Books about Catering from Amazon.com

A revolution in cooking

Sous vide is the culinary innovation that has everyone in the food world talking In this revolutionary new cookbook, Thomas Keller, America's most respected chef, explains why this foolproof technique, which involves cooking at precise temperatures below simmering, yields results that other culinary methods cannot. For the first time, one can achieve short ribs that are meltingly tender even when cooked medium rare. Fish, which has a small window of doneness, is easier to finesse, and shellfish stays succulent no matter how long it's been on the stove. Fruit and vegetables benefit, too, retaining color and flavor while undergoing remarkable transformations in texture.

The secret to sous vide is in discovering the precise amount of heat required to achieve the most sublime results. Through years of trial and error, Keller and his chefs de cuisine have blazed the trail to perfection—and they show the way in this collection of never-before-published recipes from his landmark restaurants—The French Laundry in Napa Valley and per se in New York. With an introduction by the eminent food-science writer Harold McGee, and artful photography by Deborah Jones, who photographed Keller's best-selling The French Laundry Cookbook, this book will be a must for every culinary professional and anyone who wants to up the ante and experience food at the highest level..
Price: $43.25 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Take one top New York restaurant, add danger, drama, and dialogue, toss in their best recipes, and you have a cooking classic.

How does a 4-star restaurant stay on top for more than two decades? In On the Line, chef Eric Ripert takes readers behind the scenes at Le Bernardin, one of just three New York City restaurants to earn three Michelin stars. Any fan of gourmet dining who ever stole a peek behind a restaurant kitchen's swinging doors will love this unique insider's account, with its interviews, inventory checklists, and fly-on-the-wall dialogue that bring the business of haute cuisine to life.

From the sudden death of Le Bernardin's founding chef, Gilbert Le Coze, to Ripert's stressful but triumphant takeover of the kitchen at age 29, the story has plenty of drama. But as Chef Ripert and writer Christine Muhlke reveal, every day is an adventure in a perfectionistic restaurant kitchen. Foodies will love reading about the inner workings of a top restaurant, from how a kitchen is organized to the real cost of the food and the fierce discipline and organization it takes to achieve culinary perfection on the plate almost 150,000 times a year.

Meanwhile, Le Bernardin's modern French cuisine, with its emphasis on seafood, comes to life in sophisticated recipes, including Striped Bass with Sweet Corn Puree, Grilled Shishito Peppers, Shaved Smoked Bonito, and Mole Sauce, and Pan-Roasted Cod with Chorizo, Snow Peas, Piquillo Peppers, and Soy-Lime Butter Sauce..
Price: $18.24 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The surveyors are 54% women and 46% men. 52% are in their 20s and 30s and 48% are 40 and over. No matter the economic climate, New York's appetite for lively dining destinations continues unabated, inspiring ever bolder ventures For every notable closing, there's another restaurateur waiting in the wings, often joined by an expensive team of architects and designers, and ZAGAT is always there to note the changes..
Price: $7.94 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Since its first publication in 1938, Larousse Gastronomique has been an unparalleled resource. In one volume, it presents the history of foods, eating, and restaurants; cooking terms; techniques from elementary to advanced; a review of basic ingredients with advice on recognizing, buying, storing, and using them; biographies of important culinary figures; and recommendations for cooking nearly everything.

The new edition, the first since 1988, expands the book’s scope from classic continental cuisine to include the contemporary global table, appealing to a whole new audience of internationally conscious cooks. Larousse Gastronomique is still the last word on béchamel and béarnaise, Brillat-Savarin and Bordeaux, but now it is also the go-to source on biryani and bok choy, bruschetta and Bhutan rice.

Larousse Gastronomiqueis rich with classic and classic-to-be recipes, new ingredients, new terms and techniques, as well as explanations of current food legislation, labeling, and technology. User-friendly design elements create a whole new Larousse for a new generation of food lovers. .
Price: $51.92 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Now in paperback, the eye-opening book that was nominated for a 1998 James Beard Foundation award in the Writing on Food category

In the winter of 1996, Michael Ruhlman donned hounds-tooth-check pants and a chef's jacket and entered the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, to learn the art of cooking. His vivid and energetic record of that experience, The Making of a Chef, takes us to the heart of this food-knowledge mecca. Here we meet a coterie of talented chefs, an astonishing and driven breed. Ruhlman learns fundamental skills and information about the behavior of food that make cooking anything possible. Ultimately, he propels himself and his readers through a score of kitchens and classrooms, from Asian and American regional cuisines to lunch cookery and even table waiting, in search of the elusive, unnameable elements of great cooking.
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Price: $9.41 [Notify me when price goes down.]

For Introductory Cooking, Cooking Skills or "Food Prep" courses in Culinary Arts, Food and Nutrition and Hospitality Management departments. THE definitive culinary skills textbook in the market. Organized via food "types", On Cooking 4/e teaches the "hows" and the "whys" of culinary fundamentals; supported by tested, contemporary recipes and supplement package which is second-to-none. NEW! i-COOKStudent Access is a web-based, Recipe Management Tool. Package a 40 week renewable subscription for only $10.00 with On Cooking, 4th edition. i-COOK Student Access Registration , FREE 14 day Trail! Pearson Education is proud to bring world-renowned Dorling Kindersley (DK) products to your classroom. Instantly recognized by their fascinating, full-color photographs and illustrations on every page, With Pearson, you can see DK in a whole new way! For a complete listing of titles, please visit: http://us.dk.com/pearson.
Price: $69.98 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The multiple award-winning Restaurant Manager s Handbook is the best-selling book on running a successful food service. Now in the fourth completely revised edition, nine new chapters detail restaurant layout, new equipment, principles for creating a safer work environment, and new effective techniques to interview, hire, train, and manage employees. We provide a new chapter on tips and IRS regulations as well as guidance for improved management, new methods to increase your bottom line by expanding the restaurant to include on- and off-premise catering operations. We ve added new chapters offering food nutrition guidelines and proper employee training. The Fourth Edition of the Restaurant Manager s Handbook is an invaluable asset to any existing restaurant owner or manager as well as anyone considering a career in restaurant management or ownership. All existing chapters have new and updated information. This includes extensive material on how to prepare a restaurant for a potential sale. There is even an expanded section on franchising. You will find many additional tips to help restaurant owners and managers learn to handle labor and operational expenses, rework menus, earn more from better bar management, and introduce up-scale wines and specialties for profit. You will discover an expanded section on restaurant marketing and promotion plus revised accounting and budgeting tips. This new edition includes photos and information from leading food service manufacturers to enhance the text. This new, comprehensive 800-page book will show you step-by-step how to set up, operate, and manage a financially successful food service operation. The author has taken the risk out of running a restaurant business. Operators in the non-commercial segment as well as caterers and really anyone in the food service industry will rely on this book in everyday operations. Its 28 chapters cover the entire process of a restaurant start-up and ongoing management in an easy-to-understand way, pointing out methods to increase your chances of success and showing how to avoid the many mistakes arising from being uninformed and inexperienced that can doom a restaurateur s start-up. The new companion CD-ROM contains all the forms demonstrated in the book for easy use in a PDF format. While providing detailed instruction and examples, the author leads you through finding a location that will bring success, learning how to draw up a winning business plan, how to buy and sell a restaurant, how to franchise, and how to set up basic cost-control systems. You will have at your fingertips profitable menu planning, sample restaurant floor plans and diagrams, successful kitchen management, equipment layout and planning, food safety, Hazardous and Critical Control Point (HACCP) information, and successful beverage management. Learn how to set up computer systems to save time and money and get brand new IRS tip-reporting requirements, accounting and bookkeeping procedures, auditing, successful budgeting and profit planning development. You will be able to generate high profile public relations and publicity, initiate low cost internal marketing ideas, and low- and no-cost ways to satisfy customers and build sales. You will learn how to keep bringing customers back, how to hire and keep a qualified professional staff, manage and train employees as well as accessing thousands of great tips and useful guidelines. This Restaurant Manager s Handbook covers everything that many consultants charge thousands of dollars to provide. The extensive resource guide details more than 7,000 suppliers to the industry virtually a separate book on its own. This reference book is essential for professionals in the hospitality field as well as newcomers who may be looking for answers to cost-containment and training issues..
Price: $42.94 [Notify me when price goes down.]

New York Chef Tony Bourdain gives away secrets of the trade in his wickedly funny, inspiring memoir/expose. Kitchen Confidential reveals what Bourdain calls "twenty-five years of sex, drugs, bad behavior and haute cuisine."

Last summer, The New Yorker published Chef Bourdain's shocking, "Don't Eat Before Reading This." Bourdain spared no one's appetite when he told all about what happens behind the kitchen door. Bourdain uses the same "take-no-prisoners" attitude in his deliciously funny and shockingly delectable book, sure to delight gourmands and philistines alike. From Bourdain's first oyster in the Gironde, to his lowly position as dishwasher in a honky tonk fish restaurant in Provincetown (where he witnesses for the first time the real delights of being a chef); from the kitchen of the Rainbow Room atop Rockefeller Center, to drug dealers in the east village, from Tokyo to Paris and back to New York again, Bourdain's tales of the kitchen are as passionate as they are unpredictable. Kitchen Confidential will make your mouth water while your belly aches with laughter. You'll beg the chef for more, please..
Price: $6.92 [Notify me when price goes down.]

An accessible and balanced account, Food Politics laid the groundwork for today's food revolution and changed the way we respond to food industry marketing practices. Now, a new introduction and concluding chapter bring us up to date on the key events in that movement. This pathbreaking, prize-winning book helps us understand more clearly than ever before what we eat and why..
Price: $9.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]