There's as many different ways to make sourdough bread as there are bakers in this world. I have read *lots* of books on baking, and while I believe while her intentions are good and her methods sound, Nancy is very much over-complicating a very simple thing. An example is, it is very easy to establish a vibrant starter within 5 days and be baking with it on that 5th day. Her method takes 2 weeks. Not saying it's wrong, I'm sure it works wonderfully, but all of us aren't professional bakers, and don't feel like waiting 2 weeks to bake. And hey, who wants to feed their starter 3 squares a day, at 3 cups of flour per day??? Maybe if you mill your own flour.... I've sucessfully maintained a healthy wonderful starter on 1 feeding a week for a long time now. Also, another thing that put me off a little bit was that she really neglects recipes using yeasted doughs, making it seem like everything has to be sourdough. She obviously hasn't tried pain a'l'ancienne, from Peter Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice book. What a wonderful bread that is so easy to make! All in all, it's an interesting read, but just another bread book in my opinion. Don't expect to get into her methods unless you're a stay-at-home baker, or as the title suggests, a connoisseur. :)

This book allowed me to catch wild yeast on my very first try. That, the basic white bread, whole wheat walnut, and the pumpernickel recipes are worth the price of the book. Silverton is very specific about the instructions, which are helpful for starting, and especially for catching the yeast, but are a little obsessive and impractical unless you are baking semi-commercially. It is not hard to adjust the feeding schedule to your schedule, and the bread is very forgiving, unlike bread made from commercial yeast. That said, use unwashed organic grapes and unclorinated water for the starter; and after it is established, refrigerate the starter for a week between feeding before bread making. I have given starter to friends and relatives, and now they won't make bread any other way... I think that speaks volumes for the value of the book. (and p.s., you don't have to use rye or whole wheat starters for the walnut or pumpernickel loaves...)

This is an excellent book for those who wish to pursue baking bread armed with technical and practical information in addition to their own yeast starters.

I have yet to encounter a book that provides so much information on the making of bread and using of natural yeast starters. This is not a book for those who expect to do quick breads. For the person who wants to know how to make artisan breads at home this book is for you.

The use of starter yeasts is extensive covering white, rye, and wheat. The only other book that gives you more information about "creating" starters and sourdough is _World Sourdoughs From Antiquity_ .

The design of the book is pretty simple. Description of ingredients in detail; tools used; yeasts, starters and sourdoughs; recipes which are broken down by which type of starter used. The recipes themselves are broken into multi-day sections so that the process is more clear. Example would be the challah which is a 2 day bread. The steps themselves don't take that long but you learn the value of planning.

In essence to get something close to your favorite artisan bread you must spend time and a certain amount of patience. This book is quite honest about that and does not use shortcuts at the expense of the quality.

But what about the bread? It is good. Sometimes not as picture perfect but even the "failures" have been tasty.

A must for the baker's library. A wealth of information and interesting recipes too. Not bad for a book that is 251 pages (not counting sources and index).

This is one of the best books I've ever read and I found it fascinating on many levels. It IS a food memoir. If you are not a foodie or don't like personal bios, you shouldn't be reading it, so get off your high horse and go find another author to pick on. As for other naysayers, I say, let he/she who is without sin cast the first stone. People DO make mistakes in life and Reichl makes it clear she is unhappy and ashamed over the unraveling of her marriage to Doug and her affairs. Also, Doug was having affairs at the same time, so to take on a "poor Doug" attitude is discriminatory and misogynistic.
I think a career as a food writer would be amazing so every word of this book held me spellbound. I loved her descriptions of the people and food in Thailand, China, France and more. I've never been to these places so it was exciting to visit them through the author's eyes.
I am also interested in culinary greats such as Wolfgang Puck and Alice Waters, so I WANTED to know about her exploits with them. Few people get to live a life such as Reichl's, I didn't see it as bragging but as sharing. I will probably never get to meet these people, but now I know more about them.
Also, I am a foodie, so I loved that recipes were included. I had a dinner party last night for ten and used two of the book's recipes. I made a batch of chicken curry and a batch of shrimp curry, both from the Channing Way Shrimp Curry recipe. Ruth's proportions and ingredients were right on. I only made double curry because two guests do not eat poultry or red meat. There was TONS left over, even with ten people. Most guests raved about it, though a friend and I found it too spicy. Keep in mind that she says in the book she loves spicy food.
I also made the Big Chocolate Cake. I made the whole recipe, which makes two 9X13 cakes. One actually served all ten guests, though my friends who chose to hang around late and drink wine appreciated the extra cake to nosh on. I personally found the cake a bit bland but the icing is fabulous, best I've ever tasted. My guests thought it was the best cake they'd ever had. Keep in mind, I'm a foodie and very picky about what I eat.
This will remain one of my favorite books and I will try other recipes in it. It is ideal for anyone who dreams of becoming a food writer or well known restaurant reviewer and enjoys seeing how others live their lives. Or for anyone who simply enjoys great food.
It is not for those who are wide eyed Pollyannas with morally perfect lives or for those without a great passion for food. Grow up, move on.

I've rushed reading this book because I could not put it down. Ruth writes with all her senses. She recreates the smells, the taste, the the texture, the appearance, the sound of food. I have totally enjoyed her sharing the humorous, unique experiences she has had reviewing restauerants, traveling , cooking, famous and not so famous friendships, tender relationships, difficult transitions, and a mother that would try the patience of Job. Throughout all the details shines a love of life and an amazing ability to experience and write about food in such full terms that you feel you are with her in the experience. At the end of each chapter is a recipe or 2 that was mentioned in her adventures. I plan on trying the pasta recipe first. I hope book number 3 is coming soon.

Thank goodness the waiter slipped coffee into my decaf. Yes, I was up all night, but it gave me time to read "Comfort Me With Apples" in one huge, delicious sitting. If you read and liked Ruth Reichl's previous memoir, "Tender at the Bone," then run out and get this one--it's better. And if you haven't read Tender at the Bone, then get this anyway, or just make your life better and get both.

I'd initially shied away from reading this book because sophomore efforts are rarely as good as the originals, because the first few pages, when I scanned them, looked awfully dreary (all those Berkeley folks giving Reichl a very hard and preachy time of it, complaining that her new job as a restaurant reviewer means selling out), and because of some negative reviews on Amazon. Now that I've reread those reviews, I'm surprised--some people seem to have read such a different book than I did.

But I just figured out what the problem must be. Reichl is a devoted foodie and food writer, but she is also an eloquent and moving memoirist. If you've come to her work looking for insight only about food, go elsewhere (I suggest Jeffrey Steingarten's The Man Who Ate Everything, or AJ Liebling's Between Meals). But if your interested in lives--women's lives especially--and how they intertwine with careers and passions (Reichl's passion being for food among other things), get this. Reichl is definitely and consciously writing in the tradition of MFK Fisher, who used food as a prism to write about a thousand other things.

Reichl's chief story line is about her career as a restaurant critic and a reporter on the scene of the great revolution in Californian (and hence American) cuisine. Contrary to one reviewer, I didn't think she's telling this story to show off; her insights about Alice Waters, Wolfgang Puck, Fisher, and others are worthwhile and fascinating. Her subplot is her personal life--divorce and remarriage, the death of her father, the adoption and loss of one child and the birth of another. In the hands of another writer these personal details might be mawkish or dreary; I found them wonderfully engrossing.

Of course there are problems with the book. I agreed with many others that tales of trips to China, Thailand, and Barcelona at times seemed more like magazine articles than a coherent part of a memoir. Unlike others, I didn't like the recipes at the end of each chapter; I found it intrusive to go from an emotionally wrenching description of the end of an affair, for example, into chirpee cookbookese ("count on a pound of asparagus per person. Buy the fattest stalks you can . . . ") The memoir parts of the book could have been slightly more self-reflective; Reichl needn't show regret she doesn't feel for the affairs she had during her marriage, but it would seem natural to acknowledge them as something the merest bit more troublesome than the decision about which main course to choose at La Tour d'Argent. Nevertheless, the book overall was wonderful, warm, lusty, passionate, filling, generous, and evocative. I recommend it highly to anyone with an interest in food, life, or love.

Interesting in a sort of historical way, but even to me (a food-literature junkie) it was a chore to finish.

Jean-Marie Gallois, the hero of this delicious novel, is a young sauce stirrer who aspires to win his high bonnet, the towering white toque that is the mark of achievement of every top chef. After a famous voluptuary swoons over the bitter-chocolate-scented sauce he ladles on her roast goose he is thrown into a three-star kitchen for the most brutal of trainings. Jean will win his high bonnet and the royal bearing that accompanies it - but not until he's had many outrageous adventures, both in the kitchen and out

I started to devour this book, then, afraid to get to the end too soon, I began to pace myself---in order to savor the feast thoroughly. Idwal Jones's prose is totally intoxicating--his descriptions of tastes, textures, perfumes are so vivid you can almost taste the rich sauces, smell the aroma of roasting meat, get drunk on the wines. This is not a novel of events, so much as sensations. Yet all the characters are alive and convincing. Anyone who truly connects with food and its pleasures will be ravished. Makes Proust's madeleine seem poor fare.

When we recieved our book, my husband and I couldn't wait to get started. When we get home from long days at work, this book is ideal! The recipes are quick, simple and the dishes and complete,even including wine suggestions! The book is easy to follow with divisions such as grill, soup, pastas, salads and sandwiches and more. Highly recommended

This is an excellent guide to the best NY restaurants and to some of the more interesting neighborhood restaurants. I wish there were a bit more information about the size and setting, smoking areas and so on. But by far the greatest drawback of this book is its execrable binding. After only limited use, my copy began to disintegrate, not exactly what one desires in a reference book that one hopes to carry around. This is inexcusable. Back to the Michelin Guides for me! I have a 39 Michelin France Guide that is still hanging together. Planned obsolescence!!!

I have sent in my review of this book twice! Since it was not favorable am I to assume you do not print unfavorable reviews? I usually rely on your customer reviews and often buy books that don't necessarily have glowing reviews. It makes me wonder whether I should still buy from Amazon.

We waited for this to come out because we think Reichl has done wonders for Gourmet and we thought her reviews were relatively accurate. We hate Zagat so we were willing to wait for something better. I reviewed books for the Library Journal, as Associate Book Review Editor, for 15 years so I looked forward to giving this an accurate (and I assumed good) review. Well the review is accurate but hardly good. I gave it one star because there wasn't a choice of none. Where are Tatany, Chin Chin, HSF? La Madri is hardly expensive and the wild striped bass I had there was the best I've ever eaten. Reichl seems to have honed in on only the touristy restaurants and the big names although how she could say Jacques Torres' desserts were "too perfect" is ridiculous. His genius is not only his delightful personality, creativity, down-to-earthness, but the fun, beauty, and fabulous taste of those desserts. And how she could say Asia de Cuba is better than Victors is unbelievable. I was in Cuba in 1950 and when you go to Victors the food is so very authentic and the decorations so beatifully typical of 1950 Cuba that to compare it negatively to a restaurant which incorporates so much Thai (which I love in a Thai restaurant) influence makes no sense at all. Also, where are all the restaurants in Little Italy? Umbertos has the best raw clams in New York and the rest of their food is fabulous. We intend to return this book and will wait patiently for some competent person who has no stake in favoring tourist traps and has been to neighborhood restaurants in addition to the "Name Brands" to write something decent. The book is simply made up of rehashed New York Times reviews without the egg on top. Sorry Ruth, we love what you've done with Gourmet but this book does not take the cake!