Culinary delights (in print)
Intimidating – that’s the problem with too many cookbooks. Why bother picking up a cookbook if the process of re-creating the recipes proves too difficult for the novice to master?
Ah, but NPR has seemingly solved that dilemma with their list of “The 10 Best Cookbooks of 2009″.
T. Susan Chang describes the choices thusly:
This year’s cookbook instructions are detailed and sure-handed, so you’ll feel confident even taking on those fiddly little jobs you usually leave to your good friend Joe, the Trader. If you’re the kind of person who’s believed all along that a book can teach you to do anything, congratulations! You were right. With these books you can, if you want, make your own bread, your own pasta, even your own dumplings. If, on the other hand, you thought you were the kind of person who could never produce a picture-perfect mushroom tart, guess again. That competent soul is only a few well-described pages away.
Not sure that the “picture-perfect mushroom tart” is the hook here, but the general concept of providing instructions to allow the layperson the opportunity to experience new taste sensations in their own kitchen without going to cooking school definitely works.
And if the end results are half as good as the descriptions accompanying the ten cookbook selections, then your personal library just might need a little more space to accomodate these excellent new options.
