The Good Cook: Soups & The Connoisseur’s Cookbook

The Good Cook: Soups

(Intended audience) The Good Cook: Soups by Richard Olney aims to take advantage of his experience in French cuisine to complete a cookbook for everyday kitchen-dwellers. He does not specify which type of group of readers he focuses on but as there are step-by-step picture procedures, we can assume that he tries to expand his audience to those who have little or no knowledge of cooking. (Credibility)As a professional chief, Richard Olney seems to know what he is talking about and can be trusted. From 1951, Richard Olney have lived in France. He was the author of The French Menu CookBook as well as Simple French Food. He also wrote journals for Cuisine et Vins de France and La Revue du Vin de France.(Theme) Richard Olney based his book on cooking various types of soup influenced by this experience in French cuisine. His theme of the cookbook has not once been distracted by a different kind of dish. At the back of the book, he did mention how to make bread balls, dumplings, and etc, but they all are either used in the soup or are accompaniments of the soup. (Organization)His organization is probably the greatest strength in the cookbook; it allows the readers to easily navigate through chapters. In the first few pages, he introduces the basics linked to the making of the soup such as creating the broths, color, texture, and dumplings. Then, in each chapter, he categorizes the soups by their distinctive characteristics. For example, he organized a group of soup that are served cold. For each chapter, he gives a short introduction of what the chapter is about and he also gives another short introduction about the soup before he gives out the procedure and recipe. The last chapter of the book gives tons of recipes but in simpler forms and without pictures. Probably Richard Olney assumes that the readers would have learned the basics by the end of the second last chapter. (Visual Effects) The photos are taken by professionals. From the pictures, anyone can easily conclude what the chief is doing. This helps the readers in following the procedures of preparing the dish and displays how the result should look like. The huge pictures in the introduction of each chapters are artistic enough to attract the readers’ interests.

Few Features of the Book

[Easy step by step pictures]

[Organization of the beginning of the chapter]

[Organization of the recipe]

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The Connoisseur's Cookbook

(Intended audience) The Connoisseur’s Cookbook seems to have the audience as cooks with more experience but not necessarily professionals. It does not provide step-by-step pictures to guide beginners in cooking and “connoisseur” means professional in french. However, it still tries to educate the readers with the basic knowledge of cooking. For example, the book provides a introduction to culinary terms. (Credibility)The writer has quite a high credibility. He had gained experience by working in the Harper’s Bazaar, The Sunday Times, and Vogue. He also gives credit to many restaurant in France and America for many of his recipes. (Theme) The theme of this book lies on French cooking. This massive book contains 505 pages all on French dishes. Although the recipes seem to fit the theme of French cuisine, the theme the writer selected might have been too broad and covered almost all kinds of food. In another prospective, the writer could have intentionally created a extraordinary cookbook with various French cooking. (Organization) The organization of the book is quite efficient. The book’s introduction contains the writer’s opinion in the art of tasting, kitchens and explains the basic ingredients. The introduction also includes the guide to culinary terms. Only after the introduction, the chapter starts. Each chapter contains a full page size picture and on the next page, Robert Carrier adds a personal story to charm the readers about this specific type of cooking. He tries to relate cooking to himself, especially in the last chapter, called “I remember Christmas,” which has the most personal chapter introduction. The layout of the recipe is very descriptive. He tries to add as much description and tips possible, but he does not overdo the details. The left side of the page contains the ingredients needed for the dish. (Visual Effects) The visual effects is not impressive. He’s huge pictures in the beginning of each chapter does help draw the readers attention, but there is not enough pictures. The pictures did not have any direct influence in aiding the readers in the process of cooking. Probably, the lack of visual appeals are because the book was published in 1965 when color printing was more expensive. Robert Carrier still tries to increase the visual appeals by using another source of illustration which is drawing. The drawings help the readers find ingredients which are hard to be described in words.

Few Features of the Book

[Drawing of an ingredient]

[Organization of the recipe]