Cooking with Economy and Grace: Enjoy an Enduring Meal

A. Bear: I bought this book as a gift following a review I read somewhere else. I had a look through the book and it looks beautiful lots of interesting information and the feel of the book was also very nice.

United Kingdom on Jan 11, 2024

John Ford: This is not a cookbook. This is a book on how to cook, add layers of flavor to your food and to cook a delicious meal with what you have on hand. This is the best money I have ever spent.

United States on Dec 29, 2023

Antonia S.: Uso personale . L ho letto con piacere

Italy on Aug 12, 2021

Amazon Customer: It’s a comfort read. Good book.

India on Sep 26, 2019

HS: ...and I have a lot of them!

I had slightly mixed feelings when I ordered the book. I loved the concept, and really wanted inspiration to be more of an intuitive cook and less reliant on recipes all the time, but I was wary when some reviews pointed to the pretentious prose used throughout. I am not a fan of that type of writing. While I love to eat delicious food, it doesn't prompt particularly profound thoughts.

But, I've started reading it, and I am totally in love with this book. I'm barely half-way through and felt compelled to write a review. I have totally gotten sucked in by the writing style. Yes, there have been a couple times where I've rolled my eyes, but they've been few and far between so far. It just seems to work.

I haven't learned anything radically new. I'm already fairly adept in the kitchen and have learned a lot from my mother-in-law (a 75 year old Italian nonna) about simple ways to infuse flavour in dishes. Maybe this is why the book speaks to me - it is very similar to how she cooks. And I love her cooking. Lots of good olive oil, garlic, onions, parsley. Even though there haven't been any revolutionary tips so far, it has really...

Canada on Feb 26, 2016

surmount crags: An everlasting meal

Here is the difference between cooking before ever reading this book (or one like it) and cooking after reading this book: you need a recipe, and then you don't. You need to go to the grocery and buy a very specific list of ingredients, the greater portion of which you won't use at all; and then you just open the fridge and make something wonderful out of whatever is there already. Consequently, you waste more; then you waste less. You get annoyed at the people who say things like, "but béchamel is easy!"; then you become one of those people.

This book is not a recipe book. It is a base from which you can design your own recipes. It is a force for liberation from recipes.

It occurred to me to write this review because I just made two very hearty and tasty vats of soup -- spicy squash and chicken noodle -- without a single ounce of stock or cube of bouillon. Also without recipes.

That's another difference: you need Campbell's, Progresso or processed stocks -- what's in there, anyway? -- and then you don't. You need Big Corporations, and then you need them less.

To be fair, there were a few soups I could make without grocery...

United States on Jan 02, 2016

Midori Aoi: If you love books at all, in any way, then I am sure that you can bring to mind almost immediately a list of books that you keep constantly updated in your head which you happened upon through unlikely circumstances, but which you found in very short order, changed your life in unexpected ways. For myself, that list is rather eclectic, and perhaps to some, somewhat esoteric--it includes: "The Elements of Typographic Design", by Robert Bringhurst; "Woodcraft and Camping", by Horace Kephart; "Elegance", by Geneviève Antoine Dariaux; "Maiden Voyage", by Tania Aebi; "Progress and Poverty", by Henry George; and now, "An Everlasting Meal", by Tamar Adler. These are the books that you keep on a separate shelf, the ones you would grab in the event of an unexpected evacuation, the ones you constantly think of gifting to your benighted friends because you cannot bear the thought of them living one more day without the revelation that has made your former life seem dull and distant by comparison.

I thought I knew a lot about food and cooking. Food is never far from my mind, and on a daily basis, I am the primary cook for a three generations deep family of six with widely varied...

United States on Aug 13, 2012

Babs: A different sort of cookbook indeed. It is a book you can read like a novel, but it contains excellent advice. Not the usual recipe collection with prettily photographed dishes but a very useful everyday guide for people who are learning to cook, but also people who already think they know what they are doing. I like the fact that the meals are not just one meal but usually could last for several days of meals, always in different variations. And there are tipps for when to freeze and how long things keep in the fridge and mainly how to make the most of everything you buy. Tamar's advice is to buy the best quality of food and to make the most out of all the bits and pieces. It has certainly revolutionized the way I do things in the kitchen.

Germany on May 06, 2012