When recipes depend so heavily on the quality of one or two main ingredients, the ingredient must be perfect. Anything less than 70% chocolate (forget about compounds) will render your Chocolate vanilla truffles decidedly inedible, as will using lentils which…
Category: Cookbooks
A review of Ainsley Harriott’s Friends and Family Cookbook
That isn’t to say that the recipes in this book produce unattractive and cranky meals–the food generally looks as good as it tastes, but simply that this is the kind of food you can serve and eat everyday, without running…
A review of Jasmine in Her Hair by Huma Siddiqui
This is more than a cookbook, although it does provide over 55 recipes for a wide variety of foods from Siddiqui’s native Pakistan, including appetizers (starters), meat and vegetarian main courses, desserts, rice and bread dishes, sauces and drinks. Each…
A review of The Timeless Art of Italian Cuisine by Anna Maria Volpi
This is no ordinary cookbook, although it has as many recipes and will certainly accompany you into the kitchen while you cook. Volpi’s book is also a history, sociology, and geography book, which covers the major regions of Italy, the…
A review of How to Be A Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson
If you have any pretensions at all towards baking, for family, for friends, for the school, or just for yourself, you couldn’t find a more seductive, more appealing, and more inspiring book. It is pure pleasure to read, and just…
A review of Stress Free Foods by Lee Gold
According to nutritionist/chef/home economist Lee Gold prolonged stress can lead to significant health problems from heart disease to stroke, ulcers, depression, cancer, diabetes, and more. It is a vicious cycle. The more stressed you get, the more you will develop…
A review of Gabriel Gate’s Guide to Everyday Cooking
Guide to Everyday Cooking is an all-inclusive primer, with over 200 dishes and lots of information on techniques, ingredients, and kitchen help. As with all of Gate’s books, the focus is on using the freshest and best quality ingredients you can…
A Review of Pasta e Sugo by Maria Ponte
If you are a beginning cook, and looking for a no-frills, easy to use cookbook with a number of well known pasta dishes, Pasta e Sugo might not be a bad choice, otherwise serious pasta lovers may be disappointed with the lack…
A review of Favourite Food by Jill Dupleix
The book celebrates traditional and classic recipes from around the world: “food that links us to the generations past; that has a sense of time and place; that has a reason to be; that gives us a sense of the…
A Review of Belinda Jeffery’s Tried-and-True Recipes
This isn’t really a book to read. The prose is brief, although it is friendly and warm. However, these are recipes which really do seem to work. Aside from a fairly regular use of smoked paprika, which really does add…