May 2018 Cookbooks

The Farm Cooking School: techniques and recipes that celebrate the seasons by Ian Knauer and Shelley Wiseman

Ian Knauer and Shelley Wiseman met when she was working at Gourmet magazine as one of the recipe developers and Ian was the "non-pro" who tested the recipes to make sure anyone could use them. As his skills developed, he became a professional cook himself and decided to open a cooking school to help teach others how to cook. He partnered with Shelley and The Farm Cooking School was born. The cookbook starts with a chapter on The Foundations of Cooking and is then divided into seasonal recipes. While I love their cooking school story and their approach to seasonal cooking, I just didn't find that many recipes I wanted to try. But, I do think it could be a great cookbook for a beginning cook.

Gather & Graze: 120 favorite recipes for tasty good times by Stephanie Izard

I was introduced to Stephanie Izard when she competed on and won Iron Chef Gauntlet last year. But, that was just a more recent feather in her very full cap - she was the first female winner of Top Chef in 2008, has opened 3 restaurants in Chicago, and is married with a daughter. And somehow she found time to also write this cookbook. Gather and Grazeis structured like many cookbooks by meal/topic - brunch, grilling, vegetables/sides, etc. While I'm in awe of her as a person and all she's doing, I guess her cooking style isn't really mine because there weren't a lot of recipes I wanted to try. Overall, a good cookbook from and obviously talented chef, but just not my style.

Eat a Little Better: great flavor, good health, better world by Sam Kass

Sam Kass worked as the Obama's personal chef during Barack Obama's presidential campaign and then continued working as their chef in the White House. He also worked with Michelle Obama to create better food policies, the White House garden, etc. during Barack's two terms in office. In his introduction (which is LONG) Kass gives his background and how he got into cooking, then he goes through his food philosophy which can be summed up in the title Eat a Little Better. He doesn't advocate crazy, strict changes, but more small changes, trying to do better each meal and each day. I was tracking with him until he got to GMOs where he said, "...there isn't a single credible study that shows that GMOs are dangerous to eat." (p. 40) Then I was pretty much done. Maybe he spent too much time in politics, but GMOs ARE dangerous and should NOT be part of our food system at all. That was pretty disappointing because overall I think his food philosophy is good. There were a few recipes I want to try, but not many. Overall, the introduction was SO LONG and there weren't many recipes I wanted to try, so it was just OK.