The New American Chef: Cooking with the Best of Flavors and Techniques from Around the World [Hardcover]

Notably missing from this book are the cuisines of: Greece, Middle East, Germany, and the Caribbean.

As a book is being written, new and unforeseen topics appear. The writers and editor decide whether this unforeseen topic is out of scope for the book, or, if it is not, the topic is to be included for all chapters. Considerations in the yes/no decision include schedule, resources, and funding. If these three components cannot be properly executed for the entire book, the topic should be abandoned. For this book, each cuisine is on its own as if it had its own budget; good information that is included in one, is excluded in the rest. This is just poor design and layout. Here are some inconsistencies:

Japanese cooking
Page 47 has a table showing the menu for a formal Japanese dinner. It lists 12 courses and the order in which they should be served. This is not included for the Chinese, French, Indian, Italian, Mexican, Moroccan, Spanish, Thai, and Vietnamese cuisines. Something of this nature is invaluable to all cuisines for anyone wishing to put together an ethnic dinner. For example, readers will have to look elsewhere to find that a traditional sequence for a formal French dinner is: Cold app or soup, Soup, Hot app (always fish/shellfish), Intermezzo (sorbet), Main course, Salad, Cheese, Dessert (entremets).

Page 50 shows the seasons for obtaining Japanese ingredients when they are at their peak. It greatly expands upon their entry for Japanese cuisine in the book, Culinary Artistry (by the same authors). This is great information. Again, this is not available for the other cuisines.

I know that their contacts are different for each cuisine. However, if one contact has useful information about a specific cuisine (menu list or seasonal ingredient) and that is to be included, a light bulb should appear over the heads of the writers and editor and they should make this valuable topic available for all the cuisines by going back to their contacts and doing the necessary research.

Italian cooking
All the other cuisines have regions section titled, "The Culinary Map of <insert country>". Italy does not and this is one country that definitely has regional cuisine.

French cooking
Page 166 shows the regional sections of France reduced to a table. None of the other cuisines have a table. Ideally, as one who prefers to find necessary information quickly and easily, all sections should have a discussion of the regions followed by a table.

There is no information regarding cheese.

Chinese cooking
Page 222 has a great table on pairing teas with food. This is excellent information. But, this is yet another book by Andrew and Karen where they shy away from pairing wine with food. In the French section, there are only four non-informative paragraphs under a heading, How Wine Builds Character. Daniel Boulud is quoted as saying, "French dishes are designed to be paired with wine." Yet, there is no information explaining how. You'll need to look elsewhere.

It's not that difficult and wine/food matching can be summarized in a few pages. For example, an introduction to a home cook wanting to match food and wine can be to break both down into the basics of contrast and complements, and go from there.

Acid's contrast is salt; its complement is sweet
Bitter's contrast is sweet; its complement is also sweet
Sweet's contrast is bitter' its complement is salt
Salt's contrast is acid; its complement is sweet
Tannin's contrast is fat; its complement is sweet

After knowing this, a few examples can show a cook how to decide to contrast or complement a food to wine. An example to contrast is learning that the richness in game, such as duck, is diminished with fruit (Duck à l'Orange). Earthy wines are also contrasted with fruit if only because the earthy wine doesn't contain the fruit it should. Add fruit to the dish to enhance the fruit flavor that is supposed to be in the wine. Tips like this are simple and easy to follow and don't require 100s of pages found in books devoted to the topic. There's no reason not to include them in this series.

They can also list the flavor profiles of a particular grape, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, which is known to possess: blackberry, black raspberry, black currant (cassis), bell pepper, eucalyptus, mint, black olive, green olive, earth, mushroom, chocolate, cocoa, molasses, smoke, plum, cedar, tobacco, licorice, graphite (pencil box)...

Mexican cooking
Page 281 has a small table explaining characteristics of seven fresh chilies. Page 282 has a small table explaining characteristics of seven dried chilies. What's missing is a link to the two explaining that dried_chile_x comes from fresh_chile_y. For example, how many readers won't know that a chipotle pepper is a dried, smoked jalapeno? Or that a poblano chile is renamed ancho when it is dried? This is useful information.

These inconsistencies can be fixed when the planning stage is correctly executed. There seems to be such a rush to get these books out for this franchise, that I'm always left looking elsewhere to get the complete picture.

Other books you will need to look at to reference this missing parts include: The Restaurant Lover's Companion by Steve Ettlinger with Melanie Falick and Ethnic Cuisine by Elizabeth Rozin. Both of these books are consistent from one cuisine to the next and have a feeling of completeness with them.

With summer here I am looking forward to making Jose Andres's "Gaspacho Andaluz" and Daniel Bouloud's "Cherry Gratin".

I only have one problem with this book. I am dying to order copies to take as house gifts this summer but it's been listed as "out of stock" on Amazon for the last three weeks.

A great book for year-round cooking or summer hammock reading.