Review by Booklist Review
From her Manhattan apartment, Gross felt inspired to recreate her grandmother's Korean cooking. She quickly realized that lots of other immigrants across the city's diverse neighborhoods must also have the same urges (if not the same sort of grandmothers), so she began to recruit both students and instructors to inaugurate an ultimate cross-cultural cooking school, the League of Kitchens. Years of running this unique school have given birth to one of the most diverse and entertaining cookbooks imaginable. Afghan, Indian, Greek, Persian, Burkinabé, Argentine, Mexican, Bangladeshi, Indonesian, Uzbek, Lebanese, Japanese, Georgian, and Russian dishes all appear. In between all these recipes, some of the League's instructors tell their own stories of immigrating to a new country and trying to adapt to a new culture while maintaining their culinary heritages. Because these dozens of recipes have been tested and retested in cooking classes by a cross section of cooks, instructions are generally clear and easy to follow. Color photographs show what the final product will look like. Assembling ingredients may pose issues for those not living in metropolitan areas, but the internet offers purchasing options for many practical alternatives.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Inspired by memories of her own two grandmothers, Gross launched an New York City-based, immigrant-led, inside-the-home cooking school, the League of Kitchens, in 2014. Today the organization offers classes in 16 different cuisines, recipes from which provide the foundation of this cookbook. Opening with a history of the League of Kitchens and an overview of necessary pantry ingredients and equipment, the book is arranged in chapters for chicken, seafood, soups, salads, and more. The recipes are laid out in a detailed, step-by-step format, successfully recreating on the page what the actual experience might be like cooking in an instructor's home kitchen, with the headnote to each recipe providing cultural context. The recipes range from korma mur (Afghan chicken and potato stew with onion gravy) to sandwiches de viande hachée (Burkinese chopped meat sandwiches), as well as side dishes including a killer guacamole. Features on each of the instructors are sprinkled throughout the book as well. VERDICT This vibrantly written, meticulously designed cookbook provides a warm, welcoming introduction to a fine feast of tasty dishes from around the globe.--John Charles
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