[.ca] The New Cooks' Catalogue (ISBN 0375406735)

From Amazon.com:
Book lovers, research hounds, and recipe collectors rejoice! Twenty-five years after the original, The New Cooks' Catalogue has arrived. For book lovers, this enormous white hardcover is printed beautifully on handsome paper, filled with full-color photos of every piece of kitchen equipment you can think of, from a set of Endurance spice spoons to the Omega 4000 juice extractor. For research hounds, and really anyone who thinks twice before picking up a new tool or appliance for the kitchen, this is a massive volume of Cliffs Notes. Thinking about a blender? Countertop or immersion? Cuisinart, KitchenAid, Waring, Krups, or Hamilton Beach? What should you look for in terms of design, weight, capacity, noise, power, speeds, and cleaning? What does the UL symbol mean? This volume provides the answers to questions you didn't even know you should ask. Burt Wolfe has been researching kitchen equipment since 1969 and there isn't a question he hasn't thought of. The chapters are broken up by tool category, such as measuring devices, griddles, grill pans and irons, and handheld utensils for beating, mixing, whisking, stirring, and lifting. Peppered with interesting, helpful information on subjects like Japanese knives, strainers, and baking and pizza stones, kitchen gods and goddesses will love nothing better than to curl up with their favorite beverage to peruse the contents. Recipe collectors, do not fear. Wading through this wealth of information rewards you too. Each section includes recipes from famous chefs using that section's equipment. Use your fry pan to make Pork Chops with Cream and Calvados, use a skimmer for Poached Spiced Figs, slice Gravlax with Mustard Sauce with a fish slicer, and make Ginger Ice Cream or Buttermilk Sorbet in your ice-cream maker. With contributions from more than 100 of the world's leading food authorities, among them Bruce Aidells, Julia Child, Rick Bayless, Marion Cunningham, Francois Payard, Nancy Silverton, and Thomas Keller, to name a few, it really is like getting a bonus cookbook with your encyclopedia. And everyone will be entertained by food-related cartoons from The New Yorker, so funny and appropriate you'll find yourself hunting them down when what you really need is a new proofing basket or crème brûlée dish. A great reference guide for kitchen tool collectors and aficionados, as well as anyone outfitting a kitchen from scratch, Wolfe has included so much information, both general and specific, that even when the models described are out of date, you'll still know what to look for, and how to find it. --Leora Y. Bloom

Not exactly a catalogue....:
.....but more of an encyclopedia. This is a good book if you don't know what a certain kitchen tool does or would like a breif history lesson. This not the best consumer buying guide around, but a good buy none the less.

Who needs a Dummy book.....:
I was given The New Cooks' Catalogue last Christmas and it was one of the best gifts I ever received. Good thing I was also on vacation at the time, because I was swallowed up by the amount of information it contained. There's a lot to digest, but it's fascinating. Loved the recipes. What's interesting is that many of the leading food writers contributed to this essential reference book. Next Christmas, I know what I'll be giving all of my friends who love to cook as much as I do.

Interesting but Flawed:
This is a large coffee table sized book. You'll find more cooking tools and appliances than you ever dreamed existed. Yet it is flawed by the fact that not a hint of the relative cost of the items compared is provided. The publisher probably didn't want to date the book by providing actual prices but some mechanism should have been used to gauge the relative cost of items within a category. That's a major shortcoming! Still, it's an interesting book for hardcore cooks.

Great Resource!:
I love the New Cooks' Catalogue for several reasons. It's comprehensive, easy to use and well written. I also enjoy the historical anecdotes and recipes. The book's design is beautiful, but even more important, the contents are practical and well researched. I used it to determine which kind of food processor to invest in, and now I wouldn't make a serious purchase without first consulting this book. When in doubt, the New Cooks' Catalogue will help you figure it out! This has become an indispensable tool in my kitchen and a lovely addition to my library of reference books.

Great Help and Sparks Good Ideas:
This book was a great help in expanding some of our kitchen equipment. If you visit a bookstore or library, you may find thousands of books on cooking and not one on cooking equipment. This book fills that niche very nicely. There were some items that we had acquired that we knew were really good -- the authors had done their research and it was encouraging that they found the same and for similar reasons. That gave me some reference as to their experience. The book is up-to-date. They have equipment that is top-notch and widely available. The photos are excellent. The book is also a great resource for items you may not have considered or known about. I know that we now have several more items on our list of equipment to buy. This makes it especially good as a gift to newlyweds or people starting out on their own and want to cook.