Jacques L. Rolland

I selected The Food Encyclopedia: Over 8,000 Ingredients, Tools, Techniques and People based entirely on its cover -- the ripe pears against the shadowy blue background looked so luscious and tasty, I just had to pick this book up. And, wow, do I regret that impulse.

This is a food encyclopedia, yes? Where are all the cross-references? Can't have a decent encyclopedia without cross-references, I tell you what. This encyclopedia's entry for "doughnut peach" tells me that this fruit is also called "saucer peach," "galaxy peach," or "Saturn peach," but it cannot be found in this book under any of those names. My grocer calls them "Saturn" peaches -- I would never find them in this book if I only knew them by that name. Going to the "peach" entry wouldn't be helpful -- it doesn't cross-reference with the "donut peach" entry, either. It doesn't even mention them as a variety. I could, I guess browse the book, hoping to stumble upon an illustration of the "Saturn peach," but this book is so big and the illustrations so poor, I would probably just go to the Internet.

Speaking of illustrations, these are very poor. There aren't enough of them and they are all color drawings rather than photographs. This wouldn't be so annoying if they were better quality drawings, but they are not. A few even seem blurry to me. Going back to peaches -- the peach illustration is terrible. I could just as well be looking a picture of an orange. The text tells me peaches are freestone or clingstone and are sold as yellow or white varieties -- a cutaway illustration of the inside of the peach showing color and stone variations would have been useful.

Still, I know what a peach looks like. I don't know what parsley root looks like and, since "the leaves and roots of the wild parsley look-a-like, poison hemlock, are deadly poisonous" I would really like to know. Yes, yes, probably never going to forage for wild parsley root -- but it would be nice to know, anyway. That's why I read these books. Not because I need to know, but because I want to. Therefore, I'm looking to find out more about things I am not familiar with -- patra leaf rather than pastry cutter.

And that, perhaps, is the reason this book disappoints. It tries to cover too much. Not just fruits and vegetables, but also tools, techniques, and people. There is no way to cover all that well in a single 701 page volume. It winds up playing the tease and leaves this reader rather cranky and put out.… (más)