My last two novels featured characters who either wrote about or cooked food for a living, and because of that, I have become accustomed to answering questions about food at my book events. People ask if I am a good cook, with sweet, hopeful expressions on their faces, and I have to give the same answer that I will give you now. No, I’m not. Alas! I’m an enthusiastic eater, a decent baker, and a mediocre cook. Such is life. I’m working on it. And so with apologies to the many, many dedicated and talented cooks who are my fellow judges and enjoyers of this contest, here goes nothing.
When the books arrived in the mail, I leafed through and made a quick decision—Deep Run Roots’ Vivian Howard looks like Elizabeth Taylor in "Giant," and there are photos of her eating a big, messy sandwich (the “Elbow-Lick Tomato Sandwich,” which makes me very badly wish it were tomato season), mayonnaise running down her chin, and I fell in love. Anyone who will print not one but THREE photographs of herself happily dripping sandwich detritus is a-okay with me. The book reads like a memoir, with lengthy (the book is 564 pages long) and lush descriptions of Howard’s hometown thoughts (she’s from Deep Run, North Carolina, which sounds no bigger than a minute, and is filled with people like Howard’s Uncle Reddy, who lived to 100 because he ate a sweet potato everyday). I was prepared to pick this book based on the story and Howard’s gorgeous face alone.
My husband likes banana pudding. I personally don’t know why someone would want a dessert that had no chocolate in it, but I love my husband and so I decided to make the banana pudding. How could so many things go wrong so fast? I learned Howard’s worldview pretty quickly, which I can sum up like this: I had to make the cookies. I had to roast the bananas. I had to go back to the store to get cream of tartar, because who ever buys cream of tartar? Surely it’s in your kitchen somewhere from the last time you had to use it six months ago, right? None of this was Howard’s fault, to be sure. And sure, yes, the cookies ended up being the best part, but still. The rest of the banana pudding was a hot (warm) mess, and it took a hundred years to make. I took the bulk of it to my book club, and the host, literally the kindest, most generous woman I know, said “Maybe it tastes better than it looks?” It didn’t.
The pimento cheese grits with salsa and chips, on the other hand, was a solid gold hit. I wanted to make the most Southern dishes I could, because I thought that that might make me look a little bit more like Howard. She wanted me to make the pimento cheese and the salsa and the grits, and so it too took me a hundred years, but it was hard for my husband and me not to eat the entire skillet. I understand that this is how cookbooks work—and this dish was certifiably delicious—so I forgive her. Thank god she didn't ask me to make my own chips. Howard’s voice is folksy and endearing, and I loved her stories about her family and the Piggly Wiggly—and I wanted very badly for her to be cooking instead of me.
Does it make me a philistine if I took a second look at the other cookbook, Diana Henry’s Simple, and realized that my life was about to get a lot better? Every recipe is on one page. The roasted chicken and cauliflower? One page. The flourless chocolate cake with coffee cream? One page. My toddler and I baked the cake together in ten minutes. Eggs and potatoes (or, as Henry calls them, "Huevos Rotos") that look impressive but take four seconds to prepare, all in one pan? Diana, marry me. Grilled zucchini, burrata, and fregola (though I used Israeli couscous, because Diana is relaxed like that). Turkish pasta with feta, yogurt, and dill. Each of them were easy enough to do at the end of the day before collapsing into a heap.
And about that chocolate cake. It was so good that I was glad I hadn’t made it for a dinner party, where other people would have gotten to gobble it all up. I ate a piece every day for the next several days, and snacked on the it throughout the day, like my own personal chocolate cake buffet. Creamy, rich as hell, divine.
What happened is not Howard’s fault. I’m actually very grateful for this experience, because it helped me identify exactly what will make me scream at a cookbook fourteen times in one day. Here is what I discovered: My biggest cookbook pet peeve is when a recipe refers to one or more other recipes in the book in order to make a single dish. This may not always be true, but right now, with one three-year-old and one nine-month-old, I’m either cooking with one hand while holding a baby, cooking with two hands while trying to make sure that one baby doesn’t murder the other baby, or cooking after the babies are asleep and I am more than halfway there myself. The banana pudding took up, all told, about half of my childcare hours in one day, between the trips to the grocery store and all of the steps and the goddamn meringue and the cookies. Making it felt like when you look at travel times for flights across time zones—ready in +1 day.
Both of these books are gorgeously photographed, with encouraging, warm voices, and scores of enticing recipes. I felt like I got a lot more of Vivian Howard out of Deep Run Roots than I did Diana Henry out of Simple, and I loved her, but if the true test of a cookbook is how much flour is going to be caked into its spine, how many drops of oil are going to stain its pages, then I have to choose Simple. What I want most out of a cookbook is for it to make me feel competent and resourceful, able to understand basic concepts enough to repeat them without stress or strain. Deep Run Roots might be my crush, but Simple is going to be my new best friend.
186 Comments
That said, I'm sorry that Simple had to go up against Deep Run Roots in the first round--I just got it and it is such a beautiful, heartfelt love song to a specific region of the South that I didn't know much about. And not all of the recipes are that complicated--try the raw collard and raisin salad!
Although, like Straub, I expect to spend more time with Simple in the kitchen, they are both gorgeous books and worthy of a place on your shelf.
Deep Run Roots is a heartfelt, lovely book. One of my favourite from last year
The other point I would like to make is that if I am trying to make dinner when already exhausted, the last thing I want to do is leave home again to go buy the one ingredient I don't have in my cupboard. I don't have cream of tartar on hand right now either! I choose my menu based in part on ingredients on hand, and pick up missing components on my next grocery store run, so that I have them next time I look at the recipe.
At this point I would very much like to buy Simple, because it seems likely to become one of my go-to cookbooks, one that won't send me on a hunt for ingredients I can't find without buying them from another country - a cookbook that understands that sometimes we want great food without having to spend four hours making it. Getting great results from simpler recipes boosts my confidence and makes me more likely to try complicated recipes down the road. I am very grateful to Food52 for some of my new favourite dishes that are just that kind of recipe.
I do not want you to be in any way misled - some of the recipes in Simple do require odd ingredients, though there are plenty that don't. Every so often I stock up on unusual things as they help me to make interesting meals that aren't complicated - I think a good store cupboard is essential for making day to day cooking interesting. Do have a flick through Simple -either in a book shop, library or online (Amazon) to see what you think. As another time-short stressed woman I wouldn't want you to be disappointed! The techniques are simple, though - you don't need to be experienced to make anything, and there are lots of dishes that you just bung in the oven.
I admire Vivian Howard's honesty and candor in her television series, but the drippy sandwich photo montage is off putting.
No purchase of these books.
Thank you so much but - just in case you are disappointed - I should point out that some of the recipes do need a good store cupboard (and you may find you need to shop for some unusual ingredients). There isn't anything you can't get online or at a deli or Wholefoods, but I don't want you to be misled in any way. It is the use of the odd unusual ingredient that helps make the food interesting. The good news is that - in terms of technique - no recipes are difficult at all: they are truly simple (I am a greedy but pretty lazy cook, especially during the week, or when I want to have friends round and spend more time talking to them than in the kitchen). I hope you get the book, obviously. Do feel free to contact me here or at [email protected] if you want to check what would be a good substitute for something. Happy cooking :)
Thank you so much for letting me know. Technique is more of a problem for me. I got into healthier cooking about 3 -4 years ago so I still consider myself a beginner. I look forward to getting your book and thank you for offering your help should I need suggestions about substituting an ingredient for one of your dishes.
I'm tired of this faux ditziness which is a very overused writing style these days. If you're going to review cookbooks, don't make the authors a victim of your inability to organise yourself properly. There's a failure to show appropriate respect to readers too. I don't expect reviewers to be expert cooks because cookbooks have to attract readers who are less proficient too, in order to build new reading audiences. But facile comments about who owns basic baking ingredients, cream of tartar being one of them, is unfair.
I love it! Some days you need an easy meal and some times you have the luxury of a good read and a fabulous meal! I'm in for 2 books, so far!
It's clear she has no real foundation in understanding the process and art of cooking.
Also, the poor choice of the recipes she uses to illustrate her points exposes her lack of cooking skills. Her dislike of 'sub recipes' is the only redeeming part of the review. Diana Henry has a singular voice in cookbook writing. Having upward of a thousand cookbooks or more she writes in a style that is honest authentic and sincere. Also, she English and her commonsensical approach to the recipe as a suggestion as opposed to it being doctrinaire is refreshing.
Its a cute review but it won't sway me to buy either book.
I'd appreciate a review by her if her skill level and understanding of food were more developed.
By all means, buy the book, but though you should see this. I also loved the review!
(Full disclosure - 2 of my reliable cookbooks are by Henry)
I WANT piglet reviewers to include something other than experienced cook's with all day to labor in the kitchen. Busy people cook too, and a cookbook can be excellent, even without a high barrier to entry in the echnical skills aspect.
I have a stack of cookbooks I am browsing through this month while I am planting my spring garden. It includes both Crazy Water, Lemon Pickles and Deep Run Roots (that photo of the tomato sandwich sold me, I don't care if I have to grow the wheat myself), as well as Afro Vegan, Smoke and Pickles, Arabesque, and Bar Tartine. (can you tell I'm planning to do a lot of preserving this year?) The Piglet always disrupts my garden plan, as I end up planting last minute things like 3 varieties of fennel in order to try some outrageous April Bloomfield opera piece.
Growing up with a mother who taught Master Canning classes at the local county extension office, I know full-well the burden of being a child with a mostly pickled diet. I believed everyone ate that way for many years, and always thought my friends who brought sandwiches of store-bought jam to school were faintly neglected.
But as much as I enjoyed this review I cannot agree with the idea that photo of Vivian eating that sandwich is charming. Sorry!
I love Simple, I own all of Henry's books, thought this review was great, and look forward to other Piglet reviews!
I enjoyed the review of both cookbooks and would love to own them both.
"Antigone was the daughter of King Oedipus of Thebes and Jocasta. The story says, Oedipus, the son of Laius and Jocasta killed his father Laius and became the king of Thebes. Oedipus unknowingly married his own mother Jocasta and had children by her."
quote from - www.ancientgreece.com
PS - I would totally assumed I had cream of tartar too... and have had to substitute when I didn't!
Now, onto the merits of this whole thing. I have one fundamental issue with this review and with the idea of a cookbook contest at all, that is all cookbooks cannot and SHOULD not be compared to each other. Each one offers a specific voice, skill, and function.
As someone who has a ever growing cookbook library, no kids (yet), and loves to do anything in the kitchen I get frustrated over "quick" "easy". Sure these have there place and if the technique is easy then great but I want the recipe that shows me how to make something uncompromised. That being said I would never compare a cookbook called "Simple" with one titled "Deep Run Roots". The titles alone indicate that they are for VERY different types of cooks. (Oh, and a tiny pet peeve of mine: Who doesn't plan a grocery list when making a new recipe?)
To sum it up I buy cookbooks based on my interest in the topic. I bought Vivian's book because I wanted a pure look at southern cooking. Who else is going to give me such depth on a topic that is anything but simple.
(To be fair I have not bought or cooked from Simple nor do I intend to. It simple has no draw for me. I know there are plenty of people out there who want something like this and for them I am thrilled there are skilled cookbook writers putting book like this together for them.)
On the other hand, I have never had an epic fail from Diana Henry and while her recipes are simple she manages to pull of immense depth of flavor despite brief prep. Her Burmese chicken with tart-sweet chile sauce is incredible, you will want to put that sauce on everything. The Chicken chettinad is equally inspiring, with no fiddly ingredients she pulls of some real wow-factor in the taste department. To me this book is a keeper.
Thank you!
P.S. Love the way you write...now I cannot wait to read your books.
Where do I start?
Well done 52's..