Chef on Fire Raked Over the Coals

Actually, it's not quite that bad. I logged onto Amazon this morning and found a brand user review of my latest book. The interesting thing about the review (other than its length) is the fact that he objected to many of the same things I did in the finished product. Fortunately, they were things for which I was not not responsible. Robin and I discussed a couple of them. It's the first review at the top. He's obviously not a relative.

Link to Amazon.com review

Edited by Robin to hide window-stretching URL

Wow - now that's a review! I agree with him on the index. I somewhat disagree regarding the photos. I felt like I really got my money's worth with Chef on Fire because it was loaded up with recipes, techniques, and other info rather than pictures. But I guess he has a point regarding selling people on them.

From the sounds of things, getting 4 stars from this guy is actually quite an accomplishment.

Mike

Wow - now that's a review! I agree with him on the index. I somewhat disagree regarding the photos. I felt like I really got my money's worth with Chef on Fire because it was loaded up with recipes, techniques, and other info rather than pictures. But I guess he has a point regarding selling people on them.

From the sounds of things, getting 4 stars from this guy is actually quite an accomplishment.

Mike

Thanks, Mike. I think we *all* agree on the index. It was never even passed by me.

Oh, come on Chef -- this is a fantastic review; he concludes: "My praise is overall solid for this book, my criticisms few and really mild, in perspective. Overall, I take off one star, and give 4 stars for a cook-friendly book I recommend buying, with lots of practical advice."

His nits are quite well taken, and his engineering background shines through. He reviews everything from backup generators to kitchen mitts, with a number of well written, well considered reviews of cook books.

The puff reviews are nice, but this is a review that will sell your book -- you should be very well pleased.

One reader's opinion -- I give his review five stars. [Your book too, for that matter.]


Regards, Bob

Oh, come on Chef -- this is a fantastic review; he concludes: "My praise is overall solid for this book, my criticisms few and really mild, in perspective. Overall, I take off one star, and give 4 stars for a cook-friendly book I recommend buying, with lots of practical advice."

His nits are quite well taken, and his engineering background shines through. He reviews everything from backup generators to kitchen mitts, with a number of well written, well considered reviews of cook books.

The puff reviews are nice, but this is a review that will sell your book -- you should be very well pleased.

One reader's opinion -- I give his review five stars.


Regards, Bob

While I agree that, ultimately, it is his version of a positive review, I don't know how many Amazonians will actually read a review that long. I'd swear I surely mention Panko somewhere in the book. I know I've discussed them here.

As a book review reader, I always prefer the long reviews -- the London Times reviews, the Atlantic and the New York Review of Books reviews are outstanding, so I'm biased.

But look at how people who rank the reviews respond: 4 of 4 found the long review helpful; one or two of four or five people found the short reviews helpful.

I haven't done a systematic study of Amazon reviews, but in general the longer reviews have a much higher "helpful" score than the shorter reviews.

In any event, Chef, the key criticisms of your book are really aimed at the publisher -- it's outrageous that they do not put together an adequate index for any book like yours which is referred to on a regular basis by readers who use it.

Regards, Bob

PS: edited for typo to correct meaning. B.

As a book review reader, I always prefer the long reviews -- the London Times reviews, the Atlantic and the New York Review of Books reviews are outstanding, so I'm biased.

But look at how people who rank the reviews respond: 4 of 4 found the long review helpful; one or two of four or five people found the short reviews helpful.

I haven't done a systematic study of Amazon reviews, but in general the longer reviews have a much higher "helpful" score than the shorter reviews.

In any event, Chef, the key criticisms of your book are really aimed at the publisher -- it's outrageous that they do put together an adequate index for any book like yours which is referred to on a regular basis by readers who use it.

Regards, Bob

Yeah, I agree with you - the longer reviews *are* in fact more helpful and provide more pertinent data about a given work.

[Robin Garr]

As the others said, it really is a decent review, and most of his nits are not with the author but the publisher.

There was a little arrogant "I'm an expert" tone about the review that would have made me irritable if it had been about a book of mine, though ... and also, maybe I'm just making this up, but almost a hint of an odd accent in his phraseology that made me think of customer service from Bangalore. Which seemed surprising given that he didn't sign with an Indian name ...

Without insulting Bill, Robin, I think that's the engineer speaking. His style is quite consistent in a number of other reviews on Amazon.

Gosh you authors are touchy. :-)

Regards, Bob

PS: I'm glad Chef alerted me to this fellow -- he's reviewed 63 books and items and has a really cool description of how he reviews books:

In my own words

I enjoy cooking different cuisines from scratch, whether cooking for 2 at home, or cooking (with other cooks) for 20+ at 7 course black tie dinner benefits for charity.

I enjoy dining out at varied restaurants... It's fun sampling top examples of cuisines, from great goodies at a 'greasy spoon', a sidewalk vendor in Thailand, to 5 star celebrity chefs' creations.

I also enjoy adventurous travel, film and digital photography and scuba diving.

My reviews are generally strongly positive, as there's not much time to waste on reviewing mediocre stuff..however I feel I should warn people about really bad things..as I'd like to be warned...

I'm going to follow his reviews -- a fresh and honest voice from I can see. B.

[Robin Garr]

Without insulting Bill, Robin, I think that's the engineer speaking. His style is quite consistent in a number of other reviews on Amazon.

Who's Bill, Bob? What is the frequency?

Gotta check out Florida frequencies, Robin. :-)

[Much as I like his cookbook reviews, I'm really impressed with his generator and emergency lighting reviews. His experiences are hard won with Wilma's help and we are installing a backup generator. His information is toplight and accurate based on the research I've done to date.]

[Robin Garr]

Gotta check out Florida frequencies, Robin.

[Much as I like his cookbook reviews, I'm really impressed with his generator and emergency lighting reviews. His experiences are hard won with Wilma's help and we are installing a backup generator. His information is toplight and accurate based on the research I've done to date.]

Sounds like a winner, Bob. I'm still confused about who "Bill" was, though. The person who reviewed Joseph's book signed off as "I. Seligman," not Bill anybody. Or was I looking at the wrong review?

Oh, sorry. We have at least one regular named Bill who is an engineer.

Hate to irritate rngineers -- they often have great ways to get me out of jams I create through my hyper-activity and lack of judgment. :-)