The New Cooks' Catalogue [Hardcover]

Well, here it is, and it is as inclusive as the original! Unlike a prior reviewer, I enjoy reading about the arcane and unique pieces made for cooking. I don't want a book of this scope written like Consumer Reports. In the first place, even Consumer Reports' product evaluations are usually subjective. Plus, their prices aren't accurate. Yes, I rather wish Mr. Wolf had at least given some range of prices for items in the book. However, I don't consider it a real drawback, as prices do vary enormously even on the web.

I found the recipes and other inserts pleasing and practical. The color photos were also welcomed for this edition. There is literally no way to cover all kitchen products on today's market, but Mr. Wolf goes further than anyone else I've seen in trying.

I tend to be a kitchen gadget and utensil freak anyway so this book is right up my alley. Otherwise, and particularly for the novice in cooking, I have doubts about its utility.

This should have been called, "The Kitchen Equipment Bible." It's that good! Highly recommended.

NICE, BUT DISAPPOINTING

I regret to say that I was disappointed by this 25th anniversary update of a venerable old classic. It seems to be chock full of information, but when you look up a specific category, remarkably few items are actually reviewed. The author states in the Introduction that many thousands of products were tested, and there was not enough room to list all of them. Granted, but there seems to have been plenty of space for tangential stories, recipes, and cartoons. I also object to the emphasis on obscure and rarely used tools; they are quite interesting, but also quite superfluous. Please note that the items are not ranked or compared in any way, nor are there specific recommendations as to what to buy (except in a couple of rare cases, and even then they do not come right out and say that you should have one of these) or what to avoid, so this book is only marginally useful as a shopping guide for kitchen tools. In this edition, they have also decided not to include prices. The stated justification for this is that the prices become out of date within weeks of publication. True, but very expensive and very inexpensive tools are listed side by side, and some indication as to their costs would be a big help, as many buying decisions will be based on price. A simple warning in the preface would have sufficed about constantly changing prices. I also find the reviews of electrical equipment to be suspect; for these, I recommend you stick to a tried and true resource, like a consumer magazine. It also lacks a beginner's list of essential kitchen tools to have. This can be a problem, as a kitchen novice might draw the conclusion, after reading this book, that many hundreds of tools are necessary kitchen basics.

Still, I greatly enjoyed going through this elegant coffee table book. I even learned a couple of things, like the $40 cooking spoon, the griddle made of green soapstone, and the vacuum pot coffee maker. I found out about the $40 price not from the book, but when I tried to buy one at a nearby kitchenware store. The most valuable part of this book is the list of recommended cookbooks at the back. At $30 or $40 a throw, there are far too many mediocre cookbooks in print today.

If you approach this book as an all-inclusive, everything-including-the-kitchen-sink encyclopedia of kitchen tools, it works. However, if you are interested in a list of basic items to equip a home kitchen or some type of buying guide, you will have to look elsewhere.