Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I'm sort of baffled as to how to review this cookbook, because I think it's great for her intended audience, but the marketing is a bit misleading. Someone who is looking for truly SIMPLE meals to make for one person may be a bit dissappointed. So I'll just sum up my impressions of it so far.
First of all, it's a beautiful book. Nicely laid out, gorgeous photographs, personal antecdotes - it's just the sort of book I love browsing through when I'm feeling excited about cooking. I like the stylistic layout of the recipes, with the ingredients in a separate column on the side, and it's printed on thick, quality paper. It's a high quality paperback, perfect for laying flat on the counter.
Her attitude throughout is kind of gratingly pretentious at times. It's as if she expects the readers to look at her as some kind of culinary snob, so she deliberately makes comments to diffuse it, but the comments are sort of more pretentious than just snobbiness. For example, discussing eating polenta straight from the pot with a spoon: "... I make no apologies for my childish eating habits." Or, discussing microwave cooking - "... I will confess I have reheated coffee a few times. I am no longer a total culinary snob." Besides blatent examples like that, her tone and choice of words throughout are sort of exclusionary. I find it amusing and charming, but I'm sure other people will be put off by it.
In her introduction, she plainly says that this is not another book of quick meals for singles. Alot of the dishes in this book are rather lengthy and complicated. Her persian meatball soup, for example, requires mixing and rolling 30 tiny meatballs, soaking and precooking 2 different dried grains, and has 20 ingredients - all for 1-2 servings. On top of that, it's a yogurt based soup, which I found very difficult to not curdle and ruin. Is it good? I'm not sure, because I've tried it twice, investing hours each time, and haven't been successful. My mom saw the recipe and laughed - she's started calling this my "snooty single person cookbook."
Alot of the flavors she likes are strange. Lots of exotic herbs and ethnic spices, (cinnamon in the meatballs was a little strange). The recipes also seem pretty high in fat and cholesterol. Here's my favorite quote of the whole book (about spaghetti alla carbonara): "Yes, I realize that this is a high cholesterol special, but I don't care. I only eat this pasta twice a year. The rest of the time I am a model of Mediterranean dietary restraint." Haha. I guess she doesn't eat the other recipes in the book that call for several eggs, butter, cheese and heavy cream.
But if you can get past the pretentiousness, the apparent unhealthiness, and the complicated nature of some recipes, - most of them are REALLY good. The poached salmon is SO delicious that it's my new favorite way to eat salmon. All of the egg dishes are great, so are some of the soups.
I consider myself somewhat of an amatuer gourmet. I enjoy grocery shopping and reading cookbooks and trying new recipes, and most nights it is just me for dinner. I like this book because the food is good, and reading it makes me want to become a true gourmet. I think that I'm probably close to her target audience.
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