The Professional Chef

Our son has a passion for cooking, he's rather proficient at it but most all of his knowledge is homegrown by assisting me (his father) who in turn had come under the tutorship of my father who was a renowned pastry chef and all around great cook. In WWII he was the private chef for Gen. Omar Bradley stateside with the rank of T5. Upon hearing of a new unit comprised of elite Canadian and U.S. troops which was being developed to blanket Norway to disassemble the infrastructure of the country in order to cripple the Nazi mobility and communications post invasion. Much to the dismay of Gen. Bradley, (my father being a first generation Franco-American) volunteered to this Special Forces Unit which trained in every aspect of invasion from cold weather skiing to para-trooping behind enemy lines and the disciplined art of hand to hand combat. This unit was to be known by the Germans as the "Black Devils" or as it was knows in the States and Canada; the "First Special Service Forces" (FSSF). To discourage him from transferring out, the General indicated to him that he would have to relinquish his stripes an return to being a buck private if he were to leave and join the FSSF. Without hesitation, my father agreed and went on to be not only the field mess Sergeant but also instrumental in due to his fluency of French and Italian which had him being the default interpreter for Colonel Fredericks who would later attain the rank of General. He performed both of these duties for the unit where he kept the troops well fed in some of the most battled locations such as the Aleutian Islands, Anzio Beachhead, Monte La Defensa, Monte Casino, Rome, Paris, Monte Carlo and eventually to Norway where he and his comrades in arms received each a personal commendation from the King of Norway for liberating the country of the German war machine. This elite unit would go on to suffer casualties of better than 80% of the troops assigned to it and birthed the programs we know today as the "Rangers", "Green Berets", "Navy Seals" and so forth, all special forces in the US Military were conceived and patented after this bunch of elite ragtags with one vision in mind and that was to succeed in every mission assigned to them without regard for their personal well being and in which they were 100% successful in accomplishing. Okay, yes, I digress to a subject which you may conceive as not fully pertinent to the subject of the book, but it's not only my pride which percolates whenever I think of cooking and my father, you see, it goes much deeper than simply cooking. The preface of this review not only deals with cooking but with the character of an individual of which his grandson, my son; the recipient of this book, follows in his footsteps in giving of himself and his time by volunteering every week at a homeless shelter where he prepares fantastic dishes from some of the most menial ingredients afforded him, Spam may be King in Hawaii, but it has been reborn into a New England delicacy by careful preparation under some of the master chefs who authored this book. In order to be able to prepare fine cuisine for people who otherwise would never have the opportunity to partake in some of these dishes, he requested this book from us for Christmas in order to enrich his God given talent in the better art of food preparation and presentation. Along with gift certificates he received from us, friends and other family members, he was able to procure the 'Pro-Model' Kitchen-Aid stand mixer and has been quite successful in wowing his 'client base' with dishes which are now being passed on to some of the other shelters where he has shared his recipes and preparation techniques. A friend and long acquaintance of our son, D.D. a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America recommended this book as: "if you were to get one and only one book on food preparation, it has to be "The Professional Chef", the ultimate text book for the CIA. With my son being a successful person in his own right, it is always quite tough to give him a gift which he would really want, need and use, and thanks to Amazon's next day shipping, and discounted prices, we were able to get this book for him on 12/23 and subsequently have it in our home the next day at a price point which was still less than regular retail at two large brick & mortar large book stores in our area which did not have this book in stock.

Cookbooks are a dime a dozen. There are plenty of books out there that are filled with their fair share of mouth-watering recipes. What is rare is a book that tackles cooking from a conceptual and technical angle. Books like The Joy of Cooking or How to Cook Everything try to go beyond the typical cookbook and try to be kitchen manuals. But what those books are is cookbooks first, and books about how to cook second. The Professional Chef is culinary textbook akin to what you'd expect from an academic text for teaching a vocation. As you might guess, the book approaches cooking as a profession. Culinary students will benefit from ample discussion not only of technique and cooking procedures, but also of the various other roles and skills demanded of chefs. For example, the book discusses the various systems and conventions of dividing labor in the kitchen, and describes the differences between an executive chef and a saucier chef. For those in culinary school or thinking about pursuing a culinary career or education, this book is perfect. But for home cooks and cooking enthusiasts, don't assume that this book is not for you. If you're serious about cooking, even just as a hobby, there's something to be said about the comprehensive approach of learning techniques, terms, ingredients, and procedures in a structured way that proceeds from the simple to the complex--which is exactly what this book presents. It discusses and introduces the reader to nearly ever major ingredient and nearly every major cuisine. It's encyclopedic in the depth and breadth of the information within--much more so than the Joy of Cooking or similar books--and it gives the kind of technical training that one really needs in order to read, follow, alter, and otherwise truly understand recipes in the first place. The recipes that are included--and there are many--include just about every major dish from every major cuisine. Goulash? Check. Béarnaise sauce? Check. Are dolmades your thing? It's in there. What about an authentic pad thai or summer roll? You'll find those too. What's great is that the text relates dishes so that similar dishes can be seen as progressions or alterations to basic techniques that are being covered. You learn how to braise, then you get various applications of that procedure from around the world. The text presents cooking from a truly global perspective, so students and readers won't find it difficult to tell how a single concept transcends dishes such as pilaf, risotto, cous cous, paella, pilua, or jambalaya and how the minor variations in technique and the focus on particular ingredients, flavors, and textures, makes these individual dishes what they are. In short, you'll learn things in this book that you might not learn well or at all in any other book. The seriousness with which the text approaches cooking will benefit the home cook and help him or her to excel beyond the Rachel Rays and Paula Dean's of the world, while those aspiring to a future in the culinary arts will gain a solid introduction to the foundations of their chosen craft, discussing both the artform and the science and underlying mechanics of that artform. Everything from choosing equipment to the proper application of heat and a basic understanding of the physics behind it, will be found within these pages. The difference between this book and those aimed at home cooks is the difference between a college-level text on Spanish and a pocket guide of Spanish phrases. You might be able to quickly say "hello, my name is Pablo" or ask where the bathroom is, but you'll never really know the beauty of the language, nor ever really be able to understand it nor be able to say anything that hasn't already been laid out for you in that pocket guide if you lack a comprehensive introduction to the fundamentals. Similarly, cooking is about more than recipes and incomplete knowledge... it's about methods, procedures, applications, techniques, ingredients, and the creative and artistic freedom to navigate within that framework in accordance with one's own style and flare.

I love this book. There's so much info, and I'm sure it'll keep me busy for a while. There seems to be some pretty good recipes that I'm looking forward to trying as well, but I mainly bought it for educational purposes. This book is well written, and doesn't get too technical for the home chef like me, but still has plenty to offer the professional. The explanations are very clear and it doesn't get bogged down with more info than what's needed. I'd also like to add that I bought this book as 'used' which is something I was very wary about, seeing as it was probably used a lot in the kitchen. I was worried about food stains...etc. I was very pleasantly surprised that it came looking virtually brand new. Like it was literally bought and kept on a bookshelf w/o it even being cracked open.

Very detailed, still own and use as a reference

`The Professional Chef, 8th Edition' by the faculty and staff of The Culinary Institute of America (CIA), generally thought to be the best culinary school in the country, is truly a great textbook for, exactly as the title states, anyone who wishes to be a PROFESSIONAL chef, sous chef, line chef, garde-manger chef, catering chefs or even charity soup kitchen cook. It is NOT that good for people who may wish to simply be personal chefs, pastry chefs, bread bakers, or simply better home cooks. This is because every aspect of the book, starting with the recipes and including everything else, is oriented towards preparation for large groups of people. Virtually all recipes, even the bread baking recipes, are written to serve a minimum of 8, and generally between 12 and 20 people. The other side of the coin is that this book contains hundreds of pages of information which you will not find in practically any other book. Much of this, such as the cost of serving calculations and other business considerations are not likely to be very interesting to the majority of amateur cooks (unless you happen to be managing a charity food service). But there are also lots that should be interesting to the average cook. Topping this list is the chapter on food safety. Most of us who read a cookbook now and then and watch our share of Food Network cooking shows (especially Alton Brown's Good Eats) will have a passing knowledge of food safety, but the material here will give one the confidence to know they are following the `professional' approach to food safety. Even though virtually all recipes are written for larger than `home' serving counts, every serious amateur cook, even if they are cooking for only one or two, will be amply rewarded by reading large sections of this book and using it as a reference for many, many techniques. To look at one of my favorite subjects, eggs, for example, I find several things I either never knew or have forgotten. For example, this is one of the few places where I've seen instructions on how to vary cooking time for hard boiling eggs based on the egg size. This variation, from 12 minutes for small eggs to 15 minutes for extra large eggs explains why I have seen cooking times everywhere from 8 to 20 minutes. The great thing is that in the amateur volunteer kitchen, one has it on GOOD AUTHORITY that we only really need 12 minutes cooking time, as long as we follow the other recommendations such as leaving two inches of water above the top of the cooking eggs. Staying with the egg section, one may be surprised at how few different major recipes there are. There are only 16 main recipes; however each main recipe, like the `rolled omelet', may have up to 14 variations. But there are still things missing. While we get a recipe for French toast, there is no recipe for any classic Italian or Spanish egg dishes such as the frittata or the tortilla Espagnole. There is not even a mention of `frittata' in either of the two indices. The egg section reveals one annoyance I find with the book. It begins each major section, as in the Chapter 29 on eggs, with six `master recipe' multi-page presentations on important techniques. In this case, it has sections on `Cooking Eggs in the Shell', `Poaching Eggs', `Frying Eggs', `Scrambling Eggs', `Making Omelets', and `Savory Souffles'. Then, the chapter goes on to give specific recipes, repeating the same subjects, with overlapping and with additional information. And yet, there seem to still be little details left out. On the sections on scrambled eggs, there is nothing about cooking eggs in a bain marie (water bath), which is certainly tedious, but which by some of the very best authorities (James Beard, for example) is the very best way to achieve the pillowy moistness which distinguishes the best scrambled eggs. This two part approach to technique presentation (most of the best pics are used in the introductory section) makes the book a bit more interesting to read for ideas outside the kitchen, but it makes it less useful as a reference where the objective is to find everything you need in one place. Those of you who happen to own earlier editions of this tome may be interested in whether the $70 you need to acquire this latest edition is really necessary. In a word, I believe the answer is `NO'. This edition has 1215 pages, compared to 869 pages in my 5th edition, but many of those extra 346 pages do not yield genuinely useful culinary training. For example, there are 106 pages in a new `World Cuisines' chapter that has much good to say about France, Italy, China, Japan, and other culinary hot spots, but it has not a single word, for example, on the United Kingdom or Ireland. On the other hand, 8th edition has 7 pages on health and safety while 5th edition has 20 pages, with much better graphics on things like the pH scale and on food cooling techniques. The 5th edition also does not have the noisome bifurcation of master technique and detailed recipe cited above. Therefore, you get much more information per page in the earlier edition. The 5th edition also includes the frittata and more detailed information on more different omelet techniques. I also think the pictures of techniques are better in the older edition. Last but not least, I think the presentations of English versus metric measurements are much better done in the older edition. I think the bottom line is that if you do not already own an earlier edition, this $70 book is easily worth three or four other cookbooks as a reference and as an AUTHORITY, if you are a professional. But, if you own an earlier edition, don't bother buying the new one.

Every serious home cook should have one of these. This is the 2006 edition. I checked out the differences with it and the significantly more expensive 2024 edition and bought this one. It's actually longer than the new one. Any edition is a great addition to your shelf.

This book was the course text during my chef training in Chicago's Washburne. While this is resourceful, and I use it weekly (I bought a second one because my classroom text had shown it's classroom/kitchen "battle scars" from over use), there are other text (that are equally thick in number of pages, lol), that can explain the true "classical" culinary concepts and terms much more easily and comfortably to the first-time cook, the home cook, the "foodie", the working line/prep chef, the sous and head chef. This text helped give me more discipline in my cooking skills (I've taught myself to cook when I was twelve), but my text of choice on the culinary arts is "oncooking" by labensky and hause, which was easier to explain the basic concepts and is less "intimidating".

Big book, tons and tons of information, recipes, pictures, really can't go wrong!!