A funny thing happens when you share with your friends and family that you are part of a cookbook competition: They all start to tell the truth. In my first attempt at a recipe from Taste & Technique—an easy one I might add, the mushroom quiche— the reviews came in quickly, and honestly, they were not raves. Usually when my family sees me cooking a meal for over two hours, (too long for a quiche, but I’ll get back to that), they compliment me. The food is unquestionably delicious and I’ve done it once again, they’ll say—I’ve brought home the proverbial bacon and fried it up in a pan. Not so when when a competition is in the works. The first reviews came from my father, who was visiting from New York: “I’ve had better, but mushrooms aren’t my favorite.” Okay, if this is what honesty looks like, I can’t say I’m a fan. The next review came from Sam Sifton—oh no, wait, it was my twelve year old daughter. “I really preferred the quiche Lorraine you used to make.” But honey, you’re a vegetarian now—you wouldn’t even eat that. “Still, this isn’t as good.” Well, the first recipe taught me two things: Bacon makes things better, and vegetarians are kind of assholes.
When Lena and I agreed to take on this job—and really, to call it a job is sad, as I was literally so flattered I almost died and then I sent in a photo of my cookbook shelf as a CV that literally no one asked for—we had a deal. The deal is, I cook, Lena eats.
You might know a few things about Lena, like that she’s a hugely talented writer, actor, and director. You might know she’s a godmother. But here is one thing she can’t do: Cook. I mean, she can barely make toast. I actually think she can’t make toast—I was being generous. But she is the most delightful eater. So I promised to take on the cooking duties and she promised to answer the ten online questionnaires for Girls Press. A job, by the way, she can do in her sleep and I can dread for months.
She kept relatively quiet on the quiche. This is a sure sign there was a problem. If Lena is not pretending my food is good, who will? The answer is no one. And the worst part is that I loathed making this quiche. For me, quiche is a pantry food, whipped up at the last minute with only the chilling of the dough to slow you down. For Taste & Technique, there are ten steps where there should be five. You want me to squeeze out the mushrooms after I’ve chopped and sautéed them in butter? I did it because this was my job, but honestly, if it made a difference, the critics of the Hollywood Hills could not tell.
The Taste & Technique rib eye was another story. All of the guests, including Ms. Dunham, said it was some of the best steak they had ever eaten. The fried shallots were delicious and I would put them on anything. I would probably put them on ice cream—they were that good. The technique itself for the steak, as the book promises, is very successful; I’ve never cooked such a perfect steak. That said, Pomeroy and her co-writer Jamie Feldmar ask us to brown the steak, take it out of the pan, let the pan cool, wash and dry said pan completely, and then brown another steak. And she doesn’t outline why, exactly, I need to get rid of the old steak’s pan drippings. I’m just not that person. Even for the best steak I’d ever made.
I moved on to My Two Souths. The title and book are a combo of Asha Gomez’s upbringing in the South of India, and Atlanta, the second South, where she now lives with her family. The pages are filled with cozy stories of her childhood as well as her current life in Atlanta. The recipes are simple and straightforward. (The hardest thing you will have to do is source a few ingredients from a cool Indian store.) Gomez’s rice and chicken is as casual a dish as you can throw together, yet the novel spices (star anise, turmeric) bring it to the next level. It was reminiscent of the recipe for cardamom chicken in Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem (a fav on my cookbook shelf)—chicken and rice taken to a new place, in one pot no less. I was thrilled. And the home critics loved it too. Lena said it smelled and tasted like the parts of India she loved visiting, and my ten year old ate a full two servings. My boyfriend actually saved some for leftovers—and you should know this is coming from a man who throws away Chinese food before it’s even cold.
Gomez’s beef stew takes everything you already know (beef stew is standard, almost no-recipe cooking) and it does two simple things: It adds turmeric and ginger, and then it asks that you stir in coconut milk at the end. That's kind of it—which is gloriously liberating in that you could go off-script if you want to, and, better, it gives you tricks to take with you and apply to other things. I basically learned to cook by reading recipes for beef stew in different cookbooks and learning the common elements. This one is a perfect beef stew base with an Indian flair.
But I have a gripe: The baby onions in the beef stew’s photo are seared—their flat side is all gorgeously charred, which, the way the recipe is written, is physically impossible. You are supposed to take a raw onion and dump it into a hot soup. According to science, you can't get that char you see, and that is a food styling thing I really don't like: Cookbook photos already look better than my food will, but there is no reason to go on making them seem even more unattainable. Plus, my stew’s color was a lot murkier than the photo's. But I ate it all anyway.
The thing is, the premise of Taste & Technique is to make restaurant quality food at home. And honestly, for restaurant food I want to go to a restaurant. The gorgeous duck confit on the cover is tempting, all glazed and stunning and all you’d want to eat. Reader: It takes 3 days! I just couldn’t do it. I know people who would. I bet my dear friends and world class home cooks Gary and David would make it. And trust me, I would eat it. And I will as soon as they invite me over.
But the simple, delicious recipes of My Two Souths—oh, how my kids loved the crepes—beckon. I want to jump into the photos with the the author and her son shopping at the farmers market and I want to join their dinner party afterwards. Really, really good food and realistic to pull off is what I look for in a cookbook—that’s how I know I’ll use it again. That’s what My Two Souths offers.
And as far as Taste & Technique, I really do get it: It’s brilliantly researched and written, beautifully photographed, and does exactly what it says it will do. It elevates your home cooking to restaurant quality. And that is right for so many. But in this case, Taste & Technique, it’s not you. It’s me.
152 Comments
Hyundai Trường Chinh quoted directly from my comment a few spaces down from his/hers/its.
Ford Hà Thành appropriated Antonia James's words.
Should we be flattered? I've complained about this before but got booed and hissed at so much that I stayed away for months. Seriously? Is it more wonderful, happy and inclusive to protect content spammers and plagiarizers than to weed them out and save the genuine members the trouble of wading through their garbage? Not to mention having their content stolen.
I should have said Hyundai Trường Chinh plagiarized my comment. If it was quoted, there would have been attribution, which there wasn't.
I'm a/was a regular ol' cook, but recently took a position as a caregiver/cook for a man with multiple sclerosis and does not have the use of his hands in the kitchen. He is a gourmet cook! He is also paleo, gluten-free, dairy-free and all that jazz. Now since I started, he says he has not had anyone in the last 4 years who has made such creative, Innovative, delicious food! How did I do that? I scoured the internet, I bought Kindle cook books for free to $4.99; Googled advice. I researched and learned and love that I can make two gourmet meals at his home everyday, in 6 hrs, and his regular household duties. Yes, gourmet! I grind fresh ginger and I would never fathom such as using onion or garlic powder now.
I don't need an award-winning expensive cookbook or a bunch of hoo-ha about it, or the other, to make fabulous dishes at home. Thanks for helping me realize that.
Still I'm very thankful for the comment that coconut flour was just as tasty as wheat flour and browned well, as I have not fried anything yet for this gentleman. Oh, I made a sweet potato Apple casserole in coconut milk which I make homemade, with curry and turmeric among other yummy spices. I sauteed the onion and sweet potatoes a little too long, though
That said, I really enjoyed this review. I think that trying just two recipes that required an unusual amount of effort, only one with a good result, was enough. How many of you would persevere with a cookbook that just wasn't your style? And the comment about vegetarians? A hoot. To me, it gave a sense of the kind of joking that goes on in families -- a glimpse into the real person behind the famous name.
I've enjoyed the quality of reviews in this Piglet much more than many of the past years. They felt more reasoned and even-handed. In the end, the choice is going to be subjective. As long as I get an idea of what's inside the books, I'm pretty happy.
For this review, I was disappointed that only one of the two promised judges was present in the review. I felt the same way last year, when Ayelet Waldman and Michale Chabon were co-judges. If there are co-judges in the future, I'd love to see a dialogue between them, or instead, let capable writers like Jenni Konner and Ayelet Waldman stand on their own.
With much appreciation,
Charlotte Druckman (Piglet Co-Founder)
Charlotte - due respect, this is the only comment you've bothered to reply to here and it's one praising your creation. It would be nice to see some F52 people address the concerns many of us have expressed vs what it feels like... ignoring them.
Then don't organize it AS a tournament with winners and losers. I'd be just as interested in these reviews if they weren't structured as a tournament but simply as people reviewing two books in a compare and contrast mode. However it's patently silly to create a tournament with brackets, winners and losers, then say "it's not a tournament!"
Again, no axe to grind about the books, but this whole Piglet thing and unqualified judges who are more interested in sounding disinterested has gotten tiresome. It's hard to take this competition very seriously.
Again, no axe to grind about the books, but this whole Piglet thing and unqualified judges who are more interested in sounding disinterested has gotten tiresome. It's hard to take this competition very seriously.
And if that just doesn't fly, how about this? Set up a page for each book in the contest, where the only comments allowed would be reports from Food52 members who have cooked recipes from the book, and substantive follow up questions relating to those comments. Anyone who had cooked from a book could go through and talk about what worked and what didn't, what they loved and what they didn't, and why, etc.
I find that the most helpful and constructive comments on the Piglet are those from the community members here who have actually cooked from the books. Wouldn't it be handy to have those comments all in one place?
Please, consider this. Not only would it provide a way to share more cook-to-cook insights into the recipes, but it would also make up for the slackers, and too busy and/or less experienced cooks selected as judges.
Many thanks. ;o)
So, as long as the F52 folks can give reviewers reasonable amounts of time to do the review, ~5 recipes doesn't seem like a big ask. IF someone doesn't want to do that, can't because they have other commitments during that time, etc, they should pass.
To that end, three people would judge each round and the book with the majority would advance. That would also allow testing of a minimum of 3 or 4 recipes by each. We, the home cooks who use cookbooks, would get a lot of information (all three reviewers' comments would be provided, with word /sentence limits and a template format to ensure plenty of useful insights. (In fact, one of the questions to be answered for each book would be, "Would you recommend this book to someone who doesn't have much experience? If not the whole book, any particular recipes (and which ones)?"
I'm sure we'd have more than enough volunteers. I offer this, respectfully, as a way to satisfy the hunger expressed by readers of the Piglet in so many rounds for more useful information about each book's recipes, provided by people like us . . . . ;o)
I also have to say that as I cook with a cookbook I always tweak the recipe to how I cook and what I like. A cookbook is a guide for me. So in that same stew the second night I reheated the stew on the stove and added a ton more water to get it to a stew like consistency so it wasn't so thick and loved it! I know some people need to follow a recipe exactly but when judging a cookbook I would have to look at another aspect. I would look at can I get something delicious out of this recipe if I tweak it. I wouldn't have known how to make a Persian dish without her book. I may not follow her recipe exactly but she, along with her recipe got me there so for that I love her book…
My personal criterion for reviews is simply that the reviewer avoids being rude. I think Silvia Killingsworth owes an apology to Diana Henry for saying the recipes in Simple represent show-off home cooking. In fact, going back to re-read that line, I find the point she was making would have been made with that phrase left out. (I think calling vegetarians “assholes” in this review was ridiculous, and I am by no means excusing it, but I think it was a stupid joke that fell VERY flat.) This review has received a lot of well-written, thought-provoking negative comments. In fact, the esteemed Elissa Altman has unexpectedly weighed it, and I appreciate hearing what she has to say. Me, I’m not up in arms about it. I’ve read it a few times and don’t find that it wasn’t thoughtful, and unless I’m wrong, the number of recipes FOOD52 asks be cooked from a book were cooked. I would like to know how far in advance the bracket is actually in place, and how much time the reviewers have to cook from the books. The task is daunting.
I treasure Taste & Technique and do not in any way consider it a book of restaurant cooking. Naomi Pomeroy says “It’s my hope that this book will encourage you to get into the kitchen, take cooking seriously, and feel good about it. The only secret to becoming a great cook is to practice, practice, practice. If you like doing it, dedicate some time to perfecting it. Even if (and when) things don’t go exactly as planned, you should take deep pleasure in the act of making and sharing food with the people you love. That, to me, is the true joy of cooking.” As Julia Child’s breakthrough Mastering did when it was first published, it is my fervent hope that Taste & Technique will lead a new generation of interested cooks into the kitchen.
I have not cooked anything from My Two Souths yet. The person who eats with me hates coconut, coconut milk, and cilantro! Avoiding those ingredients, I have picked three recipes to start with. If the Garam Masala Filé Gumbo, Savoy and Green Apple Slaw, and Three-spice Carrot Cake are as good as they sound, I’ll be a happy cook.
So The Piglet is over for another year. Thanks to all those who commented. I enjoyed the comments as much as the reviews. Thank you, FOOD52, for a nice break from this year’s news, for Carey Nershi’s No-Knead Sandwich Bread, Jennifer Perillo’s Creamy Homemade Ricotta, and Posie Harwood’s Double Vanilla Butter Cake with Chantilly Cream.
That said, I agree with folks that feel a little cheated of a promised Lena Dunham review.
That said, I agree with folks that feel a little cheated of a promised Lena Dunham review.
And the person who did only cooked TWO recipes from Taste and Technique. A finalist deserves better than this. How many did she cook from the winner? Didn't appear to be very many.
FYI, judges for the Beard and IACP competitions have to cook a minimum of 5 recipes from each candidate.
My Two Souths is clearly a wonderful book, but I would have loved to see a fairer comparison between these books. They are very different from one another.
That said, I plan on getting both of these books - not based on this review, but on the other reviews.
"Not everyone who comes here is an accomplished, dedicated cook,..." and that's both true and fine. But the reviewers should be more than some person who can barely make toast. I think a good review can evaluate this point even if the reviewer is a good home cook but it's almost impossible for someone who isn't very interested in cooking to do the opposite and tell us how a good home cook would react to a book. That is, it's one thing to note that a book might be intimidating to a new, less experienced cook. It's almost impossible for that inexperienced cook to channel a more experienced person, though.
Dont want to source ingredients? Fine. But that's on each of us, not a ding on the cookbook. And what's hard to source, anyway? I have amazing Asian stores here but I'm in a major West coast city. Should my experience be the norm or should it be that of someone in a small, Midwest town? Noting that the book relies on things that aren't in supermarkets as well as whether it offers substitutes is perfectly valid, but insisting on only books that use common ingredients isn't. Again, judge the books on what they are intended to be.
As for yourselves, please drop the celebrity 'reviewers' who can't cook and are there just for name. Dunham contributed nothing here aside from her name.
I say this because this review was, well, meh. I'm fine with the winner (though I was pulling for T&T). The cursory effort (2 recipes), hearing what her 12 year old thought (what did SHE think?) were annoying but what sent me over the edge was complaining about the depth of effort needed by some of the T&T recipes. That's the POINT of the book, though - rather than just recipes, it's for people who want to become better home cooks and It would be like criticizing My Two Souths for having Indian ingredients or Dorie's book for being all about cookies.
I get why that might not appeal to a given person, but I think you have to judge books based on what they're trying to do, not what you'd rather they do. Is the duck confit recipe involved? Yeah, but it's confit, the time it takes is mostly passive. The question that should have been asked - after actually TRYING IT - is whether it's worth it. If not, then that's a valid criticism. But to simply complaining about the time is silly... especially given that the first day is nothing more than prepping and seasoning the duck then refrigerating it for a day.
All that said, the Piglet once again brought attention to a bunch of good cookbooks. For that, I thanks everyone.
*in terms
In the area we're in right now with cookbooks, I was thrilled to see a book that brought a unique culinary focus with a fusion between American and Indian food was the winner. There were other books in this completion I would have preferred to have seen won but of the two I am happy it was something that challenges the home cook to try something new. That being said I have every intention of getting Taste & Technique as well but that's to add to my ever growing library and not for my every day and "new" recipes.
I appreciated the review. I thought she judged the books as fairy as most of the other judges did but that's not saying much as I don't understand how the judges are picked. I think for the semi-finals and finals you really need to have judges that have a clue do the review. I think the way Freddie Prince Jr. structured his review and the fact that he himself is a cookbook author would have made a much more interesting final judge. I also think Katie Quinn would have made a great final judge as well with he fun upbeat video style. Heck, even David Plotz had a great review due to the fact that he cooked full meals from both books.
I do have so say I don't understand two judges. What if they disagreed? Who breaks the tie? Definitely not how one should judge a final.
Oh, and on the note of many of the judges baulking at "hard to find ingredients"… have they not hear of the internet? Between Amazon Prime and sites like spicejungle.com I have yet to find an ingredient I can't source living in northern Iowa out in the country.
Too bad that Lena Dunham, who apparently knows how to write, couldn't manage to type some of her own words to the review.
Frankly, some of the regulars here are perfectly qualified to do these reviews. Face it, you chose to push Dunham because it brings attention to the Piglet, no other reason.
Thank you Food52 for another entertaining Piglet.