James Peterson: Cookbook Writer Cooking Teacher Photographer

Splendid Soups

"Jim Peterson's Splendid Soups is a comprehensive and mouthwatering atlas of the world of soup. It not only covers soups of all nationalities and every garnish, but provides a handy list of sources for every hard-to-find ingredient and kitchen tool, too. More importantly though, through his gargantuan world tour Jim empowers home cooks to strike out on their own and invent new soups. It just makes me want to get into the kitchen and start cooking!"

-- Sara Moulton, The Food Network's Cooking Live, Executive Chef Gourmet magazine

• The Good Cook Book Club - Dual Main Selection
• First serial to Gourmet
• Nominated for James Beard Award (1994)

Fish and Shellfish

Fish and Shellfish demonstrates every conceivable method for preparing seafood, from baking, braising, deep-frying, grilling,and broiling to poaching, panfrying, marrinating, curing and smoking. It is considered the definitive work on the subject by amateurs and professionals alike and is often found in cooking schools, restaurant kitchens, and in well-fed households.

• "Peterson...achieves a true balance between a professional reference work and a home cookbook." --USA Today
• "A comprehensive and easy-to-follow...bible, supplying the tools, ingredients, and recipes for stirring up any meal." --Elle
• "A universe of eating pleasure" --LA Times
• "[Peterson] speaks...in an informal way that invites you into his kitchen with a spoon and bowl in hand..." -- Chicago Tribune
• Newbridge Book Club
• The Good Cook Book Club
• Nominated for James Beard Award (1997)
• Winner: IACP Award (1997)

Vegetables

This award-winning book has been acclaimed for its practical approach. While Vegetables contains many vegetarian recipes, it is not a vegetarian cookbook, but instead cooks vegetables in the most savory way possible even when this calls for small amounts of meat or dairy products.

• "Another excellent book by James Peterson that should not be missed." - Madeleine Kammen
• "... a thoroughly practical, reasonable, up-to-date, and uncomplicated guide...no-nonsense, and I found new tips and ideas on nearly every page." - Patricia Wells
• The Good Cook Book Club - Main Selection
• First Serial to Gourmet
• Second Serial to Food and WIne
• Winner: James Beard Award (1999)

Essentials of Cooking

This illustrated guide contains over 1100 color photographs that show every aspect of cooking technique so that both beginning and advanced cooks can understand the hows and whys of cooking. Many of the methods that are difficult to describe in words are shown here so that when the cook encounters a method in a cookbook he or she will have a quick way to see the method illustrated.

• The Good Cook Book Club - Main Selection
• NOminated for James Beard Award
• QPB - Main Selection
• First time in history of Book of the Month Club that one book was chosen as a main selection for all of the clubs
• Paperback reprint - May 2003
• QVC Selection

Glorious French Food

Glorious French Food has been called "the book James was born to write". Here, Peterson explores the essential ingredients, techniques, and recipes of French cooking to uncover the underlying principles and connections that have helped define its unique culinary traditions. This is a book about much more than French cooking--it is a book that teaches the reader how to be a better cook, regardless of whatever cuisine he or she is preparing.

• "The work of James Peterson brilliantly reexamines the great French classics..." -- Paul Bocuse, Chef and Owner, Le Restaurant de Paul Bocuse
• "James Peterson has done an amazing job reviving classics...French cuisine has never sounded so exciting!" -- Eric Ripert, Executive Chef, Le Bernardin
• "...a treasury of slow-cooking recipes. -- Sara Moulton, Host, Food Network's Sara's Secrets
• The Good Cook Book Club - Main Selection
• Nominated for IACP Award
• Winner: James Beard Award

Simply Salmon

A complete guide to cooking salmon, Simply Salmon is filled with exciting recipes and cooking tips. All the basic techniques for cooking salmon--poaching, braising, grilling, smoking, sauteeing, and others--are all explained in detail. Recipes include classics such as Poached Whole Salmon with Tarragon Butter, Salmon Tartare and Salmon en Papillote, as as well as original ideas such as Sauteed Salmon "Saltimbocca", Grilled Salmon Salad Nicoise, Salmon Tacos, and Salmon and Basil Ravioli. Simply Salmon contains more than fifty color photographs.

• The Good Cook Book Club - Main Selection

Sweet Wines

A growing interest in sweet wines has left wine lovers hungry for information about this once underappreciated category. In Sweet Wines, James Peterson presents a country by country survey of the best in the world--from the fabled Sauternes of France to the crisp Mosel Ausleses of Germany and the rich ports and Sherries of Portugal and Spain. Peterson describes how each wine is made, how it should be served, and what it tastes like. He also encourages us to explore both sweet and savory dishes paired with sweet wines. The book features dozens of helpful sidebars on topics such as organizing a sweet wine tasting, decanting sweet wines, and reading a German wine label. A glossary of wine terms and descriptions of the most important grapes is also included.

• The Good Cook Book Club

The Duck Book

American ducks have idiosyncracies that are confusing to cooks who read recipes for cooking whole ducks. The secret to cooking duck is to cook the duck parts in different ways. While there are an abundunce of photographs in The Duck Cookbook that show the readers how to cut up a duck themselves, duck parts are now sold in most supermarkets. Once the cook has duck parts in hand, elegant duck dishes can be prepared in as little as 15 minutes. The Duck Cookbook has recipes for quick and easy dishes as well as long simmered preparations for cold winter days. There are are recipes for sauted duck breasts with various sauces, duck salads, duck thighs braised with cabbage or sauerkraut, smoked duck, home-made duck prosciutto, duck spring rolls, Peking duck, and many more.

• The Good Cook Book Club

Simply Shrimp

Here is a comprehensive guide to identifying, purchasing, and preparing shrimp, with recipes organized by the myriad ways shrimp can be prepared—including sautéing, grilling, frying, poaching, and baking. Shrimp are featured in such diverse dishes as Thai Shrimp Curry, Shrimp Ravioli; Barbequed Shrimp with Smoky Tomato Sauce; Tropical Fruit, avocado, and Grilled Shrimp Salad; Shrimp Teriyaki; and Shrimp Quesadillas. Peterson also includes his favorite recipes for such classics as Shrimp Cocktail, Shrimp and Bacon Hors d’Oeuvres, and Fried Shrimp with Crispy Batter. In Simply Shrimp, Peterson presents 80 recipes for this most versatile of shellfish in what has become his signature style—clear instructions supplemented by his own informative photographs. Informative and varied, this book is the perfect companion in any worldly cook's kitchen.

What's A Cook To Do?

All is revealed in this handy volume. Whether it’s about peeling, or chopping or carving, or blending or whipping, or even restaurant etiquette, it’s all here, compiled into 484 entries. Packed with 533 step-by-step color photographs, hundreds of inspired ideas, and dozens of delicious recipes, What’s a Cook to Do is designed to help both beginning and experienced cook think for themselves in the kitchen and helps us get out of tight spots and to improvise solutions to everyday cooking problems. Some of the more elaborate sequences show how to carve a turkey, a Thanksgiving essential, and how to sharpen knives, the answer to many difficulties in the kitchen. There all kinds of answers to how to peel, shape, dice, chop, mince and crush and invaluable tips about making broths and sauces. What’s a Cook to Do is a must have in any serious cook’s kitchen.

Cooking

After almost three decades of teaching the fundamentals of home cooking, Peterson has distilled a career’s worth of knowledge into one master class: Cooking. Through more than 600 recipes illustrated by 1500 instructional photographs, Peterson removes the mysteries of the kitchen with unassuming charm, expert direction, and a prevailing sense of how people want to cook today. Peterson’s illuminating and inspiring photographs reveal frame by frame how to execute kitchen procedures such as how to cut up a chicken, shuck an oyster, prepare a whole fish for roasting, improvise a pan sauce and ice a cake. Whether you are a food lover who finds it challenging to fit real cooking into your routine, you are a skilled home cook looking to expand your repertoire, or you are a self-described kitchen hazard who wants to learn the basics, Cooking instills confidence in the kitchen.