Garde Manger, The Art and Craft of the Cold Kitchen

asked by ronmiller on November 2, 2006 8:26 PM

Garde manger refers to the restaurant kitchen area where cold dishes, including soups, salads, sandwiches, sauces, cheeses, sausages, and pâtés, as well as hors d'oeuvres and the condiments used to garnish them, are prepared. The book Garde Manger is a teaching text for food professionals, updated from a 1973 edition by a team of chefs from the Culinary Institute of America. Home cooks, as well as students and professional cooks, will enjoy the chapters on preparing dressings, cold soups, salads, and sandwiches in this clearly, concisely written book, which is illustrated with hundreds of color photos. More serious home cooks will also appreciate the chapters that delve into making sausages, smoked foods, terrines, and other charcuterie. Here you'll learn to prepare and smoke old-fashioned, lusty French Garlic Sausage or a Pheasant Galantine enriched with pork fat and Madeira.

Intermediate cooks comfortable with terms such as chiffonade (leafy vegetables cut into very thin strips) will appreciate composed salads like simple Italian Shaved Fennel with Parmesan and heat-spiked Buffalo Chicken Salad, in addition to such soups as Cold Carrot Bisque sparked with ginger, tangy orange juice, and yogurt.

Noncooks interested in food will find Garde Manger fascinating too. How better to appreciate the Roasted Vegetable Terrine, layered with eggplant, squash, mushrooms, and goat cheese and served at your favorite restaurant, than by understanding how it is made? Home cooks who entertain will appreciate Garde Manger's recipes, as they produce quarts of sauce, gallons of soup, and canapés by the dozen. For the rest, when you can't modify the recipe, there is always the freezer. --Dana Jacobi

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Reviews

Teaches basics, it's like a textbook. Useful information that comes with pictures. It's definitely a worth investment for chefs like myself.

reviewed by fazer on November 3, 2006 2:38 PM

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I have really benefitted from this book. It was an excellent value for the money.

reviewed by caramel on November 25, 2006 8:03 AM

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The book arrive fast, the problem is your company change my shipping address. It took me two extra day to reiceve it. I was lucky tobe able to pick it up two hours before my class

reviewed by markymark on November 27, 2006 4:13 AM

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Many of the readers have commented that this book is for professionals only. I happen to disagree with this opinion as there are no prerequisites required to understand the instruction given within. Having said this, if you are not even curious of understading the fundamentals of lets say for example, sausage making, there is no need to buy this book, you can find great sausage at the grocery store without the hassle of making it at home.

So this book, yes it is for professionals but also for anybody who wants to understand (and even apply)the nuts and bolts of the cold kitchen. Personally I think that understanding the method that is used to prepare something, gives one a greater appreciation of that something when it is offered to him/her.

So for all of you non-professionals, if you are simply curious, about how to make salad dressings, terrines, or bologna for that matter, this book is written in laymans terms and will be an interesting journey into the world of Garde Manger.

reviewed by ctj on November 29, 2006 3:13 AM

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add a new book!