... CI Home

Books Table of Contents:

Counter Intelligence is interested in kitchens for the home. Here are some reviews of books that we found useful.
biographies of chefs |food itself | urban planning and architecture | society and communication | economics and business | design | future technology | current technology | innovation, creativity and creation | cookbooks | kitchen design | video

Biographies of Chefs

  • A Chef's Tale - Pierre Franey
    Talks about Franey's life growing up in France, and his move to the States. A fun, light read, particularly about his experiences at the World's Fair in New York. Slow in parts, but his description of being the first jeep in to liberate his old village in France as a member of the US Army is very moving.
  • Tender at the Bone - Ruth Recihl
    Another nice, easy read. Story of the New York Times restaurant critic growing up. Definately mixed writing: a bit choppy, but good beach reading.
  • The Making of a Chef : Mastering Heat at the Culinary Institute of America - Michael Ruhlman>
    Subject: worthwhile read
    Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 15:44:46 -0500
    From: jofish <jofish@media.mit.edu>

    When we were in Chicago, Dave Behringer gave us a copy of "The Making of
    a Chef, by Michael Ruhlman. I've just finished reading it, and it's
    worthwhile. Basically worth it for insite into the making of a
    professional chef.

    I think it'd be interesting to talk to the CIA - if we do so, whoever's
    doing the talking should read this as an intro so we know where we're
    coming from.

    It's interesting, tho. On one hand, one of our barely-hidden social
    agendas is to get more people into the kitchen and cooking. I'm not
    sure what the big plan of the CIA is: is their mission to train
    restaurant chefs? is their mission to promote good food? My gut
    feeling is that either way they'd be very interested in the counter: i
    think it's got huge possibiltieis for such things.

    The CIA/profession chef system doesn't scale well to the average kitchen
    and societally to the average cook. We know the times we're looking at
    dealing with, and someone who wants to cook in eight minutes isn't going
    to be making roux. I'd love to talk to them about that question.

    A few numbers in there: restaurant association of america says 15
    billion dinners & 24 billion lunches. 275M americans means 55 dinners
    per person per year, ie once a week, and 87 lunches. Now, I've also
    heard from a GE Appliances guy say that 57% of restaurant meals are
    eaten in the home: thus yr average american eats out once a week and
    orders in once a week? I guess that means the other twelve dinners are
    ours.

    - They make noises about a website called digital chef: it's the
    standard stuff we're used to by now. It says saute something, you click
    on saute and it tells you how. I've got foo and bar, what can I make
    with foo and bar.

    - US food service industray $312bn. That doesn't come from restaurants,
    that's old people's homes and hospitals and colleges and stuff. One of
    the chefs mentions rise in home meal replacement (HMR), also elderly
    homes.

Food Itself

Urban Planning & Architecture

Society & Communication

Economics & Business

Design

Future Technology

Current Technology

Innovation, Creativity and Creation

Cookbooks

Kitchen Design

Video

These books are brought to you by Amazon.com in conjunction with MIT's Improv Theatre troupe, Roadkill Buffet. In this way, Counter Intelligence is supporting creativity and the arts.