Deb Perelman the Smitten Kitchen
Deb Perelman is many things: a well-known food blogger, a wife and mother, a writer and a former art-therapist; but one thing that she is not is a professional chef. In fact, she states that she has never even worked in a restaurant! Her experience and recipes come from her own tiny apartment Manhattan apartment kitchen, which is part of what makes her so appealing and relatable to readers. Perelman believes that there are no bad cooks, just bad recipes, and her cookbook aims to introduce you to her best tried-and-true recipes.
The Smitten Kitchen originally started as Perelman’s blog, which is still going strong today. In 2012, she released The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, which includes over 100 recipes. While the recipes themselves are reason enough to give The Smitten Kitchen a chance, Perelman also provides background stories for each of the recipes, as well as a ton of high-quality photographs. The book definitely appeals to a wide audience!
By the way, Perelman’s second book The Smitten Kitchen Everyday is coming out on October 24th (AND she’s doing a book tour)! The library will, of course, be ordering copies 🙂
Our First Cookbook Club Meeting
I think it’s safe to say that our first Cookbook Club meeting was a great success!! 18 people attended, bringing with them a huge variety of dishes to share; we had about equal quantities of dessert and dinner dishes to enjoy, which is never a bad thing!
Some of the highlights, according to club members, were the Red Wine Velvet Cake with Whipped Mascarpone, the Fig, Olive Oil, and Sea Salt Challah, the Marbled Pumpkin Gingerbread Tart, the Wild Mushroom Tart, and Mom’s Apple Cake. While these were favorites, the group agreed that absolutely everything was delicious!
The cookbook’s overall rating (by group members): 4.6/5 stars! Not too shabby!
Group comments:
“Recipes were easy to follow”
“I loved the stories that went along with each recipe” as well as the “wonderful tips”
“Love her humor”
“[Perelman] is casual and simple in her directions and comments” and gives “very clear directions”
A few members also commented on the beautiful and “enticing” photographs, which are found on just about every page of the book!
As with anything, there were a few critiques. One person noted that the ingredient list often continued onto other pages, causing a lot of flipping of pages. A few others noted that some of the cooking/baking times did not seem wholly accurate. Still, the consensus among the group was that they would definitely use the book again!
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We’re already looking forward to our next meeting, which will be held on November 27th (we’re holding it a week late due to Thanksgiving). Our book will be Barefoot Contessa Foolproof by Ina Garten.
westerlycooks 