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| Alinea | 
 enlarge | Author: Grant Achatz
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Category: Book
List Price: $50.00
Buy New: $29.92
You Save: $20.08 (40%)
New (26) Used (5) Collectible (2) from $29.92
Avg. Customer Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 1397
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 6.1
Dimensions (in): 12.4 x 9.9 x 2
ISBN: 1580089283
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.5
EAN: 9781580089289
ASIN: 1580089283
Publication Date: October 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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| Customer Reviews:
 The Line of Beauty December 5, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
"Alinea" is the official cookbook of Chicago chef Grant Achatz's renowned restaurant. After battling a severe case of tongue cancer, Achatz has made an astounding comeback. This cookbook is a personal- as well as culinary- triumph.
"Alinea" isn't the usual cookbook. Achatz tries to bring together different senses. For example, his lamb with fennel and lemon also has the ingredient of coffee aroma. The rabbit is served with prune, shallot, and burning leaves. Scent is as important as taste. There are unusual food combinations as well that Achatz manages to pull off- the cauliflower has 5 coatings,3 gels,and apple- cobia is served with radish,cedarwood.... and tobacco. There's a transparency of raspberry, rose petal, and yogurt- trout roe is combined with passionfruit, coconut, and hyssop. Turbot is served with celery--and chamomile. Lemongrass is the center of one recipe. Achatz redefines the "hot potato,cold potato" as well as peanut butter&jelly. There's an essay about the famous Black Truffle Explosion.
Achatz's postmodern cooking isn't for the ordinary cook. He says that one can adapt,using different equipment and ingredients--but it's not the same. One has to be a professional to make these dishes.
"Alinea" is cooking as art.
An amazing book from an amazing chef December 4, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I'm an amateur chef: I only began cooking anything about 4-5 years ago, and only recently have begun to try to cook more gourmet foods of the type that I had experienced at excellent restaurants in Chicago. I was lucky enough to visit Alinea twice, and was blown away by the quality. So many molecular gastronomists are form over function. Not Achatz, who seemed to always deliver a perfectly tasting, innovative meal. I was amazed at how much the "hype" about Achatz was not just hype but fact.
It was with great excitement, and a little fear, that I recently received the Alinea cookbook in the mail. I've bought cookbooks by other great chefs, some of my favorites being the cookbooks printed by Charlie Trotter. This type of cookbook is often meant more for inspiration than practicality, at least for the home chef.
The Alinea cookbook is high quality, and a lot of attention to detail was put into the cookbook, including information about how to manage without some of the expensive equipment used in the Alinea restaurant. To date, I've attempted and succeeded at two different recipes (with slight modifications for unobtainable ingredients) -- they worked fantastically, and were surprisingly not very difficult.
Most recipes are not entirely practical to perform exactly as printed, and the book acknowledges this. For example, you could use regular flavorful mushrooms rather than truffles for the fantastic dish: Hot Potato, Cold Potato.
If you've been to the Alinea restaurant or love experimenting with new flavors and techniques, you should get this book.
Be warned: this book does such a good job of showing you the essence and feel of the restaurant that you'll be tempted to spend the small fortune necessary to dine at the restaurant (perhaps as a repeat visitor).
 Elegance December 1, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
A friend of mine bought this book and loved it so much he also bought an autographed copy too. I got to read the book at my friend's place. The photography and graphical design of this book was just extraordinary! The elegant book is truly a coffee table book. It really shows the elegancy of presentation of the food. Awesome book!
from Chef to Chef November 26, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Great Book , one of the best I bought this year . Grant Achatz is a master of his kraft , and a missionary for the future of food .
Best Value for money Cook book in 2008 .
Absolutely Beautiful! November 12, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book is stunning--beautifully designed and photographed and very interesting to read! I live far away from Chicago, and may never get to go to Alinea, but reading this book is like stepping into a magical food world. I might not ever cook anything from it, but I know that I will look at it often to stimulate my imagination to try create my own edible works of art.
This is a wonderful gift for any food obsessed person--I have already purchased 2 for presents.
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