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Title: Ad Hoc at Home
ISBN: 1579653774
Author:
Thomas Keller
Publicate Date: 2009-11-06
Publish: 2009-11-06
List Price: $50.00
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $29.97
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $36.93
Amazon Merchant Price: $31.50
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Just an OK book
Wished book would have had more interesting food recipes. Don't usually like chef cookbooks because I don't have a prep staff. Recipes were simple--perhaps too simple.
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2: Delicious, accessible food
I bought this book just because of Mr. Keller's reputation. I have two of his other books (The French Laundry Cookbook and Bouchon, which while full of delicious recipes, are hard to use on a regular night. My husband and I have enjoyed several recipes, notably the buttermilk fried chicken, which has become a regular at our house. Tonight we are having the pork ribs. The best thing about this book is that the meals can be made any night with relatively easy to find ingredients. They make our evenings special. Also, for non-uber foodies, like my mother and many of my friends, the food is not too far a reach for their palates. Excellent.
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3: One of the best!
Ad Hoc is easily one of the best cookbooks I have read. It does what so many other books have tried to do before it, but much better. What am I referring to? Well, it makes cooking fun! The recipes it provides are absolutely delicious AND easy. It is one of the first cookbooks I have found that takes the type of cooking you would find in a 3 Michelin star restaurant, applies it to the type of food you might have eaten in your childhood, and makes it easy for anyone to make.
Thomas Keller explains in the book that his idea for the restaurant started out as wanting just a temporary restaurant that would focus on a sort of "homecooking" like they usually served for their staff meals. His restaurant turned out to be an overwhelming success, and so it became a permanent fixture in his line of restaurants. Little did I know that it's also the type of cookbook I wanted. It helps you to become a better cook and teaches you about the meals you actually feel like cooking every day.
I own several other excellent cookbooks, and most are either beautiful to look at, but extremely difficult for the amateur chef to replicate (The French Laundry cookbook, Alinea), or are easy to replicate, but not overly exciting to the point where you actually want to make the food. This one actually accomplishes both.
In addition to the recipes you find in the book, it also discusses good equipment to have, techniques that might be beneficial, places to buy quality ingeredients, great pictures, and further recipes for staple sauces and condiments.
The book is extremely thorough, well laid-out, and keeps your interest even if you want to read through it instead of just taking advantage of the recipes. The one negative aspect of the book in my mind is that the pictures, although beautiful and plentiful, don't show everything you might want to see. I love seeing the finished products before diving into a new recipe. The provided pictures in this book cover maybe cover 1/3 of the recipes. The book is already long and I can see why they would exclude many of the pictures, but on the other hand, there are several pictures that seem to have no point at all. These could have easily been replaced with more useful pictures of the food.
Overall though, this is without a doubt a must-have. Whether you want something just to read through and admire, or something to guide you and help you create some excellent meals, Ad hoc will satisfy.
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4: great cookbook
I have absolutely enjoyed cooking from this book. Its detailed instructions are what work for me. Its creates successful dishes that are making cooking a fun experience.
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5: "Staff meals" do not make a great cookbook
I've worked in restaurants and understand the concept of preparing a "staff meal" in which great ingredients plus last night's leftovers are used imaginatively to make a meal for the employees. Keller explains at one point that is the inspiration for Ad Hoc and for this cookbook, and therein lies the problem.
If you have never baked or fried a chicken or brined a cut of pork, you'll find directions here. But you can find equally good and less fussy recipes in the Joy of Cooking or another more encyclopedic/basic source. Some of what's here is solid home-cooking advice, but other dishes are astonishingly high in fats. If I'm going to clog my arteries I'd rather find a more creative way to do it.
Also, hidden in the recipes are a number of specialty ingredients that make it difficult to reproduce Keller's methods without a lot of advance mail-order shopping. And while some dishes can be made "ad hoc" or on the spur of the moment, others depend on advance preparation of enhancements such as pickled vegetables or spice mixes. Actually I love Keller's pickling section and that, plus the pictures, comes close to justifying the purchase of the book. But understand what you are getting, and not.
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