I’ve struggled a lot with what to say in this review of Thomas Keller’s Under Pressure. The book certainly is polarizing, as can be seen in the reviews here, but as I get more and more comfortable with modernist cooking, I find myself successfully attempting more of the recipes.
The book is certainly geared towards professionals with a significant amount of equipment, specialized ingredients, an army of minions, and infinite time. For the first few months I had the book, I mostly stared longingly at the pictures and had heart palpitations just thinking about attempting anything. But slowly, I’ve worked my way into the book.
Thus far I’ve made the apple dessert, the butter poached lobster tail, and the chestnut stuffed chicken.
What I’ve come to realize is that just because Thomas Keller has 15 components per dish, doesn’t mean I have to do the same. That chicken dish will taste just as good if I buy a quality chicken breast rather than breaking down an entire chicken as he suggests. If you like a good challenge, have a fair amount of equipment (an immersion circulator is a minimum and a chamber vacuum certainly helps), and can improvise or ignore some things then give this book a shot.
Leave a Reply