The Curious Cook: More Kitchen Science and Lore by Harold McGee

The Curious Cook: More Kitchen Science and Lore Reviews

• 
  Joe Reddington

  Let me start by saying that I adore Harold McGee - his magnum opus 'On food and cooking' has pride of place in my kitchen and is consulted at least twice a week.
  
  The curious cook on the other hand is a collection of blog posts that are somewhere between 'reasonably related' and 'totally unrelated' to each other.
  
  It starts with several fairly interesting chapters that cover scientific experiments that McGee does in his kitchen to examine the properties of food. Those chapters combine a simple message about science with some interesting historical asides. A book full of that sort of thing would be been fine, if not mind blowing. However that doesn't last massively long and McGee takes a hard write turn in to pop-science writing about cancer and heart disese, for which he absolutely has the science but not necessarily the warmth. During these chapters the science itself lurches wildly from schoolboy-level to paragraphs I, with my science phd, just had to skip. More jarringly, McGee commits the cardinal sin of science writing - trying to make it interesting by not revealing the answer until the end.
  
  As we get to the last part of the book we switch again to a discussion of history of a book called 'the Physiology of Taste', which is all very interesting but I was already so lost that I was just drifting to the end.
  
  Excellent writer, not writing the writing that he is good at writing.
• 
  Katy Dickinson

  Stories and discussion of the science of cooking - why things work as they do in the kitchen. Cooking is a mystery to me so knowing more about how and why - the chemistry and physics of it - is interesting. I am not a better cook after reading this but am a more informed one!
• 
  Susie

  pedantic. . .
• 
  Markus Pe

  Harold McGee is kinda my idol, the way he does science experiments in the kitchen fascinates me and I hope to one day repeat them with the same rigor. The book was structured into lose facts bundeled with experiments, they are as unconnected as my daily thoughts when cooking - which I really enjoyed.
• 
  Radu P

  Did not resonate with this one from Harold Mcgee."On food and cooking" remains his representative creation.
• 
  C

  
  This is 0 part cookbook, all food science and a little body science. There was a bit less about food than I preferred and a bit more than I would have wanted to read about saturated fats and heart health...but an interesting chapter on aluminum cookware and alzhiemers that I've been meaning to read.
  
  It's a great book, just not 100% my personal preference. Ideally I'd be able to choose the food science topics ala carte and have them put together in one tome for my own reading, leaving the ones that don't interest me. Perhaps an idea for digital publishers...
  
  
• 
  Connie

  OMG I think I'm in love. Seriously, though, it has to say something about the quality of the writing and exploration that I (a vegan) have even read all the chapters on meat and eggs. The exposition is clear, the process is fascinating. If you have any interest in the overlap between chemistry and food, Harold McGee is for you.
  
• 
  Tim

  If you're really into knowing about food and cooking on the technical side,this is for you. You'll have to be dedicated although you can only read the chapters that interest you.
  On the other hand try those that don't appear to appeal to you, some of his experiments very illuminating, if not amusing.
• 
  Ben

  Really excellent book on thinking about food and cooking using science and chemistry. McGee experiments with recipes as a iconic mad scientist would in his lab, and shares the results, frustrations, and confusions of the process. I really enjoyed it.
• 
  Cait

  I refer to it every spring and summer. It has an extensive chart of proportion for making fruit ices.
• 
  Elizabeth Olson

  Companion volume to "On Food and Cooking", nearly as entertaining and enlightening as that first book.
• 
  John Millard

  Harold knows his stuff and he is very giving with his enthusiasm.
• 
  Arrel

  Interesting follow-up to Mr McGee's classic "On Food and Cooking."