Review: The First-Timer's Cookbook

The First-Timer's Cookbook by Chef Shawn Bucher
Genre: Instructional Cookbook
ISBN: 978-1606450086
Published: Brigham Distributing (April 2, 2009)
Rating: 5

This is not your average beginner cookbook. Most beginner cookbooks have way too much information, are too specific, limited, and selected in the information given, and are mostly just really easy recipes. Remember that old saying, if you teach a man to fish you feed him for life? This book isn't just a bunch of recipes to use for the next six months until you've done them all and gotten tired of them: this book teaches you how to look at food and do something with it. It teaches you how to use food to create your own meals.

It's a small book, only 84 large pages, but it's concise. It's mostly skills: how to cut things properly, how to broil or grill properly, what to do with chicken and fish, how to cut parsley. But once you master these skills, you can prepare a meal without a recipe or needing to take notes from Food Network.

This is a great tool for anyone who doesn't know where to start to learn to cook. It will definitely come in handy for me!