McGee on Food & Cooking: An encyclopedia of kitchen science, history and culture (new revised edition), Harold McGee

It's been 20 years now since Harold McGee's seminal book, McGee on Food & Cooking, was first published. Now, at last, a new, revised edition is hitting the bookshops.

To be honest, I can't remember where I bought my original copy. But I think I read about it in a newspaper article by another great food writer, Alan Davidson, and obviously decided that, if he mentioned it, the book was worth hunting out. The year was 1985, I was 19 and working a very brief stage at Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons.

Obviously, I had never read anything like it before. I had no chemistry background at school and, initially, I found the text hard going, as a lot of it was very technical. Actually, I tried reading it from cover to cover, but in the end found it was easier to dip in and out when I was cooking relevant recipes.

Then, one day, I read McGee's comment about browning meat. He said that the technique didn't sear the protein - and that was what got me hooked. His explanation backing up the statement made such complete sense to me that I started to question a whole range of cooking mantras.

Needless to say, my original copy is totally dog-eared, so the new edition is really welcome, even though it's already well on the way to the same fate.

From a cook's point of view, the new edition of the book is a lot more user-friendly than McGee's original version. The text has been made clearer for people with non-scientific backgrounds, and there are numerous break-out boxes with snippets of information. These range from practical tips - how to keep colour in meat while cooking it thoroughly, for instance - to quotes from past masters such as Brillat-Savarin on fish.

The index is more relevant for chefs, too. If you're brining and you want to see about the penetration of flavours of salt into meat, olives or fish, it will point you quickly in the right direction. In fact, like the book, the index is quite exhaustive and the new edition has enabled McGee to be right up to date with ingredients - now you can look up galangal, sprouts such as alfalfa, or the history of spices.

There's good information on fish cookery in this edition, and lots of tables are included on things like different fish families, flavour compounds, and the effects of heat on fish proteins and texture - all giving really detailed but bite-sized information.

McGee's great skill in the book has been to present highly technical food science information in a readable form. I've been lucky enough to know him for several years. I know he cooks regularly, and you can see that reflected in the cultural and historical information in the book alongside the purely scientific nuggets. His book has heart, and isn't just a dry, technical tome. It's fascinating.

Heston Blumenthal, guest editor, Caterer
McGee on Food & Cooking: An encyclopedia of kitchen science, history and culture (new revised edition)
Harold McGee
£30
Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN 0-340-83149-9

Special offer As a Caterer reader, you can buy McGee on Food & Cooking at the special price of £25 including p&p (normal RRP, £30). To order your copy, please call 0870 755 2122 and quote offer code BSH174, or send a cheque payable to Bookshop Partnership to: McGee, Offer BSH174, PO Box 104, Ludlow SY8 1YB.