Culinary Arts Booklist: Considerations

The James Beard Award-finalist author of The Soul of a Chef traces the allure of celebrity chefs in America, touring some of the nation's most prestigious and innovative restaurants to explore the latest trends, in an account that profiles such locales as The French Laundry, Le Bernardin, and Las Vegas's most recent additions to the Strip. Examines the lives and careers of successful chefs and looks at the state of cooking in the United States. Covers such personalities as Thomas Keller, Cat Cora, and Rachael Ray and explores the business of professional cooking today.

Just over a decade ago, journalist Michael Ruhlman donned a chef's jacket and houndstooth-check pants to join the students at the Culinary Institute of America, the country's oldest and most influential cooking school. But The Making of a Chef is not just about holding a knife or slicing an onion; it's also about the nature and spirit of being a professional cook and the people who enter the profession. As Ruhlman—now an expert on the fundamentals of cooking—recounts his growing mastery of the skills of his adopted profession, he propels himself and his readers through a score of kitchens and classrooms in search of the elusive, unnameable elements of great food.

Observing the rigorous Certified Master Chef exam at the Culinary Institute of America, the most influential cooking school in the country, Ruhlman enters the lives and kitchens of rising star Michael Symon and renowned Thomas Keller of the French Laundry. This fascinating book will satisfy any reader's hunger for knowledge about cooking and food, the secrets of successful chefs, at what point cooking becomes an art form, and more.

Follows the path of industrial food, organic or alternative food, pastoral food, and foraged food from its source to its final meal to discover what Americans eat and what it says about their evolution. Discusses how the food choices that Americans make have long-reaching political, economic, psychological, and moral implications.

Pollan examines how four types of meals get to the table: an industrial meal from McDonald's; a meal made from industrial organic foods; a meal created from local, sustainable foods and a meal containing foods that the author hunted and gathered himself. As he explores each type of food, Pollan offers personal anecdotes and documented research on the food while urging readers to get involved and investigate what they're eating.