Math for the Professional Kitchen

There is a new book hitting the bookshelves written by Laura Dreesen, Michael Nothnagle and Susan Wysocki from the Culinary Institute of America.  Many of you may have seen Laura at the FELC Summits.  I have had the chance to review it and find it to be a very good, straightforward workbook for teachers to use to teach culinary math in an easy to follow and grasp format.  The chapters are:

1.  Units of Measure and Conversions

2.  Recipe Scaling

3.  Yield Percent

4.  Purchasing and Portioning

5.  Recipe Costing

6.  Kitchen Ratios

In effect, the book covers the essential math that is required to run a profitable foodservice operation. As the authors state in the introduction:

Our goal is to show you mathematical procedures that are frequently used in professional kitchens and bakeshops.  We have strived to explain these procedures in a succinct, understandable way without oversimplifying them.  As with many topics in mathematics, the proof of the pudding is in the eating: it is your job to take these concepts amd successfully apply them.  As you progress through your culinary or baking career, you wil build upon the ideas discussed in this book.  You may even encounter procedures that work better for you and those we describe.

Give the book a try, your students may thank you, given the content and the reasonable price! 

Check it out at Wiley: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470508965.html