Olympia Provisions: Cured Meats and Tales from an American Charcuterie: A Review

Well, since work has been kicking my butt, I put Chef down for reviewing this one. I did a quick run-through, but he explored it in depth.

Here's what he relayed to me:
Confits, charcuterie, pâtés, and sausages are some of his favorite things, right up there with raindrops on roses or whatever. As a chef in a mostly bar-centric restaurant, he doesn't often get to practice these arts, but sneaks them in whenever he can. So when I saw this one, I knew it was right up his alley.

From a professional perspective, he says that the book is very thorough, and the recipes are detailed enough to provide the layman some direction on processes. He would be hesitant to have anyone who doesn't have some background try their hand at cured meats all by their lonesome, mainly because what this book is describing requires a HAACP plan in an actual restaurant setting, to prevent illness, etc.

He says the book is a good history and vibe of the restaurant itself, makes it intriguing, calls to you to come and visit or seek out their products. The images in the book, which are just foodie eye-candy, capture the essence of the food and the place. Totally worth the space they take up (in my opinion-I don't cook, haha), but chef says the book would be a whole lot smaller w/o them. He can take them or leave them, but totally understands their value as images and making the book complete. He's after the technical stuff, and has done enough sasuage making that the images are needed for him to get the directions.

However, they are gorgeous.

From both of us, this book is well worth the purchase price, for the content and for just as a beautiful piece of art to share at dinner time with friends, even if you end up buying their meats instead of making them yourself. We need more places like this in America, and we need to make this food accessible to everyone, because it's amazing and unappreciated in the vastness of MickyD's and Taco Bell, in quick pre-frozen food wastelands of the midwest and giant doggie bags of crap.

We need to enjoy our food, really enjoy it. This is a start.

*this book was received for free via Blogging For Books.