There are no more excuses for cooking phobia.
Former Sacramento Bee food editor Corn (Gooey Desserts) wrote a series for noncooks that led to this snazzy book.
The layout is perfect: Recipes are in fairly large print in the center of each page, with additional information in the margins. Illustrations show techniques, such as separating an egg. The beginning of each recipe lists not only the ingredients necessary, but also the best equipment to use (note "best,'' not "only''- -Corn suggests but never admonishes). Instructions are broken into sections and then into numbered steps, which include when to clean up (e.g., while the potatoes are baking) and which tools to use. Corn even covers basics like making coffee and which gadgets are must-haves, and she cannily inserts some simple recipes like egg salad right up front so that those eager for hands-on encouragement can learn as they go along. Corn provides straight talk about straightforward American food (updated somewhat—Corn admits that she's "cut back on fat to some degree, but not enough to get it into the title of this book''), and if several of the recipes are nothing exciting, well, that's the point: Even the novice can thrill at creating puffy biscuits and crispy French frystyle potatoes. One little flaw stands out because Corn is so fastidious: A recipe for Red Chard in Olive Oil and Garlic refers to the "white ends'' of the leaves, while red chard has red stems.
There are no more excuses for cooking phobia.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 1-883791-00-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harlow & Ratner
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1994
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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