Building a Meal

Building a Meal is a little 120-page book by French chef-slash-chemist-slash-molecular-gastronomist Hervé This. I received it along with some cookbooks and kitchenware as a themed gift from my aunt and uncle last Christmas, and those two are total foodies, so I knew the book would at the very least be informative and interesting. Unfortunately, that's all it was; there was no coherent purpose to the book, and it barely seemed able to wander its way through six poorly-defined chapters filled with little anecdotes, histories, science experiments, pictures, and footnotes. This (which is the author's last name, no matter how much it looks and sounds and feels like the singular proximal demonstrative) decides from the beginning to explore six simple courses over six chapters and to look at what chemical processes go into the creation of these dishes. It starts off well and good; he spends the first twenty pages talking about hard-boiled eggs - their history in European cooking, their chemical structure, several myths regarding how to cook them - without the subject ever getting boring. A brief discussion on how to make mayonnaise had me jonesing to go beat an egg yolk with some vinegar and oil in my own kitchen. (Thankfully, I did not follow through on this very inspired idea.) But This gets more and more sidetracked as the book progresses, spending less and less time on the chemical processes of food preparation and growing ever more sidetracked and generic. We eventually reach the inevitable "well-prepared food is a token of love" cliche, and then the final twenty pages seem to revolve around innovation in the 21st century kitchen. It's clear that This has a deep well of knowledge on the many subjects he brings up, as well as a strong passion for cooking and "culinary constructivism" in general. Ultimately, this is what saved the book from being a stinker. The book ended before the author's directionless could really wear on me, and I definitely learned a thing or two, and more importantly, will likely have a new outlook on cooking going forward. I can't recommend anyone go out of their way to read this, but I enjoyed it all the same.