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‘Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat’ Is a Love Letter to Amateur Cooks

theatlantic.com

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Re: ‘Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat’ Is a Love Letter to Amateur Cooks

#51

Post by erkose »

tptacek wrote: post #15

I've read the book and watched the series. Both are fine. The series is in a weird place in between Mind of a Chef (which, in most of its seasons, is a significantly better show) and a more conventional FoodTV cooking show. I think they're trying to do too much in each episode, and also that the travel-show part of each episode works better than the cooking demos do. The book is better than the show. I have friends t…

Haven't read the book, but there was definitely something off about the Netflix series. It was good and worth watching. While Samin is a wonderful, jolly personality and a large brained chef, she is not interesting enough to carry the series.

Re: ‘Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat’ Is a Love Letter to Amateur Cooks

#52

Post by blakejustblake »

cantrevealname wrote: post #46

Has anyone else noticed that there has been a massive surge in cooking books, videos, and shows in the last 10-15 years? Especially on TV, it's wall to wall cooking shows. I remember that cooking was a big interest 20-25 years ago, but it seems so much bigger now. Anyone have any theories about why this may be, or if my impression is wrong? My own theory is that many more men are into cooking nowadays, so the market…

Well, this is all obviously speculation, but here are some things that I think contributed to it: First of all I think that it's a reaction to a generation of people growing up with chain restaurants and ready to cook meals. They see that it's unhealthy, there's more to food, and they want to move past that. Similarly they maybe didn't have someone to teach them about food and cooking growing up so they have to fill that space and lack of experience. Notice how a nearly every book or show has to involve some line about how cooking this way, or the inspiration for this or that, has been passed down from generation to generation? Also, you could look at it partially as an environmental/economic thing. People feel good consuming local/seasonal/organic/natural/whatever food. But knowing how to do that properly requires some amount of knowledge that they don't have. Lastly there's a certain amount of cultural cache to knowing things about food that other people might not know. You feel like you get brownie points for knowing about a local spot no one's been to that has good food. Being able to make a good meal has been built up as a sort of unique and desirable skill to have, while at the same time being a really easy skill to attain. People take pride in things like being able to make the "best" barbecue sauce or bake a decadent, attractive cake.

Re: ‘Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat’ Is a Love Letter to Amateur Cooks

#53

Post by markdown »

Tomte wrote: post #16

I'm not a fan of the book. I mean, it's all correct, the illustrations are beautiful, not much to bicker about. But it fell flat for me, maybe because I already have Twenty and a few other books. I did not find really new concepts, and none of the recipes really jumped out at me and made me want to cook them, I returned the book. It's fine, really, but I think there are better ones. Twenty for concepts, Ratio for "sh…

> I returned the book.

Wait, what? You read the book, returned it, and feel no shame in admitting it?

Re: ‘Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat’ Is a Love Letter to Amateur Cooks

#54

Post by dkarl »

tptacek wrote: post #15

I've read the book and watched the series. Both are fine. The series is in a weird place in between Mind of a Chef (which, in most of its seasons, is a significantly better show) and a more conventional FoodTV cooking show. I think they're trying to do too much in each episode, and also that the travel-show part of each episode works better than the cooking demos do. The book is better than the show. I have friends t…

I think the first half of "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat" is a good companion for the "how to cook everything" books. If you have other resources you like for recipes and techniques, you can read it just for how it breaks down the flavor of dishes, the title concept, and skim the rest.

The show is very different from the book. It's a great pleasure to watch, even though I don't feel like I learn anything that improves my cooking. I agree that the cooking demos don't add much. It feels like she isn't as comfortable looking at the camera as she is conversing in front of it, and she's already said everything so well in the book, you might as well skip to the next episode.

Re: ‘Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat’ Is a Love Letter to Amateur Cooks

#55

Post by ohiovr »

z3t4 wrote: post #34

When it comes to cooking, we are still in the stone age. When will we see a startup that stir up the food market !? It's a really huge market, and something that would truly make the world a better place. Just an crazy idea: Teleporting dishes. You scan in the food, then send it over the Internet to a molecular printer that re-creates it. Or if you are a pirate you download recipes from the web.

I recently had a nightmare about eating circuit boards while going down one of those dreadful 90s style 3d tunnel graphics demos.

Has tech gone too far??

Re: ‘Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat’ Is a Love Letter to Amateur Cooks

#56

Post by mlevental »

markdown wrote: post #53
Tomte wrote: post #16

I'm not a fan of the book. I mean, it's all correct, the illustrations are beautiful, not much to bicker about. But it fell flat for me, maybe because I already have Twenty and a few other books. I did not find really new concepts, and none of the recipes really jumped out at me and made me want to cook them, I returned the book. It's fine, really, but I think there are better ones. Twenty for concepts, Ratio for "sh…

> I returned the book. Wait, what? You read the book, returned it, and feel no shame in admitting it?

wut. if the book isn't good why would one feel ashamed of returning it? is there a moral obligation to keep a bad product?

Re: ‘Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat’ Is a Love Letter to Amateur Cooks

#57

Post by bobbyT314 »

papa_bear wrote: post #27
methodover wrote: post #25

Does anyone know of a cookbook that provides complete meals? The ones I’ve had recommended all assume you kinda know what you want to make. But I want someone else to tell me what to make, and I’ll just put it all together.

It's not really a cookbook, but check out my website https://www.EatThisMuch.com/ You can set it to just one meal if you want (and something like 600 calories) and keep regenerating it until it looks like something you'll like. I started it because I'm terrible at thinking about what I want to eat :)

Some more (helpful) suggestions: For two meals I'd love to pick which meals, because I prefer eating a late breakfast and dinner, and the meal options seem to be dependent on the type of meal. Ability to limit sugar amounts (or carbohydrates) without limiting to paleo or no wheat. Being able to nix certain things (like protein shakes, not my thing). I know that you can just refresh, but I'd rather be able to veto something all together. But great work!

Re: ‘Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat’ Is a Love Letter to Amateur Cooks

#58

Post by joelhooks »

idunno246 wrote: post #48
cantrevealname wrote: post #46

Has anyone else noticed that there has been a massive surge in cooking books, videos, and shows in the last 10-15 years? Especially on TV, it's wall to wall cooking shows. I remember that cooking was a big interest 20-25 years ago, but it seems so much bigger now. Anyone have any theories about why this may be, or if my impression is wrong? My own theory is that many more men are into cooking nowadays, so the market…

My grandparents made a cookbook for all their children, and it was full of microwaved recipes and dumping jars of processed foods together. I looked into remaking it with better bindings as it was falling apart, but the recipes are all so gross. So I feel like part of it is generational, that we can get good ingredients, and value high quality food more than before. As much as people hate on blue apron, they kinda pr…

Cream of mushroom soup and Cheese Whiz!

Re: ‘Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat’ Is a Love Letter to Amateur Cooks

#59

Post by mmanfrin »

shaklee3 wrote: post #23

Has anyone seen the documentary with the same name? It comes up on Netflix for me every time I load it. I'm pretty overwhelmed by the number of food documentaries out there, so this one didn't stand out for any reason.

I thought it was great. Very food-porny, but in a well done way. Only 4 episodes, so a very small investment if you get hooked.

Re: ‘Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat’ Is a Love Letter to Amateur Cooks

#60

Post by [deleted] »

tptacek wrote: post #15

I've read the book and watched the series. Both are fine. The series is in a weird place in between Mind of a Chef (which, in most of its seasons, is a significantly better show) and a more conventional FoodTV cooking show. I think they're trying to do too much in each episode, and also that the travel-show part of each episode works better than the cooking demos do. The book is better than the show. I have friends t…

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