I drew these up in the wake of online discussions about why “nobody cooks anymore”. A few disclaimers at the end.
First, I must apologize for a simple French goof; the caption on the first picture should read, “Ceçi n’est pas un poulet”, not “une poulet”. I couldn’t cleanly edit my gaffe out of the picture. (If you don’t know, it’s a play on the most famous of Rene Magritte’s images in “The Treachery Of Images”.)
Second, I have nothing against Rachael Ray. If she’s convinced more people to go out and cook something instead of buying ready-made meals or fast food, then I’m all for it. There’s just something in her style or approach that puts my hackles up, that treats cooking like a paint-by-numbers exercise rather than promoting understanding and confidence. If you don’t understand why you do a certain step, then you’ve got nothing to go in if you deviate from those steps. And if you’ve cooked with enough recipes, you’ve learned that they’re far from foolproof.
Lastly, I mean what I say about throwing how-to dinner parties. Yes, I suppose Christine and I could host, but that’s impractical for a variety of reasons. Have cookbooks, will travel.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Where I like the “cook” cookbooks, especially the ones that tell me how to make something in 30 minutes or less, I had a mom and 2 grandma’s that took the time to tell me why you put onions, garlic, celery and bell pepper in everything and an ex-chef husband who taught me everything else. I know how to take those recipes, rip them apart, make them better and make them mine. I learned the value of chopping my veggies as opposed to whirling them up in the food processor. Cooking is an art. Just like painting and sculpting. And you’re right, the paint-by-number approach may be okay for some who don’t know where to start, but those of us who take the time to learn the techniques needed to make something great out of a few ingredients need to be willing to pass on the knowledge to all those willing to learn. That’s why I never give out recipes. I have to show you how to cook it. There is reasons for that. Only certain people get it. Just like only certain people will get this post. I do and will travel right next to you and bring all my knives.
Huh, I may have to get that De Pomaine book.
The only cookbook that Julia and I read with any regularity is from Cook’s Illustrated, and I think it does a fair job of meeting your criteria. They don’t always explain everything, though — just the stuff they’re doing differently to achieve their intended goal for this recipe. Still.
We do need to branch out, though. We own Joy of Cooking, but for some reason don’t really consult it frequently.
I wouldn’t at all consider us to have achieved cooking self-sufficiency. Speaking for myself, at least, I need a recipe to make food. I wish this weren’t so.
I LOVE that you’re blogging again.
Thank you for the inspiration!
love the art & handwriting. am so glad I have relatives & friends who actually *like* to cook.
Super. I love illustrated reasoning. I also need to check out that book. I get most of my recipes from the Internet. Every time I consider buying a cook book I remember all those lovely recopies waiting to be plucked, adjusted and made my own. I love to cook and need to do it more often. Thank you for the inspiration.
One of the problems I have with the Rachel Ray/paint-by-number kind of cookbooks is I think they actually reinforce the idea that cooking is a scary thing, making it even harder for people to deviate from the steps and learn new things. But some of the best cookbooks I have that aren’t like that might actually overwhelm someone who isn’t that into cooking. (My favorite is “Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads”. One big master formula at the beginning, with lots of explanation and illustration, and then an entire cookbook of recipes based on variations of that formula. Learn the master formula first, then learn how to tweak it. It’s genius. I also particularly love cookbooks that read like novels or travelogues, like Diana Kennedy or Rick Bayless’s Mexican cookbooks.)
It never would have occurred to me to offer my services to travel to someone else’s home to help them learn to cook something. It has the extra bonus of having them learn it in their own kitchen with their own utensils, which is great. I may offer that up to some folks.
Brittany – Girl, I’ve had your cooking. I’d be happy to cook along with you any day.
Todd – I own a couple of the Cook’s Illustrated books (one was the second cookbook I owned, a graduation gift from my aunt and uncle). I like their approach and science-inspired approach to cooking – there’s real hypothesis, test, refine thinking going on there. I’ve picked up a few tips on technique from the cookbooks, but I actually don’t often cook from them – it’s too much beholden to following their recipes to the letter, rather than really understanding the steps involved.
Plus, there’s something that just doesn’t sit right with me, and I still can’t quite put my finger on what it is. When you analyze each step of preparing a dish and find the way to the “ideal” version of the dish, something in the outcome strips away the soul of the meal and a connection to centuries of home cooks gone by who have mastered traditional methods.
Joy of Cooking was the first cookbook I owned. We would pull it off the shelf to settle some dispute or another over the dinner table on a fairly frequent basis growing up. I hold on to it as a reference, though some of the recipes have been more successful for me than others. For being beholden to a recipe, I can’t recommend Michael Ruhlman’s “Ratio” enough – if you’ve got a sense of basic techniques, it’ll free you.
You may have me starting on a series of “what’s on my bookshelf” posts soon….
Jen – Welcome back yourself! Sounds like you’ve been plenty busy yourself. We REALLY need to catch up soon.
Mom – Heh. Yeah, I suppose cooking loses some of its zeal after however many years of cooking dinners five to seven nights a week. Thanks for being my inspiration, though.
Syd – Go for it! I’d love to hear about the food you create. Give Chris my best, too.
Amy – Funny enough, I bought a copy of Reinhart’s “Bread Baker’s Apprentice” tonight after an indescribably good experience with the Rich Man’s Brioche. I agree, it’s more on the advanced (or obsessed) side, but yes, there’s something to be said for celebrating the missteps and mistakes that can happen when trying to cook-by-number too rigidly.
I can’t resist yet another comment. My two cents’ worth. I think everyone needs something like Joy of Cooking or in my case The Ladies’ home Journal cookbook (out of print, got mine about 1965, it’s falling apart) for reference. I think you also can’t beat Julia Child’s Mastering I AND II for lots of basic techniques. I used it last night when I bought some sweetbreads on a lark and didn’t have a clue what to do with them. After I braised them I should have breaded and fried them instead of serving with a sauce–I think they would have gone over better with the boys–but I for one thought they were pretty good, and I had a hell of a good time making them.
I for one don’t trust recipes I get online, although I do use them some. If you can read, you can cook. But people who are locked into recipes I feel sorry for. You have to read a bit, learn a few techniques, stop being afraid to make mistakes, and scrap Michael’s leftover pancake/scrambled egg/ham/cheese concoction.
Cheers
This is starting to gel for me into another post, but I’d say as a starter set you need:
A recipe tome – Joy is good, Bittman’s “How To Cook Everything” should be solid, et cetera. Even if you don’t use it except as a jumping off point for improv work.
A technique book – Julia’s good, I prefer Pépin’s Complete Techniques for having pictures. James Peterson has a good basics book out there, as well as “The Cook’s Book” (ed. Jill Norman).
Speciality books depending on your taste – Like French food? Patricia Wells, Anthony Bourdain, Amanda Hesser, Julia. Like Italian? Lidia Bastianich, Marcella Hazan. Mexican? Rick Bayliss. And so on. Be wary of celebrity chef books – unless the chef has proven themselves “in the trenches” in a given style (e.g. Bourdain, Bayliss) it’s likely to be more fluff than substance.