Books to learn
Books to devour knowledge, technique, history and curiosities with the eyes, anticipating the palate in flavors and promising aromas known and unknown to our nose. Learning about gastronomy by reading is a real pleasure.
Japan Gastronomy is a colossal work by Nancy Singleton Hachisu (sometimes recommended by chef Albert Raurich) created to immerse yourself in an extensive documentation about one of the countries that have led the world in gastronomy: Japan, of course. Edited by Phaidon, collects three years of intense documentation that crystallize in 15 chapters where all aspects are shelled of the domestic kitchen of the Japanese country through recipes for starters and main dishes, preparations and ingredients: soup, rice, pickles, noodles or the wide variety and quantity of vegetables that this kitchen includes. More than 400 recipes that allow to discover the great beauty, subtlety and stratification that each regional dish shows, detailing preparation and presentation. An essential compendium for lovers of Japanese gastronomy, whatever the knowledge of it: each page is a discovery.
It is fascinating how knowledge is built generation to generation, and Larousse Gastronomic in español is a clear example of this: edited by Larousse and written by Prosper Montagné, this monumental work first saw the light in 1938 and is already in the fourth revised edition, directed by Joël Robuchon with a prolonged edition by Andoni Luis Aduriz. This desire to collect gastronomic knowledge is translated into 4,200 articles that review culture and history in detail, going to the detail of the product, utensils, preparations, techniques, designations of origin … It even lists the most representative restaurants of today in haute cuisine and offers biographies of its greatest exponents, such as Enrique Olvera, Paco Pérez, Ángel León, René Redzepi or Gastón Acurio, to name a few. It also offers 2,500 recipes, of which 500 are from the main chefs on the international scene, from the last 20 years: Santi Santamaria, Ferran Adrià, hermanos Roca, Carme Ruscalleda, Pedro Subijana, Andoni Luis Aduriz, José Mª Arzak…
Also along the lines of the compendium, Tribute to the Marchioness of Parabere, the pseudonym of the gourmet and restaurateur María Mestayer, it’s an interesting work in two volumes published by Planeta Gastro. The first collects some of the most emblematic original recipes of the Marquesa de Parabere herself dating from the first half of the 20th century, with small annotations to update the reader on the use of utensils or techniques of the time. He second volume it’s an interesting review of those recipes that have made leading figures of national haute cuisine such as Fina Puigdevall, Albert Adrià, Carme Ruscalleda, Oriol Balaguer, Paco Torreblanca, Martín Berasategui or Joan Roca, among others. Yesterday and today of rich dishes and food that are a reflection of the taste and exquisiteness of the gastronomy of an era, as a portrait of it.
And finally, another essential work: The Complete Bocuse of the Flammarion publishing house, published months before the death of Paul Bocuse in 2018. This book reveals 500 recipes of various types of complexity, to be enjoyed by both amateurs and experienced cooks who want to reconnect with the spirit of this French visionary who led the new kitchen. 50 decades of success collected in this work, which also explains meat cooking times, conversion tables and a glossary of key French terms in its gastronomy.
Cooking books
Any book, even theoretical, gives wings to fly into the kitchen and want to experiment. Gastronomic literature, for those who are passionate about this reading, has the property of planting seeds of excitement that culminate in front of a stove.
The product, which feeds the kitchens of restaurants, is undoubtedly the main pillar of contemporary creativity of the most renowned chefs on an international level. Furthermore, the world has fixed its gaze on vegetables, elevating them to protagonists as a creative solution and as a way out to a society that must review the effects on our planet of the outrageous consumption of meat. In Six stations, Marta Holmberg reviews with the chef Joshua McFadden how to understand the vegetable raw material in a complete exercise of from farm to table: from cultivation until it reaches a table, cooked and transformed. Throughout the book, McFadden (who in addition to being a chef, is a farmer) not only exposes 225 simple and tasty recipes, as well explains how to grow, choose or conserve the prized fruits and vegetables.
Following in the wake of the plant product, Eat mushrooms, by Llorenç Petràs is another jewel to treasure. Petràs, who has been in charge of the mythical mushroom stop Petras Mushrooms in La Boqueria, It’s one of the top experts in the country to which they go and consult from cooks to amateurs. In this book all this knowledge is accurately transferred: from the list of the main edible mushrooms that exist, anecdotes, curiosities and secrets to cook them even recipes to get the most out of the stove. An excellent read for lovers of mushrooms and mushrooms that has also been recognized as best cookbook in 2020 by Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.
The world of bakery is complex. It requires patience, observation, curiosity … and this long process hooks many. In the words of the baker Daniel Jordà, the panettone is the cathedral of the bakery, a product that is difficult to master but offers multiple satisfactions to those who manage to master it. In this direction, Panettones and sourdough pastries of the French publisher Bread Editions is a fantastic approach from three angles: the needed theory, the tips and tools to put it into practice and more than 20 recipes from great professionals recognized worldwide as Jordà himself, Miquel Saborit, Alfonso Pepe, Emmanuel Revuz or Roy Schvartzapel. The prologue in its Spanish edition is by Ibán Yarza and its author, Thomas Teffri-Chambelland, teaches at the prestigious École Internationale de Boulangerie in Paris.
As the saying recommends saving space for desserts (when going to a good restaurant), what better way to finish this selection than with the book Anarchy by Jordi Roca? This wonder edited by Montagud dives through 115 creations, 478 elaborations and 102 step-by-step processes both from Jordi Roca’s sweet game and from those dishes from Joan Roca’s kitchen in which pastry techniques are involved. In this exhaustive 560-page work, more than 100 recipes, a whole journey through the most bizarre and creative desserts of recent times at El Celler de Can Roca, but it also offers an intensive review of both pastry techniques and the fundamental ingredients in sweet cooking.
–
