Delmar, Culinary Institute Of America Announce New Kitchen Pro Series

Delmar, a part of Cengage Learning, announces the release of the first two books in the new, multipart Kitchen Pro Series from The Culinary Institute of America (CIA), the world's premier culinary college, based in Hyde Park, N.Y.

Both Meat: Identification, Fabrication and Utilization (ISBN: 1-4283-1994-8, $71.95) by Thomas Schneller and Fish and Seafood: Identification, Fabrication and Utilization (ISBN: 1-4354-0036-4, $71.95) by Mark Ainsworth serve as definitive manuals that describe both time-honored and state-of-the-art methods of identifying species and cuts, purchasing, fabricating, and storing. Designed for chefs, foodservice managers, purchasing agents, suppliers and vendors, retailers, culinary students and instructors, and food enthusiasts, these highly visual, full-color, hard-bound texts also demonstrate basic preparation methods-many in easy, step-by-step format-along with tested recipes reflecting classic and contemporary cooking.

Additionally, both books capture and offer perspective on prevailing consumer and foodservice issues such as local sourcing, heritage breeds, animal-production practices, maximizing secondary cuts to control food costs, and flavors and cooking methods that meet diner demands while increasing restaurants' check averages.

"Books in the new Kitchen Pro Series from the CIA not only are indispensable guides to selecting foods that offer economical and flavorful cooking solutions to consumers, professional chefs, and restaurant operators, they're also beautifully designed and illustrated print resources that will add distinction to any cook's library," says Jim Gish, senior acquisitions editor at Delmar Cengage Learning. "More important, Kitchen Pro Series books are valuable assets for anyone who wants to identify and properly handle the best quality products among the wealth of food choices available in the global marketplace."

For those who believe butchery is a lost art, Schneller, in Meat, counters that theory with a close examination and explanation of the craft applied to everything from beef, pork, veal, lamb, and game to exotic meats. Understanding portion control and waste is particularly important in a weak economy, which not only has reduced restaurant traffic, but has influenced diners' choices in entr�es, according to foodservice consultants Technomic.

When ordering beef, and especially steak, for example, diners expect more quality, better cuts, aging, and seasonings to justify paying a higher cost. A recent Technomic survey of 3,000 consumers and nearly 500 menus found that among emerging full-service chains and independent restaurants, the top three preparation methods for beef were "cut" (as in hand-cut, center-cut, or barrel-cut), "grilled," and "aged." These were often used together in describing specific beef entr�es.

Meat explores fabrication and cooking of meats fully, with recipes that make the most of primal and underutilized cuts, such as applejack-cured braised pork belly, grilled veal flank steak adobo style, syrah-braised lamb shoulder, and smoked beef tongue in a Reuben sandwich. Graphic step-by-step instructions cover time-honored and even less-common butchery methods-everything from fabricating a whole suckling pig to butterflying a lamb leg for grilling.

Throughout the lavishly illustrated Fish and Seafood, Ainsworth educates readers on how to purchase everything from anchovies to wolfish, how to receive and store, and how to transform fish and seafood into healthful and delicious dishes. Even non-traditional fish such as branzino, Arctic char, and barramundi-which a recent National Restaurant Association survey of 1,600 chefs identifies as a top menu trend in 2009-are featured here.

Recipes, in both U.S. and metric meas