9.2 /10 1 Votes
4.4/5 Goodreads Subject Food and cooking | 4.7/5 Barnes & Noble Country United States Originally published 1990 Page count 928 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Publication date 1990 – 2015 (Deluxe 2nd) Media type trade paperback and hardcover (Deluxe edition only) Pages 928 (5th), 864 (Deluxe 2nd) ISBN 978-0764167034 (Deluxe 2nd) Publisher Barron's Educational Series Similar Sharon Tyler Herbst books, Gastronomy books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The New Food Lover’s Companion—currently in its Fifth Edition—is a seminal work in the culinary field. The book defines over 7,000 culinary terms in its 800+ pages, along with numerous conversion tables. Each edition is a significant expansion on the previous edition in number of entries and the coverage of the various appendices.
Contents
The main section of the work is an A-to-Z list of defined culinary terminology, followed by a series of appendices.
The Second Edition is a searchable source text at Epicurious, and the Third Edition is a searchable source text at Answers.com.
Sharon Tyler Herbst—the primary author—wrote 16 food and beverage related books before her death on January 26, 2007. Her husband Ron—who writes about wine and cheese—finished editing the Fourth Edition after her death and is credited as the coauthor.
Reception
Bon Appetit hailed the book as “one of the best reference books we’ve seen, a must for every cook’s library”, and the New York Times described it “As thick and as satisfying as a well-stuffed sandwich”.
Famous chef Emeril Lagasse called it his favorite book, and it is required reading at the New England Culinary Institute.
Deluxe edition
After the 2007 edition was published, Ron Herbst and the staff of Barron's Educational Series drastically reorganized the book, breaking out much of the material into specialized glossaries on subjects like chocolate, liqueurs, charcuterie, and spices. This edition was published in hardcover as The Deluxe Food Lover's Companion and included a marker ribbon bound into the spine. The 2013 fifth edition received a similar treatment in April 2015.
Fourth edition appendices
In the deluxe editions, some of these have been folded into the glossary sections.