A Response to a Review… | Sybaritica

About a year and a half ago, I posted a review of Food Art – Garnishing Made Easy by John Gargone. I haven’t, until now, ever had a reply to any of my book reviews by an actual author, but Mr. Gargone took the trouble to drop me a line, obviously taking the view that I had been a bit overly negative in my assessment. I reproduce his remarks below:

I have always believed in constructive criticism. However you do not give me that input. This book has been a great success with customer reviews and is being utilized in many culinary institutions as a guideline to food garnishing. These techniques of been taught to thousands of food service personnel and home chefs. The basic methods outlined in detail can be utilized on a daily basis even at home. They are all simple quick and the presentations have astounded guests in many casino hotels and country clubs across the nation visit my many edible art galleries at foodgarnishing.com to see the many variations of the displays in my book Food Art, Garnishing Made Easy

Note; I wrote this book because most other food Garnishing books I have read and it’s been in the thousands have all been about garnishes that either took too much time but did not equal impact or two silly to present. My book also entails how to display food which is something I personally have not seen in any other book.

I don’t know that I can really respond to this other than to say that, although I try to be as fair and objective as possible, I am somewhat constrained by my own culinary experience and interests when reading and reviewing different material. I am not a professional cook and so I was possibly a little intemperate in suggesting that actual professionals might not find the book useful… perhaps I should have restricted myself to saying that Mr. Gargone may have assumed knowledge, skills and experience that many purchasers may not possess. As Mr. Gargone points out, others reviewed his work positively so, clearly, there can be two opinions on the issue. Obviously, my readers who choose to take a closer look at the book can make up their own minds…

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