''On Food And Cooking: The Science And Lore Of The Kitchen'' is a book by

Harold McGee Harold James McGee (born October 3, 1951) is an American author who writes about the chemistry and history of food science and cooking. He is best known for his seminal book '' On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen'' first pu ...

, published by Scribner in the United States in 1984 and revised extensively for a 2004 second edition. It is published by

Hodder & Stoughton Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint (trade name), imprint of Hachette (publisher), Hachette. History Early history The firm has its origins in the 1840s, with Matthew Hodder's employment, aged 14, with Messrs ...

in Britain under the title ''McGee on Food and Cooking: An Encyclopedia of Kitchen Science, History and Culture''. The book provides a reference to the scientific understanding and preparation of

food Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is inge ...

. It has been described by

Alton Brown Alton Crawford Brown Jr. (born July 30, 1962) is an American television personality, food show presenter, chef, author, voice actor, and cinematographer. He is the creator and host of the Food Network television show ''Good Eats'' that ran for ...

as "the

Rosetta stone The Rosetta Stone is a stele composed of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a Rosetta Stone decree, decree issued in Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle te ...

of the culinary world",

Daniel Boulud Daniel Boulud (born 25 March 1955 in Saint-Pierre-de-Chandieu) is a French chef and restaurateur with restaurants in New York City, Palm Beach, Miami, Toronto, Montréal, Singapore, the Bahamas, the Berkshires and Dubai. He is best known for h ...

has called the book a "must for every cook who possesses an inquiring mind", while

Heston Blumenthal Heston Marc Blumenthal (; born 27 May 1966) is a British celebrity chef, TV personality and food writer. Blumenthal is regarded as a pioneer of multi-sensory cooking, food pairing and flavour encapsulation. He came to public attention with un ...

has stated it is "the book that has had the greatest single impact on my cooking".Hirst, Christopher, ''The Independent''. (November 13, 2004
Snail porridge? It's a matter of taste
/ref> The work is separated into sections that focus on the ingredients, providing the structure for the author to speculate on the history of foodstuffs and cookery, and the molecular characteristics of food flavors, while the text is illustrated by charts, graphs, pictures, and sidebar boxes with quotes from sources such as

Brillat-Savarin Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (; 1 April 1755, Belley, Ain – 2 February 1826, Paris) was a French lawyer and politician, who, as the author of ''The Physiology of Taste'' (''Physiologie du Goût''), gained fame as an epicure and gastronome: " ...

and

Plutarch Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''P ...

.Stafford, Matthew, ''SF Weekly'' (November 24, 2004)
On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
/ref> The book advises on how to cook many things (e.g., for pasta use abundant water, with reasons and the science behind everything) and includes a few historical

recipe A recipe is a set of instructions that describes how to prepare or make something, especially a dish of prepared food. A sub-recipe or subrecipe is a recipe for an ingredient that will be called for in the instructions for the main recipe. His ...

s (e.g., Fish or Meat Jelly, by

Taillevent Guillaume Tirel, known as Taillevent ( French: "wind-cutter" i.e. an idle swaggerer) (born ca. 1310 in Pont-Audemer – 1395), was an important figure in the early history of French cuisine. He was cook to the Court of France at the time of the ...

in 1375), but no modern recipes as such.Hirst, Christopher, ''The Independent''. (December 3, 2004
The best of 2004: food books reviewed
/ref>

References

{{reflist

External links

''On Food and Cooking''
on McGee's site "Curious Cook" 1984 non-fiction books Cookbooks Specialized encyclopedias

See also

References

External links