Susur: A Culinary Life

By Susur Lee

Sensuous, inspiring, and wholly original, SUSUR: A CULINARY LIFE celebrates one of the most compelling chefs of our time.Susur Lee has built an international reputation with his bold interpretation of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1580087302
• ISBN13: 9781580087308
• Release Date: October 2005
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 3.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.3" x 1.3" x 7.6"

Customer Reviews

Awesome

One of the better culinary books I have read. Susur's recipes might be for everybody. The design of the book is beautiful. Not just your simple 'cookbook' - it is infomative, gives a great perspective on Susur's path to fame and is very user-friendly.

It is what it is

Pretty coffee table book...don't buy for the recipes unless you are a professional. I am a chef and have been at several for and five star establishments. I had the pleasure a few years ago to do a banquet with Susur and he is the real deal. Will his techniques translate to the amateur cook looking to learn from his book? No. These are professional recipes designed to be executed by a top class brigade with years of technique and time to prepare the needed mis en place. But as a professional, the way he approaches food as well as the culinary foundation that he has built for himself is unique and will be appreciated by those in the know. What isn't pretentious about a $50 coffee table book? This book gives exposure to a unique and talented chef who is grounded in solid technique and is able to translate that into well presented and balanced dishes that are not silly fusion. Definetly worth a look.

Susur Lee

This book its all about creativity by a man who has been over looked for too many years as one of the worlds Top Chefs. This book is in one simple word "Awesome"

Susur: Some Thoughts on Perfection in Cuisine

Given the acidity of previous reviews, let me start with some background on myself: I am an American not resident in Canada; I am a non-professional chef -- I cook for myself, my family and my friends. I love food, both from the philosophy that one can learn the history of a country or region by learning about its cuisine and from the perspective that I truly believe we are what we eat ... and the miserable record of American health and longevity is directly due to the poor quality of what we consume. I first saw Susur on Food Network's "Chef du Jour", where well-regarded chefs would do a single 30 minute program on a topic of their choice. That was at least 8 years ago. I think he may have been on one or two "Ready, Set, Cook" programs, but I'm not certain. He certainly didn't push to become a "celebrity chef", at least in the TV sense. He did become a celebrity in the culinary world: becoming one of Food & Wine's "10 Best Chefs in the World" is not a self-serving proclamation -- it is an evaluation by those who can and do taste the food of all the best and near-best. I've had the good fortune to have an expense account and a business that required me to take clients to dinner, so I've had the privilege of eating at many of the finest restaurants in North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia. My personal opinion is that Susur belongs among the finest and if in Toronto, it would be my first choice of a dining location -- yes, even if I were paying the bill myself -- some meals are worth every penny of the cost. I've eaten at his restaurant in Toronto many times, on business trips. The food has always been spectacular, along with the service, along with the description of the philosophy behind each dish. A meal at Susur's not only satisfies the body; it's an education in itself. Again, this is not simply my opinion -- read the reviews in Toronto's newspapers, or read the reviews and look at the scores in zagat.com. Susur isn't the only "great chef" in Toronto, but he is clearly in that category. Finally, to the book itself: Yes, the binding is unusual), as is the organization (would I count it as 2 books -- no -- do I think that volume 1 as a biography and volume 2 as recipes are two very different works -- absolutely yes). Most chefs don't provide a personal biography and discuss the evolution of their philosophy of cuisine. If you want lots of recipes you can make with ingredients found anywhere, there are thousands of such cookbooks to choose from (start with Rachel Ray's "30 Minute Meals" and go from there). On the other hand, if you want to learn about how to layer flavors, and see how a master puts together a pantry, this is the book to read. The same advice (for flavor, you need sauces, pastes, and other preps) is given by most chefs in cooking courses and is found in lots of other cookbooks -- just to mention a few in Chinese, try Barbara Tropp's "China Moon Cookbook", Nina Simonda "Spoonful of Ginger", Eileen Yin-Fei Lo's "From the

Insight into a remarkable chef's mind.

The two books bound together as one is perhaps pretentious, but it serves to separate the ideas and philosophies from the recipes. They both give a unique view into what makes one of the most inventive chefs alive, tick. The recipes are complex and may not be recreated by many readers, but the ideas within them including many novel flavor combinations will likely be a source of inspiration to any keen amateur chef who reads this book. I'll agree with other reviewers that this book is indeed pretentious. But so is having an old copy of Larouse Gastronomique, or just about every 'top restaurant' book out there. Shame on anyone in Toronto who hasn't made the trip to Susur's restaurant, it isn't insanely expensive, and I managed to get in mid week without having booked. Very few people will ever be able/willing to make any of the recipes in this book for themseleves, but all should be able to gain some inspiration from the ideas and flavor combinations presented in these pages.