Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work: A Cookbook

by Aki Kamozawa, H. Alexander Talbot

Alex Talbot and Aki Kamozawa, husband-and-wife chefs and the forces behind the popular blog Ideas in Food , have made a living out of being inquisitive in the kitchen. Their book shares the knowledge they have gleaned from numerous cooking adventures, from why tapioca flour makes a silkier chocolate pudding than the traditional cornstarch or flour to how to cold smoke just about any ingredient you can think of to impart a new savory dimension to everyday dishes. Perfect for anyone who loves food, Ideas in Food is the ideal handbook for unleashing creativity, intensifying flavors, and pushing one’s cooking to new heights.
 
This guide, which includes 100 recipes, explores questions both simple and complex to find the best way to make food as delicious as possible. For home cooks, Aki and Alex look at everyday ingredients and techniques in new ways—from toasting dried pasta to lend a deeper, richer taste to a simple weeknight dinner to making quick “micro stocks” or even using water to intensify the flavor of soups instead of turning to long-simmered stocks. In the book’s second part, Aki and Alex explore topics, such as working with liquid nitrogen and carbon dioxide—techniques that are geared towards professional cooks but interesting and instructive for passionate foodies as well. With primers and detailed usage guides for the pantry staples of molecular gastronomy, such as transglutaminase and hydrocolloids (from xanthan gum to gellan), Ideas in Food informs readers how these ingredients can transform food in miraculous ways when used properly.
 
Throughout, Aki and Alex show how to apply their findings in unique and appealing recipes such as Potato Chip Pasta, Root Beer-Braised Short Ribs, and Gingerbread Soufflé. With Ideas in Food, anyone curious about food will find revelatory information, surprising techniques, and helpful tools for cooking more cleverly and creatively at home. 

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Cooking, Nonfiction, Science, Reference, Food Writing

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Schmerica · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book isn't bad by any means, but just ... very much not to my taste. I think it's admirable that there are people who are interested in expanding the boundaries of what they do with food, whose interest is in new ingredients like xanthan gum and meat glue, processes like cryo-blanching and sous vide, and experimenting with scientific rigor and ultimate precision. But wow, none of that could be further from what I find interesting about cooking and food.

[Eliza · Rating 3 out of 5]

4/2/2012: "Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work" is an interesting hybrid of cookbook and science text. While the science-y sections of it are tough going (for me, anyway!), it is fascinating to get a sense of the expanding boundaries of what we used to call "cooking". For every recipe that seems like just a riff on what we already know how to do (Buttermilk biscuits, Soft Scrambled Eggs), there's one that seems so far away from what I might imagine making that it makes me giggle (Onion Glass! Potato Chip Pasta!). And all the recipes, prosaic or creative, require that we rethink our kitchens and appliances and attention to cooking. I'm still not sure what a cVap is, and I'm also pretty sure I'm not running out to buy a vacuum sealer--though Aki and Alex clearly use one regularly. They do usually include instructions for cooks who insist on using the old-fashioned ways…but only as a concession.

The second half (which all too fairly is called "Ideas for Professionals") is even more wild and crazy, discussing the use of hydrocolloids (xanthan gum! agar! of course!), carbon dioxide, and liquid nitrogen in cooking. Wow! I will certainly leave those ideas to the professionals.

The writing is serviceable, if stilted. Aki and Alex try hard to explain some rather complicated processes, but sometimes they forget to define their terms, or they don't go into enough depth--or they go into TOO much depth. I confess, I skimmed a number of pages that talked too much about polyphenols and syneresis….But it's not fair to ask them to write both gracefully and thoroughly; that's not the point of the book. While I don't see myself pulling it off my cookbook shelf to try many of the recipes, I will keep it next to all those more humdrum cookbooks as a reference--it's good to know that if I wanted to, I could understand what freezing does to vegetables, or why slow cooking works so well for certain kinds of meats. And of course Ideas in Food is a great conversation starter!

[Ty · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another highly scientific cookbook, similar to "Ratio" by Michael Ruhlman. While it is unlikely that i will use many of the example recipes in the book, the detailed descriptions of the chemical processes taking place during different kinds of cooking were interesting. I do plan to use the book as a reference when going out on a limb with a new recipe. It was a fairly quick read and should be interesting for most technically-minded amateur cooks.

[Sophy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book. Published in 2010 but has great nuggets of kitchen wisdom with much of the chemistry reasoning explained. Includes recipes for vanilla salt, maple vinegar, red cabbage kimchi, parsnip ice cream, onion glass, sourdough waffles, blonde miso noodles, bacon consomme, delicious custard and foams to be made from eggs and more. <3

[Miri · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars - I’d like to see more examples and recipes and would like each topic discussed a little further, into more depth

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a big fan of the organization/layout

[Cari Sly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written, with a lot of modern gastronomic ideas.

[A Ter · Rating 2 out of 5]

too complicated

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

a lot of food science that goes well beyond my kitchen facilities, ingredients or desires. of course some basic a simple recipes which felt rather uninspiring.

[Steve Warsaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great resource for molecular gastronomy from novice to professional project recipes.

[Bee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Might write more for my cooking blog, so I'll stay fairly brief: Ideas in Food is the best food book I've read, though that isn't like, an enormous amount. It does an exceptional job of laying out the pop chemistry of a huge swath of cooking techniques and making them accessible, then solidifying them with typical recipes. I'm sure I haven't actually retained nearly enough of what I read from this book, but it maybe has helped establish a theoretical baseline for further reading and cooking, and I super need that.

It is also convinced that you have a sous vide at home, that you've been hearing so much about cryo-blanching lately, and that no one has a rice cooker? I think there is honestly not a single mention of a rice cooker. Even when they talk about hydrating rice sous vide. It is so weird to me.

[Gsmalz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of neat cooking ideas. However I hated the formatting of the book. The print is too small. Also I think cookbooks should be printed on paper that can stand up to something getting on the pages, since,you know, you might use it in the kitchen.

[Oscar · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

A solid look at the scientific side of cuisine and cooking; I've already cooked a couple recipes from the book and got very good results. Instructions were clear and easy to read. The scientific explanations tended to lose me, but rewarded rereading.

However I was a little bemused by the equipment and ingredients that the authors posited could be within the reach of a typical home cook. Even when I had a well-stocked, proportional kitchen, I certainly didn't have a smoker, a piece of equipment that turns up often in the part of the book dedicated to amateurs (the other part, meant for professionals or dedicated connoisseurs, was fascinating but akin to having experiments you do in the CERN in a high school physics text). In a far smaller kitchen that I share with five other people in student housing, several of these intensive recipes are far above my means.

In any case, Ideas in Food was a fun read and an often operational recipe book. There were plenty of ideas and there was plenty of food. The best feature may have been the 3-5 pages dedicated to food sources and companies, other books to pursue, and websites. You can tell Ideas in Food started as a blog, and I'm excited to see what else the blogosphere offers me.

[Jeannie · Rating 3 out of 5]

1) It is a very simple book with not-so-simple techniques, like using liquid nitrogen to flash freeze food. The book has just one sentence about the safety precautions of LN. LN is extremely dangerous and when improperly served, it can perforate stomach lining and injure the body.

2)It was a turn off to read the Roast Chicken (with Broccoli Rabe) recipe, when it oddly sounded similar to a gourmet version found on Epicurious. The recipe on Epicurious is far superior, unless you believe that Brocolli Rabe and Chicken should be roasted together for 45 min. Very amateurish. The version on Epicurious is found here: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/foo...

3) The recipe on Popcorn Gelato recommends microwaved popcorn, which is very unappealing. Microwaved popcorn recommended by a chef?

Having read most molecular gastronomy literature out there for the science-minded folks and chefs, I could only recommend a handful of works, such as those by Hervé This and Nathan Myhrvold. This is a very average, fairly amateurish read.

[Robert Hudder · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one... I like a lot. I've been following their blog for a while and it is largely filled with musings and suggestions. This book is similar in that it tells you a scientific/cooking technique and gives you an example of the use. But much like Braise by Daniel Boulud, the possibilities begin to explode based on the simple description of the technique. Often this is caused by the reframing or changing of a reference - in braise, it was the realization that cabbage rolls were braises, while in Ideas in Food, the idea of combining agar-agar with other hydrocolloidals can make up for issues in texture. Stuff that I was working with in a small way now have other opportunities to expand.

The agar thing was by no means the only slow dawn moment and I will be buying this book for referral. The vinegar explanation alone, has greatly enhanced my real understanding rather than the slow experiental understanding have gained so far. This is a great acceleration for my own personal growth.

[Harlan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aki and Alex have turned their immensely successful blog, catering business, and teaching experience into a book for ambitious professional and home cooks. The recipes and the techniques they illustrate are fascinating, novel ways of bringing together flavors and textures, and their excitement at these techniques came through well. However, large sections of the prose were extremely poorly/hastily written, with jarringly bad paragraph construction and narrative flow. Whether the book was unedited or merely underedited, it seriously could have used another hand to make it enjoyable to read as a book qua book. As a cooking reference for people interested in modern techniques, however, it is unmatched for the price.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best cookbook I've read in the last couple of years, one that has me really excited about trying new things in the kitchen, which is harder than it should be these days. Although the first person plural voice feels a little forced at times, I really liked the depth of biological/chemical explanation the authors go into. It feels like a more functional successor to McGee, and may even surpass him in some explanations. A nice mix of traditional technique and molecular gastronomy. I am done reading this, but it's going to stay out on the table a while as I work my way back through the recipes and techniques that intrigued me.

[Sylvia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually surprisingly full of good ideas, especially with techniques (e.g., cryo-blanching; pre-hydrating pasta before cooking) and some interesting ingredient/flavor combinations (popcorn-white chocolate gelato). I only skimmed through the last section for professionals, because as a home cook, I'm definitely too lazy to go out and find transglutaminase or measure out ratios of kappa carrageenan to locust bean gum.

I appreciated the scientific explanations of what's going on at a cellular/molecular level when you're cooking.

The writing is distractingly bad, unfortunately.

[lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first glance I wasn't impressed with this, but when I actually took the time to read it I found it full of helpful advice and tips. Most of what they write about makes a lot of sense, and is good advice to keep in mind even if you don't follow what they do step by step. I can see having this book to refer to when cooking with a new ingredient or technique that you are unsure of. If I can find a second-hand copy I will definitely purchase it.

[Caitlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading the first 5 pages, then flipping through the table of contents and the rest of the book, I put it down and sent it on it's merry way. This might be interesting or good to other people out there - and that's great - but this was way different than I expected (like others said, it's very science-ey) and I couldn't handle it. It was slow going, and in the end I just couldn't get enough interest in it to bother finishing it.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting to read about some of the cooking techniques I employ such as brining and learn about the science behind why they work. I tried out a couple of the recipes in the book - apple cheddar risotto and scrambled eggs (slow cooked in a ziploc bag in warm water - turned out great!) and I'm excited to try out some of the other methods.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a cookbook that makes you think. Sometimes it missed the line between too technical and not enough detail, but the scientific notes on why food behaves like it does were interesting to read. Not all the recipes are practical for the casual cook, but some of them sound really good and I'd like to try them once I purchase the book (this was a library check-out).

[notyourmonkey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not always advice I'll follow, not always recipes I want to try, but I very much enjoy how they think about cooking and food. A little bit like the love child of America's Test Kitchen and Alton Brown, only even geekier. They don't take food practices for granted, and they dig to the science as well as the result. Plus, their joy in food is palpable. Lovely.

[Beka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though none of the recipes were usable for me, I thought this was a very interesting book. They delve into the science of food and show you how to apply it to your cooking. I have to admit that a lot of the science went over my head, but I enjoyed the book nevertheless.

[Jacki Myers · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting food science stuff, but Harold McGee's books are much better. A basic intro to sous vide and circulation water bath cooking. Too many liquid recipes that would need a chamber vacuum sealer to work while they extoll the inexpensive and fine for non-liquid food FoodSaver.

[Elizabeth]

As seen in Modernist Cuisine.

[Mary]

David Lebovitz recommends

[Ellie Benson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really cool book, a little bit different than what I expected but very enjoyable.

[Christina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Turns out, this was way too technical for my taste...

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting...now I still have to cook my way through the book. Hmm...i am not certain I will find all ingredients in the local supermarket. ;-)