Question

Ambitions
		*Mushroom* By Johnny Acton and Nick Sandler ISBN: 1856267393 Publisher: Kyle Cathie Publication date: June 2008 Format: Paperback List price: $22
Type: Single subject: Mushrooms
Sample recipe: Morels Stuffed with Spinach, Ricotta, Parmesan, and Pine Nuts
Intended audience:	novice	advanced beginner	good home cook	gourmet	professional
Apparent goal:	stocking stuffer	sampler	comprehensive	coffee-table	Biblical stature
Competition:	outclassed	follower	in the pack	strong challenger	likely champ
Content
Variety:	too little	too much	unusual	nice mix	just right
# of recipes:	<50	<100	<200	<300	≥300
Practical recipes:	<20%	<40%	<60%	<80%	≥80%
# of ingredients:	≤4	≤7	≤10	≤12	>12
Ingredient hunt:	7-Eleven	airfare required	online	pantry	supermarket
Recipe complexity:	too hard	simple	medium	challenging	professional
Instructions:	inadequate	verbose	bare-bones	full-figured	educational
Time conscious:	unconscious	outright lies	white lies	realistic	honorable
Cooking time:	weekend project	takes all day	takes time	≥30 minutes	<30 minutes
Added info:	zip	overwhelming	scant	balanced	generous
Photos/drawings:	none	distracting	decorative	instructive	glorious
Recipe results:	≤dorm food	casual food	family meals	fancy food	fit for royalty
Diet/Nutrition/Health
Nutritional info:	none	overwhelming	hit or miss	adequate	comprehensive
Tone:	food police	intense	neutral	supportive	comforting
Result:	guilt-inducing	heavy-handed	balanced	encouraging	inspiring
Format/Ease of Use
Layout:	ugh	cluttered	fine	considerate	work of art
Legibility:	unpleasant	challenging	tolerable	clear	brilliant
Production quality:	cheesy	dubious	years of service	gift quality	stunning
Page numbers:	non-existent	hard-to-find	spotty	sufficient	every page
Table of contents:	AWOL	frustrating	passable	useful	excellent
Index quality:	none	tragic	adequate	good	a treasure
Page flipping:	upsetting	tedious	acceptable	rare	never
Author
Writer:	beginner	food writer	writing cook	personality	auteur
Cook:	unknown	self-taught	chef	teacher	celebrity
Summary
Fulfills ambitions:	falls short	almost there	satisfactory	exceeds	home run
Flavor delivered:	sad	inconsistent	tasty	delicious	exceptional
Overall tone:	sterile	trying too hard	straightforward	best friend	mom
Value:	ouch!	a little pricey	worth splurging	on the money	a deal
Overall rating:	skip it	good	very good	excellent	Ochef Top 100
Comments: If you like mushrooms or are interested in mushrooms, you'll love this book. A cross between a coffee-table book and a cookbook, it provides fascinating information on everything to do with mushrooms. The photos by Jonathan Lovekin are splendid. Yes, some of the recipes are challenging. Finding ingredients – even beyond mushrooms you've never heard of – will be hugely challenging, including pork belly roast, wild asparagus, and garlic leaves. But you can make substitutions for most or all of the obscure ingredients, and the recipes as a whole look wonderful. You may not make many of them, but you'll want to!

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