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Sauces: Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making
by James Peterson
ISBN-10: 0470194960
ISBN-13: 9780470194966
ISBN-13: 9780470194966
Region: USA
Publisher: Wiley
Publication Date: September, 2008
Recipe Index
Publishers Information
About Sauces: Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making
Publisher Web Link: http://www.wiley.com/
This 3rd edition of Sauces is infused with new life. Peterson overhauls the text by simplifying the book without taking out anything critical. Many of the sauces are lightened and the old French names are dispensed with or relegated to a separate section. Many of the sauces in the current book are in chart form since the procedure is identical for large numbers of them, and there is a chapter that has all the charts for easy reference. The author also standardizes the terminology for the consistency of liquids (for instance, in the Liaisons chapter, a chart showing thicknesses ranges from “water” to “mayonnaise”) because it is the consistency that’s most important (and the hardest) to show. An updated bibliography and source list of purveyors is also included. The photos are redone to be included in a bigger insert with fewer images since the photos in the current book are too small for anyone to really appreciate the details. The technique photographs are larger and focus on the essential steps that a reader cannot visualize based on the narrative instruction. Also, there are more color photos in this edition with an emphasis on how-to and cooking techniques (since many of the sauces are derivatives of techniques like braising, sauteing, poaching, etc.).
Author Information
About James Peterson
Author Web Link: http://www.jimcooks.com/
James Peterson’s food career began in the 1970s after a stint of chemistry studies at Berkeley when he took off for India in search of a guru. The guru search was a flop—at least the search for the kind of guru Jim was looking for—but the journey led Jim, overland by bus, train, and thumbing to Paris. By this time funds were low and Jim managed to find work on a vineyard with a family near Carcassone. It was while living with this family of wine growers and sharing their meals that Jim realized there was a whole culture who appreciated food on a level he never would of expected.
Food and wine became such a passion that Jim returned to France two years later, after saving money from his job as a short-order cook. After a few classes at Le Cordon Bleu, Jim wormed his way into the kitchens of the then 3 star restaurant Vivarois. Because of Vivarois’s relatively small kitchen and staff, there was plenty of opportunity to learn all facets of a very refined cuisine. After Vivarois, Jim worked in restaurants in Paris and later landed a position at George Blanc (then called Chez La Mere Blanc) where he was exposed to the renowned cooking of Burgundy and Bresse, where the famous Bresse chickens are raised.
Jim returned to America in 1979 and started making the rounds of New York French restaurants where he was able to reinforce so much of what he had learned in France. In 1980, Jim finally had a restaurant of his own, the 38-seat Le Petit Robert, in Greenwich Village. Having his own restaurant enabled Jim to experiment and develop his own cooking style—regional and country cooking with the finesse of la grande cuisine. In a review in Gourmet magazine, Jay Jacobs described Le Petit Robert as “what may be the most creative restaurant in New York.” Jim had Le Petit Robert for four years before the restaurant lost its lease and Jim was back on the streets looking for work. Soon, he began teaching at The French Culinary Institute in Manhattan and ended up writing much of the school’s curriculum. Jim also taught at Peter Kump’s New York Cooking School (now called the Institute of Culinary Education) and at the New York Restaurant School.
While teaching, Jim wrote his first book, Sauces. The book was much acclaimed—one reviewer called it “one of the best books in English of the [then 20th] century.” Richard Olney, Jim’s mentor, compared it with Escoffier’s Guide Culinaire. The book went on to win the prestigious Cookbook of the Year Award from the James Beard Foundation. Nine more books followed, virtually all award winners or nominees.
While working on his seafood tome, Fish and Shellfish, Jim started experimenting with photography and whenever he had the chance took classes at The New School and the Rockport Photography School in Rockport Maine. Soon he was doing the photography for his own books.
In addition to traveling around the United States teaching cooking, Jim works in his Brooklyn home/office/studio writing, photographing and maintaining his website. He has just submitted a large manuscript for an upcoming book The Essentials of Baking.
(http://www.jimcooks.com/)
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