, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!
