Scan a few pages of Michael Ruhlman’s new The Elements of Cooking: Translating the Chef’s Craft for Every Kitchen and it quickly becomes apparent that Elements is no ordinary ABC guide to home cooking. In this book Ruhlman sets out to concisely explain, à la Elements of Style, the foundation lessons he’s learned from some of the world’s best chefs on how to be a better cook. Michael co-wrote The French Laundry Cookbook with renowned chef Thomas Keller as well as several other books about chefs, so one might assume (rightly) that he learned a thing or two along the way.

After a brief introduction by the colorful Anthony Bourdain, Elements proceeds with a series of eight essays by Ruhlman on fundamentals of cooking well – Stock, Sauce, Salt, The Egg, Heat, Tools, Sources (books), and Finesse. These essays take up about 20 percent of the book, the remainder is a lengthy A-Z glossary of cooking terms, some of the descriptions mini-essays in themselves. Definitions of French cooking terms include (thankfully) their proper pronunciation, which I find particularly useful, given that I’m prone to publicly butcher other languages. (A certain pastry chef kindly explained to me one day that pâte brisée was pronounced paht bree-ZAY, not pah-TAY bree-zay. Doh!)

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