Friday, April 10, 2009

On a 'scale' of 1 to 10...


Our two new favorite cooking books around the bakery both score a '10' as far as we are concerned!
Michael Ruhlman's new book 'Ratio' is a great way to understand the dynamics of cooking and especially baking.He breaks the formulas down to simple ratios and then provids the methods with which to implement them, giving the reader the power to unlock the code of great technique. It is a very comprehensive and well written foray into cooking like you've never seen before. Mr. Ruhlman has been an important mentor to me in the world of food writing and I'm convinced this new book of his is sure to be an instant kitchen standard! (you might want to invest in a scale, though!)
Tartine is not so new...published in 2006...I'm not sure why it took us so long to get it! It is a lovely book written by Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson about their very popular Bakery/Cafe in San Fransisco. Sharon and Kate met Chad back in 1999 at a bread bakers conference in Sausilto...the same time they met Alan Scott, the legendary oven builder who changed how we looked at baking bread forever! When we finally built our wood fired oven, Chad was gracious enough to council us on some of the finer points of using the oven more effectively. It is exciting to see Chad and Elisabeth and their beautiful bakery doing so well... and it gives us the inspration to stick to our dream, no matter what!

2 comments:

steetoa said...

I love Tartine! Always looking for new cookbook additions as well. :)

Barbette said...

Yesh, yesh, I'm loving the "look" of this blogit.