When I arranged with Anna Balasi to hold a giveaway of this book, I was offered a copy for myself. Since I spent a lot of time in the kitchen, I couldn’t resist.
Louis Eguaras is a famous chef at the Le Cordon Bleu Program at the California School of Culinary Arts. In this book he shared 101 tips that can be used in the kitchen and for those who are trying to break in to the profession of culinary arts.
The tips seem fairly random and not in different categories, so you have to read through the entire book to get to the tips that you are interested in. However, since the books is quite short to begin with, that’s not really a big issue. I just prefer a little more organization. There are some very useful tips for the people who haven’t cooked very much as well as tips for people like me, who enjoy spending a lot of time in the kitchen.
I was hoping that this book would give me a few tips to improve my cooking/preparation techniques. The book delivered. For one thing, I found out that I was holding my knife incorrectly. I practiced the tip and am chopping a lot faster and safe now. There were quite a few tips that were geared towards restaurants and opening restaurants. Those weren’t tips that I found helpful but people in the profession would.
There was one tip that I know to be incorrect and even dangerous. Tip number 73 had tips for first aid. One of them included a tip for choking. It said, “Alternate” five and Five. With the heel of your hand hit between the shoulder blades five times. Next give five abdominal thrusts as you stand behind the person (Heimlich manoeuvre). Repeat until blockage is dislodged.”
Since I am a social worker, I have to re-certify in first aid and CPR annually. DO NOT HIT BETWEEN THE SHOULDER BLADES UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE!!! This is an extremely outdated manoeuvre and can cause the stuck food to get lodged into a lung. That can be life threatening! The first thing to do is to tell somebody else to call 911. Then ask if the person can speak. If they can or they are coughing, just encourage them to cough more until the food dislodges itself. If the person can’t talk or cough, perform the Heimlich manoeuvre, only if you have been trained on how to do it. If the person passes out and isn’t breathing at all then you have to do CPR. Again, only if you have been trained to do so.
I would have given this book a higher rating if the first aid mistake wouldn’t have been in it. It really scared me that millions of people could buy this book and use that tip unknowing the damage it could cause. I hope that it is corrected in future editions and that a warning of some sort is inserted into the current edition.
3/5
Thanks to Anna Balasi of Hachette Books for this book.
Have you reviewed this book? Please leave a link to your review in the comments so I can add it to this post.
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