Cooking Basics For Dummies (US Edition) (Paperback)

My biggest reservation has to do with the chapter on equipment. While I will certainly not disagree that I can cook slightly better with better equipment, I also know that you can be a perfectly good cook with 50 cent knives and $5 saucepans. This chapter should have been an appendix - "When you're ready to buy the best tools" instead of such an early chapter. At most the chapter should have contained a discussion about what each item is used for, and stopped there. As it stands, it succeeded mainly in putting off the less experienced cooks I showed it to.

This is a shame, since much of the rest of the book is useful, funny and informative. I have since recommended it to one person with the caveat that they should ignore that chapter until they could afford not to. But most people just starting out can't afford what's in there. (Heck, I'm well beyond starting out and can't afford much of it. Then again, I regularly produce gourmet meals on a $20 set of knives and a $50 set of pans. So can anyone.)

In the end, the author broke what I consider to be the cardinal rule of the "For Dummies" books - MAKE IT ACCESSIBLE. In the end, a $50 knive and a $100 pan are just not accessible and also, not NECESSARY to be a good cook. Learning the skills of cooking can be done on almost ANY equipment (the tops have to seal and the knives have to cut - that's about it). This book made it seem necessary to drop a $1000 or so before you could start boiling water and that's not just inaccessible but intimidating, too.

I'll take away one star, only because the opening can be intimidating to a rank beginner who doesn't know the difference between a soufle or a sauce pan. Moreover, as has been pointed out earlier, "Cooking for Dummies" seems to say that one must have or obtain a kitchen far beyond the reach of most new cooks. If that's overly intimidating, it's made up for later, as the book gives simple steps that are all but foolproof. If the beginner cannot afford the costly equipment recommended, the beginner should make do with what can be obtained. However, cooking is like any other craft--the better the equipment, the better the results.

But the recipes and techniques are the highlight and soul of the book. Written with humor, insight, and a firm remembering of the intended audience (e.g. "dummies in the kitchen"), "Cooking for Dummies" is sure to please. The recipes are complete and easy to follow; the techniques are explained so that even a klutz like myself won't lose his fingers while chopping herbs or hard vegetables; and the results are uniformly satisfying.

"Cooking for Dummies" is great reading, easy to use, and will be a favorite for many new cooks learning to use the kitchen for more than storage of beer and chips.