Review by New York Times Review
SPRING AND SUMMER COOKBOOKs are different from their fall and winter siblings, the big-name ones who get all the airtime. The authors' names might be new, but their voices are strong and independent. They remind me of how the legendary cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey, speaking at the recent women's food conference Cherry Bombe Jubilee, described her childhood: Because she was a girl, and since her sister was prettier, her parents let her run wild to satisfy her creative curiosity, thereby allowing her to become the significant person she is today. And so, as 1 read and cooked through this season's assortment of outliers, 1 was thrilled to get to know so many bright minds and brilliant palates, to be introduced to cultures and techniques that hadn't been front-burnered in my kitchen. Israeli food has been celebrated since Yotam Ottolenghi came on the scene over a decade ago. The culinary traditions of Palestine? Not so much. While working on a human rights campaign in Israel's West Bank in 2009, Yasmin Khan found that the difficulty of the days spent in refugee camps relented at night when she was welcomed to local tables to sample bowls of thick hummus and smoky eggplant spiked with peppery olive oil, vibrant herb salads and fresh, sharply flavorful dishes - so flavorful that they lured Khan from her home in London back to Israel and the West Bank to learn more about the recipes and realities of life for the millions of Palestinians living there, not to mention the millions who make up the world's largest refugee population. ZAITOUN: Recipes From the Palestinian Kitchen (Norton, $29.95) is valuable not just for the dishes Khan learned from local women and translated from restaurant meals - be they a warm salad of maftoul (a plump kind of couscous) with za'atar chicken, Gazan lentils with Swiss chard and tahini, or turnovers made from a very forgiving yogurt-enriched dough and stuffed with spinach, feta, pine nuts and sumac - but for the heartfelt portrait she so deftly paints of this shattered but resilient region. Caroline Eden was also marked by a trip east - in this case, by her first glimpse of the Black Sea from a Ttirkish bus when she journeyed overland from London to Tbilisi, her idea of a summer holiday. The sea's surrounding regions became an obsession for this journalist, who specializes in writing about the former Soviet Union. She sought out remnants of trade routes, hidden stories and what the cities' foodways could tell us about today's communities. The resulting book, BLACK SEA: Dispatches and Recipes Through Darkness and Light (Quadrille/Hardie Grant, $35), IS a powerful new hybrid, a beautifully written travelogue with recipes and photographs. It's meant to be savored from start to finish, with the recipes serving not to provide a menu for your next party but as edible snapshots that bring to life places steeped in history and tradition. Even if your interest in journeying from Odessa through Romania and Bulgaria, then on to Istanbul and Trabzon is low, Eden's blazing talent and unabashedly greedy curiosity will have you strapped in beside her. Her writing is so seductive, you'll soon be making the recipes, which come from locals as well as her imagination: Romanian breakfast polenta, Ttirkish "trolley" kebabs and Bulgarian poached apricots steeped in rose water. If Sybille Bedford or Patrick Leigh Fermor had included a few recipes in their accounts of their journeys, you'd know exactly where to shelve this gem. Gabriela Cámara is a modern chef: Not only is she inspired by her country's regional cuisines, she also takes an ingredient-led approach to cooking with freshness and simplicity. It's hard to overstate the importance of Contramar, the Mexico City restaurant she co-founded in her early 20s, inspired by the food served at Mexico's beachside seafood restaurants. In her debut cookbook, my Mexico CITY KITCHEN: Recipes and Convictions (Lorena Jones/Ten Speed, $35), written with Malena Watrous, Cámara shares recipes for the dishes that made her famous - grilled butterflied red snapper as Mexican flag, one half painted with a green parsley-garlic sauce, the other with a charred red salsa; tostadas topped with soy-marinated raw tuna, avocado and frizzled leeks with chipotle mayo - as well as the traditional dishes that make Mexico such a destination for today's gastronauts. Should you put in the time to make salsa-drowned carnitas sandwiches or red mole from Tepoztlán? You'll be glad you did (eventually). There are also creative weeknight dishes, like clams with Serrano chiles and mezcal. These recipes reflect Camara's vibrancy, magpie intellect and respect for the traditions that made her success possible. Mothers who adapted their native country's traditions to the reality of American supermarkets are to thank for two exciting and accessible new books. The New York Times food writer Priya Krishna wrote indian(-ish): Recipes and Antics From a Modern American Family (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $28) with her mom, Ritu, a software programmer who, when not managing the code-writing team that made airport check-in kiosks possible, was trying to meld the dishes she watched her grandmother make in India with her Dallas-born daughters' demands for peanut-butterand-jelly sandwiches and spaghetti. And so they give us recipes for pizza made with a roti or tortilla crust and topped with cilantro chutney and shredded Cheddar cheese, toast with almond butter and the crunchy snack mix chat masala and cheesy chile broccoli, alongside streamlined but high-impact recipes for saag paneer (use feta!), chickpea and tomato stew (use canned chickpeas, duh) and dal updated with caramelized onions. Krishna's high-energy social-media tone and her "outlandish tales and lack of shame" - there's an "overly generalized guide to making the Indian food in this book" - might rankle the traditionalists, but to anyone under 30 they signal the arrival of a smart supernova. Andrea Nguyen fled Vietnam with her family in the 1970s, arriving in California. Her mom's supermarket hacks included using Swans Down cake flour to make steamed rice rolls. Today, rice flour, coconut milk and fish sauce can be found with fairly minimal effort, but Vietnamese dishes still intimidate many home cooks. Vietnamese FOOD ANY DAY: Simple Recipes for True, Fresh Flavors (Ten Speed, $24.99) is a welcome entry point, offering recipes and tips that will have you making if not authentic, then authentically delicious Vietnamese dishes in very little time. With writing as clear and zippy as the flavors she describes, Nguyen is the ideal guide, pragmatic and supportive, always ready with a clever twist. I got home at 5 and served a guest addictively crispy roasted cauliflower "wings" with homemade chile garlic sauce, grilled lemongrass pork chops with nuoc cham dipping sauce, vibrant turmeric coconut rice and spicy broccoli and herb slaw with lime-chile vinaigrette by 7:30. I was surprised; my guest was impressed. I'm looking forward to tackling sausage-jicama rice paper rolls, smoked turkey pho and spicy-sweet pomegranate tofu on weeknights to come. Weeknight tofu is definitely a thing, as more cooks are putting plant-based protein at the center of the plate. In fact, I could have reviewed only vegetable/vegetarian/ vegan cookbooks this season. It was hard to choose, but I can tell these next two will still be in my kitchen next spring. Anna Jones's weekly "Modern Cook" recipes in The Guardian inspire Brits to look to lentils. Her creative dishes provide a multicultural journey through a highly personal lens. THE MODERN COOK'S YEAR (Abrams, $40) is the former Jamie Oliver collaborator's seasonal collection. She grates carrots into a quick dal that thrums with flavor and warmth. Kimchi and miso noodle soup comes together quickly and deliciously, though 1 went for extra credit and made the kimchi too - her recipe for mild green apple and white miso kimchi is a new staple. And that tomato tarte Tatin.... There are pretty, comforting desserts like a fig, dark chocolate and banana cake, and helpful flavor maps that outline the basics of, say, soups, flatbreads and sheetpan dinners so you can freestyle. Jones writes about cooking and eating with mindfulness - perhaps the most important "recipe" in this lovely book, ft's the kind you want to dip into and rediscover each and every season. Meanwhile, in America, Jeanine Donofrio has been racking up fnstagram followers with her sunny, kinda-vegan food and super-positive vibes, love & lemons every day (Avery, $35) is about, as she describes it, "everyday cooking, a little bit elevated." She breezily strikes that tricky balance between sophisticated and widely accessible. She'll have you eagerly grilling romaine wedges to toss in a vegan cashew Caesar dressing and simmering butternut squash and potatoes to blend - with more cashews - into a loaded queso. (Yes, you get to have tortilla chips.) Crispedged flatbreads made from chickpea flour are topped with an herby spinach-cilantro spread and spring vegetables. Sweet potatoes? They go into the frosting on a (whole wheat, vegan) chocolate cake. And if you're new to transforming broccoli or cauliflower stems into "rice," turning zucchini or radishes into noodles or putting those beet greens, carrot tops and cilantro stems somewhere other than in the garbage, this is your gateway to zero-waste cooking (i.e., the future). Good thing it's delicious. When it comes to getting nonhipster Americans to turn toward plant-forward cooking, my money's on Donofrio. If the dad in your family isn't ready to grill cauliflower steaks this Father's Day, get him franklin steak: Dry-Aged, Live-Fired, Pure Beef (Ten Speed, $29.99). To say that Aaron Franklin, the man responsible for the line that forms outside Austin's Franklin BBQ before dawn, and his co-author, Jordan Mackay, go deep on steak is a grave understatement: They don't get to the actual grilling until nearly the end of the book. How could they, when there's so much to understand about what goes into a perfectly cooked steak? The beef, the butcher, the grill, the fuel, the salt, the time (that applies to both dry-aging at home and how long you should let the steak rest after cooking). Franklin and Mackay ask every question, try every cut, explore every technique and even weld their own hybrid hibachi. This is meat-nerdery at its best, its extensive scientific research couched in casual, friendly prose that will make you a legend in your own backyard. More than a cookbook, this is #meatgoals. First the steak, then the cake. And cookies. And pie. On the easy end of the baking spectrum, Odette Williams's SIMPLE CAKE: All You Need to Keep Your Friends and Family in Cake (Ten Speed, $23) offers a lovely roster of cakes and toppings that you can mix-and-match to suit the sweet occasion. You can whip up a coconut cake in under an hour and eat it as-is, or you can fold raspberries into the batter, drizzle it with a coconut glaze or turn it into cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. This is no-stress baking (remember that?) you'll still want to Instagram. If pastries are part of your Instagram feed, you probably know Nicole Rucker. One of the most talented young pastry chefs in Los Angeles, she's created sweets for Gjusta, CoFax Coffee, Rucker's Pie and her new spot, Fiona, that are 21st-century gold. Her delightful creations for dappled: Baking Recipes for Fruit Lovers (Avery, $30, available in early July) toggle between perfected American classics (July Flame peach pie, apple brown Betty) and modern inventions (fermented banana cake, rhubarb coffee cake with browned butter streusei, and rich raspberry halvah brownies that genuinely raise the bar). Although you'll envy Rucker's access to L.A.'s heirloom fruit, seemingly available year-round, there's much to celebrate in this book, even when you're locked into a Northeastern winter. The arrival of Maida Heatter's happiness is baking: Favorite Desserts From the Queen of Cake (Little, Brown, $27) couldn't be better timed. "Maida Heatter?" you ask. "Isn't she 100 years old by now?" She's 102, thank you for asking, and still baking up a storm in Miami Beach, Fla. This collection of her greatest hits will remind you why she inspired the likes of Martha Stewart and Dorie Greenspan: While personable and funny, Heatter is relentless in her quest for perfection. These are recipes to read closely, and not just for her delightful borscht belt humor. ("I have received love letters and a variety of proposals and propositions all because of this cake. Watch out," she warns in the headnote for her Budapest coffee cake.) This is a woman who italicizes sifted before flour on every ingredient list - IN CASE YOU DIDN'T GET HER POINT - and marches you through every step, which she doubtless fretted over for decades. Even the recipes that feel retro (for those who remember the '80s mania for David's Cookies) are more than ready for their return, be it "The Best Damn Lemon Cake," Palm Beach brownies with chocolate-covered mints or Charlie Brown ice cream sundaes. How lucky that a new generation will get to know the sweet genius of Maida Heatter. These days, we could all use a dazzling grandmother to tell us that everything is going to be all right - or, at the very least, our skinny peanut wafers will. The reissue of Edna Lewis's in pursuit of flavor (Knopf, $29.95), written with Mary Goodbody, is also reassuring and perfectly timed. Over a decade ago, after I had hunted down an out-of-print copy of Lewis's first cookbook, "The Taste of Country Cooking," published in 1976 (and now available in an anniversary edition), I marveled at the prescience of her philosophy of seasonal food, as seen through the lens of Southern cooking. Growing up in a Virginia farming community founded by her grandfather and his friends after their emancipation, Lewis and her family savored the flavors of the moment or preserved them for when the fields lay fallow. Even after she moved to New York and became a well-known chef, her desire to honor the essence of an ingredient never wavered, whether it was pan-frying quail or baking a soufflé. And she always kept a piece of country ham around. This book, which first appeared in 1988, also focuses on recipes from her childhood. Lewis's food is both subtle and elegant, made with the confidence and grace that arose from over a half-century in the kitchen. A recipe for watercress soup initially seems off - you infuse chicken stock with chopped onion and watercress, then strain it, discarding the watercress and onions, and adding fresh watercress leaves and heavy cream, with a spoonful of whipped cream dolloped on before serving. Clear and focused, it's the essence of spring. Duck, which you've hung in a closet or cellar overnight to dry the skin, is stuffed with wild rice and oysters, no sauce required. Okra is stirred into buttery whipped cornmeal until it all but disappears. And Damson plum preserves find a worthy home in a flaky lard crust. Even 30 years later, Edna Lewis, like Maida Heatter, teaches us that "good food simply and lovingly prepared" will never go out of style, while reminding us that the passionate pursuit of flavor can make for one hell of a life. CHRISTINE MUHLKE, a former editor at Bon Appetit and T: The New York Times Style Magazine, is the founder of the Xtine newsletter. ONLINE: Don't mind the heat and can't bear to get out of the kitchen? For a quick look at 30 more cookbooks, visit nytimes.com/books.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [June 9, 2019]
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this wonderfully uncomplicated collection of cake recipes, Williams, founder of kitchen apron manufacturer OW Brooklyn, conveys why she believes "cake matters." Williams's inviting tone permeates this essential collection of basic cake recipes ("The only ones you'll ever really need"), and she explains that it was looking at photos after her father died that inspired this cookbook. (One photo showed a cake that her newly divorced, 30-year-old father baked for a birthday party for the young Williams.) Thirty cakes are broken down into five categories, including TLC cakes (there's a vanilla and coconut Bundt cake for comforting a new parent) and Vacation Cakes (Summertime S'Mores and Fall Apple Skillet). Standouts include the Over the Moon Cake-a large milk-and-honey cake crescent accompanied by stars and topped with caramel sauce and vanilla whipped cream-and a company-worthy "Dining-in Cake," composed of chocolate cake, with tres leches spooned over, and finished with a condensed-milk whipped cream and shaved chocolate. A poem, a child's handwritten recipe, vintage photos, and "advice from this home baker to another" add intimacy to this slim collection. Thoughtful and inspiring, this fresh take on cakes should find an enthusiastic audience. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
The sentence, "10 cakes. 15 toppings. 30-cake-worthy moments," forms the premise of this strikingly minimalist cookbook that is both a throwback and an update, a work that nods knowingly at the modest skills and outsized ambitions of many modern home bakers. First-time author Williams (founder of the eponymous line of bakewear) relates her preference for functionality over extravagance, for family-friendly go-tos that embrace nostalgia and reject complexity. If this approach seems risky, it is saved by the addition of delightful variations, tips, and topping suggestions-- the last of these drawn from the more robust second section and made manifest in the final collection of "Cake-Worthy Moments." Here we see how a basic cake and topping combination can transform into a "Self-Care Cake," "Sleepover Cake," or "Over the Moon Cake." It's a tiny transformation but utterly effective: nuanced, delicious, and accessible. VERDICT A love letter to the power of unfussy baking, family celebrations, and simple experiences. For novice bakers, bakers with children, and cake-eating minimalists.--Robin Chin Roemer, Univ. of Washington Lib., Seattle
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