jocelynw's review against another edition
2.0
[Wrote this last fall; apparently didn't post it]
Last year I had to drop an actual food science textbook partway through when my health got too bad to keep at it. I've improved some, but I didn't think enough so brain- or body-wise to handle the previous book, so I picked this up. Unfortunately, I found it so simplified that it was difficult to absorb the information - I realized after a while that I had been generalizing what I was absorbing from the actual textbook, and this was kind of bouncing off because its corners are already so rounded. I tried a partial second go-round and felt like I was taking in a bit more, but I have so many other things on my to-read pile that I didn't feel like keeping at that. Despite my general frustration with that aspect, I did like that Bouzari finds ways to liken similar end effects from disparate inputs, and he chooses examples rather well, deploying illustratively a lot of kitchen phenomena with which a longtime cook is likely to be familiar.
Last year I had to drop an actual food science textbook partway through when my health got too bad to keep at it. I've improved some, but I didn't think enough so brain- or body-wise to handle the previous book, so I picked this up. Unfortunately, I found it so simplified that it was difficult to absorb the information - I realized after a while that I had been generalizing what I was absorbing from the actual textbook, and this was kind of bouncing off because its corners are already so rounded. I tried a partial second go-round and felt like I was taking in a bit more, but I have so many other things on my to-read pile that I didn't feel like keeping at that. Despite my general frustration with that aspect, I did like that Bouzari finds ways to liken similar end effects from disparate inputs, and he chooses examples rather well, deploying illustratively a lot of kitchen phenomena with which a longtime cook is likely to be familiar.
apollosmichioreads's review against another edition
4.0
Ingredient is a very accessible and colourful book that introduces the ingredients in food as eight characters in a story with their own behaviours and attitudes.
Interspersed within the chapters and sub-chapters are also aesthetically-designed pages of food and molecular illustrations that complement the reader’s understanding of them. This is, I believe, the main highlight of the book, forming much of its pages and making it visually-appealing and easy-to-understand (with a lot of metaphors used to explain the characteristics of the different ingredients).
Perhaps because I’m studying food science, I found myself wanting to know more technical and scientific details regarding the ingredients. Yet, I do understand that this book is meant to be simple and non-technical. So I would still say that this is an excellent and palatable book that readers who are interested in food and cooking can read to gain a simple understanding of how ingredients work!
4/5
Interspersed within the chapters and sub-chapters are also aesthetically-designed pages of food and molecular illustrations that complement the reader’s understanding of them. This is, I believe, the main highlight of the book, forming much of its pages and making it visually-appealing and easy-to-understand (with a lot of metaphors used to explain the characteristics of the different ingredients).
Perhaps because I’m studying food science, I found myself wanting to know more technical and scientific details regarding the ingredients. Yet, I do understand that this book is meant to be simple and non-technical. So I would still say that this is an excellent and palatable book that readers who are interested in food and cooking can read to gain a simple understanding of how ingredients work!
4/5
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