Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I am what they call a "serious" home baker. I have been buying bread books for more than thirty years (Nancy Silverton's Breads of the La Brea Bakery is what got me making my own starter back in the 90’s,) I have taken classes, I have access to hundreds of recipes either on paper or online, I even like developing my own, in other words I need a new bread book as much as a carpenter ant needs a saw. Yet when I learned that Martin was working on one, I knew I would buy it. I had met Martin at a grain event, I was familiar with parts of his story and curious to hear the rest of it and, most of all, I had seen him bake: I remember his fingers barely touching the bubbly dough in front of him before baguettes emerged fully shaped. I had been awed. So I got the book and after baking from it for a while, I am giving it five stars. Let me tell you why. I like the weaving together together of people, events and recipes. I come from a French family where food was definitely the glue that held us all together, sometimes the only way we knew how to express love. I read the book as an invitation to retrace my own journey. One star. Right off the bat, looking at the table of contents, I liked how diverse the recipes were. Although bakers might not like to acknowledge it, they don’t live by bread alone. Flowing from the story as it does, each non-bread recipe (for lemon-blackberry jam, for raita, for tapenade, for coconut curry soup, etc.) seems like an organic addition, the opposite of didactic. Two stars. Because I am running out of shelf space, I got the kindle version of the book (which I read on my tablet.) I normally don’t like cooking or baking from an e-book (I find it hugely frustrating) but this one is the exception, maybe because the recipes are so clearly put forward and the formulas so simply presented that there is no risk of confusion or error. The big plus is of course portability. Since I always have my tablet (and my two hands) with me, I can make most of the recipes anywhere, even at our camp in the summer. Three stars. Interesting as the life story is, no one wants to read through it again every time they need to check a piece of information. A thorough recap of the technical stuff has wisely been put in its own separate section in the second half of the book (with the caveat that the section must be read and understood for the recipes to work as intended.) Four stars. The recipes I have made so far are wonderfully reliable. Follow the instructions and you’ll be a happy baker. My first inkling of this came when I made the Poolish Bagels. As former New Yorkers now living on the other coast, we have a natural craving for bagels. Nothing of what passes for bagels in our area comes even close. I made the recipe. To my surprise the hydration is such that the dough is perfectly manageable even without a mixer (development relies mostly on folds) and the bagels are excellent. I had a similar experience with the baguette formulas (although I must admit to my chagrin that no baguette has yet sprung ready-shaped from my hands.) Whatever professional detours Martin Philip took to get to bread, he didn’t come to be head baker at King Arthur Flour bakery by chance. He is a darn good baker and his recipes are excellent. He is also a compelling writer. Five stars!