3 posts tagged “cookbooks”

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Cookbook Wars

Sep 6, 2008
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The recent lawsuit by Missy Chase Lapine, author of "The Sneaky Chef" against Jessica Seinfeld, author of "Deceptively Delicious" got me thinking. The claim is that Mrs Seinfeld stole several ideas from "The Sneaky Chef" to write her cookbook. I say this is crap, and here's why:

Cooking is extremely universal and similar techniques are used world wide. Cooking is not proprietary, we all do it, and nobody owns it. There is 1000's of ways to make a dish, and some of the steps and ingredients will be identical in those 1000's of ways, but each individual puts their signature on it, even if it is only one small thing, it is still their contribution to it's uniqueness. That is why we are inundated with several 1000 cookbooks.

Pick up a 100 cookbooks, and you may find several hundred recipes that appear in all them. Does that mean 100 authors stole them from each other? NO! The foundation of any standard recipe will be the same, or the end result won't work. Cookbooks are copyrighted, cooking is not. I do not call the author of each cookbook to get their permission to make their dish every time I use it. I also don't call them and say, hey your recipe for funnel cakes is the same recipe in 5 other books I own, did you steal it? No, because the ingredients and steps are the same for funnel cakes and nobody owns the proprietary rules to making this cake and if they don't follow the basic steps, it won't work. Now you can vary how it is made, and claim it is yours and yours alone, but somebody half way around the world may be making it the same way, just because they happened to think of it, too.

Jessica Seinfeld

If we start suing each other, over who owns the right to make food, we will starve. I am not about to start paying royalties, just to fry chicken or bake cookies.

Maybe I could say to both women, you both stole these ideas from me, I just don't have them written down in a cookbook right now to prove it. If this lawsuit succeeds, the flood gates will open, and we will never see another cookbook, and all the current cookbook authors will be suing each other over the next 1000 years. And it won't stop with cookbooks either.

Give it a rest! When you write your next book, believe in yourself, that mine is the best work and it should sell on its merits, if it doesn't, then blame yourself, don't look for a scapegoat!

My Top Ten Lists, Ok Maybe 10 or More

Mar 24, 2008
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Food Movies

1.) Big Night

2.) Ratatouille

3.) Mostly Martha (German Foreign Film)

4.) Who's Killing the Great Chefs of Europe

5.) My Big Fat Greek Wedding

6.) Chocolat

7.) Goodfellas

8.) Eat Drink Man Woman (Chinese Foreign Film)

9.) I Love You to Death

10.) Dinner Rush

11.) Sideways

Food Shows

1.) Iron Chef (Food Network - America, Fine Living Network - Japan)

2.) Iron Chef Japan (Fine Living Network)

3.) Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (BBC America)

4.) Top Chef (Bravo)

5.) Lidia's Italy (PBS)

6.) Everyday Italian (Food Network)

7.) Diners, Dives, and Drive-Ins (Food Network)

8.) Ace of Cakes (Food Network)

9.) No Reservations (Travel Channel)

10.) Kylie Kwong (Discovery Home)

11.) Everyday Food (PBS)

12.) Emril Green (Planet Green Discovery Network)

13.) Living with Ed (Planet Green Discovery Network)

14.) Gordan Ramsay's F Word (BBC America)

Magazines

1.) Slow Food (Free with Slow Food USA membership)

2.) Food Arts (Free for Industry Professionals)

3.) Modern Baking (Free for Industry Professionals)

4.) Gastronomica

5.) The Art of Eating

6.) King Arthur Flour Baking Sheet

7.) Food and Wine

8.) Everyday Food

9.) La Cucina Italiana

10.) Taste of Home

11.) Cooks Illustrated

Cookbooks

1.) Larousse Gastronomique

2.) The Silver Spoon

3.) Bernard Clayton's Complete Book of Breads

4.) The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion: The All-Purpose Baking Cookbook

5.) Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

6.) The New Making of a Cook: The Art, Techniques, and Science of Good Cooking

7.) The River Cottage Meat Book

8.) Pork and Sons

9.) The Silver Palate Cookbook (25th Anniversary Ed.)

10.) Breakfast Lunch Tea

11.) Larousse Encyclopedia of Wine

Foods I Love

1.) Pizza

2.) Spaghetti

3.) Lobster

4.) Chilie (Red or Green, 3 Alarm Hot)

5.) Buffalo Style Chicken Wings

6.) Duck

7.) Asparagus

8.) Tamales

9.) any Artisan Bread (Ciabatta is a favorite)

10.) any Artisan Cheese (Grana Padano is a favorite)

11.) Tiramisu

12.) Bread Pudding

13.) Bouillabaisse

14.) Colorado Lamb

Restaurant Recipes @ Home

Aug 31, 2007
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Gordon Ramsay - owner of several restaurants and writer of many cookbooks

There are several restaurant cookbooks in stores these days. Todd Wilbur, for example, has written several restaurant secret recipe books. Let's say you've eaten at a certain restaurant, you get the book, and you see the recipe for the dinner you ate there, awesome! You thought it was one of the best things you ever ate, otherwise why would you get the book. So, you make the recipe at home, and it taste different, why?

It may taste even better, or it may be worse. Here is the caveat, where you obtain your ingredients and where they get their ingredients are probably different places. You buy retail, they buy wholesale. The brands are different, thus seasoned differently, and who cooks them, can cause deviation from the original recipe and we all put our own personal touches on everything.

Meat, Poultry, and Fish being involved can really change the dynamic. Organic, Free Range, Wild, Domestic, and the list goes on. One solution, become friends with the owner, have him or her sign your book, and explain how you duplicated their recipe, and it wasn't quite right. I'm sure they will be flattered enough to go over what you did, bought, etc and help you achieve your goal. You will still eat there, even if you can make it at home, because it's easier to eat out, but now you know you can do it, mission accomplished.

Also, if you have never eaten at the restaurant, then whatever recipes you make, will be great to your taste or I won't ever try that again. Pictures of the finished dish, can also be very helpful, as we eat with our eyes first.