Alinea
by Grant Achatz
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Book Reviews of Alinea
Book Review: Achatz is Dali: Alinea - Each Bite is a Paragraph of Mindfulness
Summary: 5 Stars
Achatz - to cuisine - is what Dali was to canvas. Esoteric, ephemeral, surreal, transcendent, a-linear, the Alinea images are an introspection into the poetry of taste.
Having had the fortune of experiencing Alinea earlier this year, I was happy to stumble upon the book later in the fall: as I had been trying to "paint the picture" of the experience for my friends, I felt the insufficiency of words to convey the whimsical intensity and the moody nuance of Alinea forms. The book solved the problem. With this in mind, I recommend the book as a kind of photoalbum of Alinea pilgrimage to compliment the memories.
I would like to muse on the semantics of the restaurant's name itself...
The word "alinea" is a typographical character that derives from the Latin off the line and is used as a paragraph sign to mark a new train of thought.
As such, the restaurant name "Alinea" is a logical choice for a bite-sized journey that is Achatz' cuisine. The restaurant offers two menus - a Tasting and a Tour. Each menu is a stream of gustatory consciousness in which the mind of the Chef takes the pilgrim's palate on an odyssey of fleeting encounters... in which each bite-sized course is a paragraph of mindfulness and a new train of thought...
The resulting experience is that of continuous attention and presence. Alinea is akin to a culinary harem of exotic one-night stands, in which the touch-and-go courses assure that an eater can never bite more than his or her mind can chew... It is a kaleidoscope of subdued Enya-like mood-wafts of taste amidst the uprising thermals of futuristic presentation...
I know, I know - if this sounds poetic, it's because the experience was, indeed, poetry, with each course - nothing more than a stanza; with each course - nothing less than a taste off the line of the Expected - i.e. an alinea.
Alinea - to sum up - is a non-linear eating experience for an open mind.
Pavel Somov, Ph.D., Author of "Eating the Moment: 141 Mindful Practices to Overcome Overeating One Meal at a Time" (New Harbinger, 2008; www.eatingthemoment.com)
Copyright, 2008
Book Review: impressive
Summary: 3 Stars
This books has several hundred detailed descriptions of molecular gastronomy dishes. As others have pointed out these are not likely to be cooked, but they could be. The correct end result is always presented by instructive pictures.
I will not give the current book more than three stars. If you are an aspiring MG chef, clearly this is a must buy due to the quality of the recipes. I've eaten in the restaurant so I can attest to this fact. What about the rest of us?
Most customers would do better buying Adria's A Day at El Bulli and/or Blumenthal's The Fat Duck Cookbook. They provide more insight on the creative process, especially Blumenthal. Adria is interesting because he arguably created the MG cooking, A better understanding of the creative process in the kitchen is the most important learning in these books. Their approach is so different from the traditional apprentice model. Achatz provides a few reflections on the creative process and that is interesting. However, the first sections of the book read like a marketing brochure and Achatz is raised to the sky by a number of guest-authors. That is very dull reading. It is also sad the we don't hear the voice of Achatz more. Blumenthal and Adria come across as living human beings. Achatz is so much more anonomous. I'm not interested in a biography, but how he thinks about creativity, etc. I want to hear his voice. He is still a very young chef, so I'm sure that will come when he gets more maturity.
If you actually want to cook MG recipes (and have the equipment), I would go with Achatz rather than Blumenthal because of the larger amount of recipes and better pictures. Adria's book doesn't have many recipes at all, but of course Adria also has several recipe collections.
The binding of this book is just awful and will break very quicky. But then again this book is very cheap compared to the competitors. Still I would have preferred a slighly more expensive book that has a decent binding.
Book Review: It's Like Being A Mad Scientist, but You Get To Impress Your Friends and Eat the Results, Too!
Summary: 5 Stars
Like most foodies, I was well aware of Grant Achatz and his amazing Chicago restaurant, Alinea, even though I haven't eaten there and live 2,000 miles away. Word of this cookbook was buzzing about for months, and we were anxious to get it and look at it and...well...be amazed. Just by looking at it.
But a funny thing happened, which was a blogger we love, Carol Blymire, decided that after cooking and blogging her way through The French Laundry Cookbook, she was going to take on the Alinea book. Now, suddenly, this complicated book became a kind of ongoing educational text. And as Carol tried out the recipes, we then pulled out our copy and tried the recipes, too.
Achatz is known for molecular gastronomy, which means he uses chemicals and innovative tools to turn a meal into an explosion of flavor and surprise. This book shows his food being served so it looks like something from outer space; and there is a section that discusses things you might never really buy, but which he uses, like antigriddles, which freezes food instantly.
It's fun to take a book that seems so extreme and out of our comfort zone as home chefs, and to prepare actual recipes from it. This book has us ordering crazy ingredients, and doing things like turning homemade caramel into a powdery shotglass of yumminess.
We've had a blast with the Alinea cookbook, and I highly suggest buying it and having fun. Read Carol's blog, AlineaAtHome.com, for inspiration, and try out a recipe or two on your own. We went from thinking it was a book to look at only, to having our children use some of the recipes (a cracker one, for example) to create their own snacks.
Definitely, one of our favorite cookbooks of all times.
Book Review: An amazing book from an amazing chef
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm only a home cook, and only recently have begun to try to cook more gourmet foods of the type that can be found at restaurants like Alinea. I loved when I got to go to Alinea -- the food was not form over function, as molecular gastronomy is stereotyped, but rather a great feast.
I enjoyed the restaurant enough that I would have been happy had most of the recipes proved impossible -- this type of cookbook is often more about inspiration than actual recipes to use at home.
The Alinea cookbook is high quality, and a lot of attention to detail was put into the cookbook. It's large and heavy, and so a little difficult to use at times in the kitchen (I often photocopy a page before making a recipe, because I know I will splash ingredients all over it). To date, I've attempted and succeeded at creating several different recipes (with slight modifications for unobtainable ingredients) -- they worked fantastically, and were surprisingly not very difficult.
Other recipes are too impractical to perform exactly as printed, and the book acknowledges this. For example, you could use regular flavorful mushrooms rather than truffles for the dish Hot Potato, Cold Potato. Alternatively, you can take pieces of some dishes and combine with pieces of other dishes. From what I understand, Achatz didn't necessarily intend people to be trying to make every dish exactly as printed.
If you've been to the Alinea restaurant or love experimenting with new flavors and techniques, you should get this book -- it's a great addition to the relatively short list of molecular gastronomy cookbooks. Obviously, if you're not a fan of molecular gastronomy or of Alinea, you should avoid it.
Book Review: Astounding and inspirational
Summary: 5 Stars
After eating at Alinea last year I was left with so many questions. I am a chef as well and after attempting to re-create some of the elements from dishes I enjoyed at Alinea I was overjoyed when this book was first announced. It is not likely that most people who purchase this book will ever reproduce a single recipe let alone attempt to execute an entire tasting menu, but the amount of inspiration and ideas which can be found here is amazing. I bought this book more to satisfy my curiosity than for any other reason and Alinea has done so much more than satisfy that curiosity. Many of the ideas are executed so much more simply than I ever imagined.
As for the book itself, The essays which open the book are a must-read, they set the entire tone for how to approach what might otherwise be an extremely overwhelming cookbook. The organization is simple and coherent with the recipes organized into four seasonal tasting menus. There is also at least one gorgeous photo of every completed dish. However, there are so many unique ingredients in the book that a membership [...] is a must if you hope to find sources for these not nearly as exotic as they sound items (most are commercial food additives found in nearly any packaged product in your supermarket).
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in elevating their cooking to a new level. The ideas and techniques presented here will help you to recreate old favorites in an entirely new way.