The Bottom Line
Pros
- If you're looking for authentic Goan recipes, this is a good book in which to find them.
- The Chef costs only Indian Rupees 175.
Cons
- The Chef has no pictures.
Description
- A guide to Indian and adapted Western cooking.
- A guide to organising your kitchen to cook Indian food.
- A guide to buying the best ingredients to cook Indian or any other kind of food.
Guide Review - The Chef by Isidore Coelho
The Chef contains over 1500 recipes for Indian and adapted western dishes. It covers everything from breads, soups, gravies, salads, sandwiches and main course dishes to chutneys, puddings, pickles and drinks.
The Chef opens with a chapter called 'Kitchen and its works'. This includes tips on everything from the efficient running and maitainance of the kicthen to picking the right and freshest ingredients. It talks in detail about the different methods of cooking like boiling, stewing, roasting, broiling, frying, etc. This chapter is what makes The Chef a great book for all those starting out in Indian cooking.
In india common household spices and ingredients are not just used for cooking but also for their medicinal properties. The Chef contains a special section with information on how to use these to cure things ranging from common colds, to indigestion and burns.
The Chef, though exhaustive in terms of the number of recipes it contains, has no pictures. Though not a major disadvantage, this can be a bit of a let-down for begginers. Also, some of the recipes are written with the assumption that the reader is experienced both at cooking in general and Indian cooking in particular. The style of writing and some of the tips are slightly outdated given that the book was written so long ago.
All the above though, do not take away from the fact that this is a great book to have on your bookshelf. It is definitely one of the better sources of recipes for authentic Goan cooking.
