Mincemeat

It's a little bit weird for me to read the autobiography of someone I don't know.

I mean, usually when I'm reading a biography or autobiography, I'm doing it because I'm interested in the person. Maybe it's someone in history or someone currently somewhat-famous, but generally I know something about them. I mean, at least I know what they're famous for.

I mean, the average person would never get their autobiography published. Because average isn't all that interesting.

Mincemeat is the autobiography of Leonardo Lucarelli.

Never heard of him, right?

Probably because he's an Italian chef. In Italy. The book was translated from Italian. Well, he might be a chef, but we don't know that (unless we happened to read the back flap first) because we're not Italians in Italy. The book talks about his earlier years in the industry and how he bounced from one restaurant job to the other.

He wasn't an immediate success. He did some drugs, got in some trouble. Had girlfriends or not ... and along the way he learned more about cooking and running a restaurant. And he moved a lot, mostly to places I really didn't know much about, except in the broadest sense.

I suspect that his experiences in Italy aren't all that different from what might happen in America. Or not. Since everyone's path is different.

It was a good read, not too long. I think I might have enjoyed it a bit more if it was a chef I "knew," but it was still it was a good story.

I received this book from the publisher at no cost to me.

Method of Procedure

On the back of the book, Method of Procedure, there is an explanation of author Thomas Gosney's reason for writing the book. It says (all quotes typed exactly, including errors):

Throughout his career people were always contacting him for recipes and advice on cooking. As he analyzed the problems they were having, he realized most of the issues were in the "method of procedure". This is the step-by-step process in preparing them. 

That sounds great, but I think Gosney might be a little too far removed from beginning cooks to realize what sort of written instructions they need.

For example, in a recipe for Tortilla Soup, ingredients include (in order) chicken stock, tomatoes, onion, chiles, olive oil, garlic, cumin, chili powder, fresh corn tortillas, corn, and chicken breast. The instructions begin:

Season liberally with garlic salt and fresh pepper. Sprinkle 1 tbsp. of cumin ...

Do you see what's going on here? He's giving instructions for seasoning the chicken, but the instructions aren't explicit about that. Given that most books these days list the ingredients in the order used, a new cook might season the stock rather that the chicken breasts. And yes, the instructions call for garlic salt while the ingredient list has fresh garlic but no salt or pepper at all.

The instructions continue with mixing the spices with the chicken, so if someone reads that far ahead, they'll be fine. That's a big if. A lot of new cooks take it one sentence at a time. And while an experienced cook could estimate the right amount of salt and pepper, a new cook might want exact measurements. Other recipes do indicate amount for salt and pepper, by the way.

Gosney also has a tendency to use cheffy terms without really explaining what he means. In a recipe for Oven Roasted Brussels Sprouts, he begins with:

Blanch brussel sprouts in boiling salted water until fork tender.

But he doesn't explain what he means by "blanch" so that could cause confusion.

In a recipe for chocolate mousse, after the mousse is finished, he says:

Once the chocolate is cooled properly (but not solidified) slowly temper into martini glasses, top with a dollop of whipped cream.

If he was standing next to you, he could tell you what "cooled properly" means, but a beginning cook would likely need a better description. As far as tempering it into glasses, I know what tempering chocolate is, if we're talking about warm chocolate, but I have no idea what procedure he envisions for tempering a finished mousse into a glass.

The other bit of instruction that in the mousse recipe that baffled me was to "Chill mixing bowl and whip in the freezer for 10 minutes." The first three times I read that, I thought he was instructing to put the bowl containing the melted chocolate in the freezer and whip it in the freezer, which I could do if I had a walk-in freezer, but not really likely in my home freezer.

On the fourth reading, I realized he meant that a new empty mixing bowl and a whip (which I would have called a whisk) should be put in the freezer.

back cover

In the salad dressing section, another clue that Gosney is used to restaurant kitchens is his recipe for blue cheese dressing. A quick stroll through the ingredient list tells me that it's going to yield about 6 cups of dressing (1 1/2 quarts). While that's probably a reasonable restaurant amount, that's a lot of dressing for a normal family.

Those are just a few examples of why this book isn't aimed squarely at beginning home cooks. Suffice it to say that you need cooking experience to navigate your way through this book.

I have to say that I'm personally bothered that the ingredients aren't listed in order of use. A chef who sets up mise en place beforehand might not be as concerned about the order of ingredients in the list, but home cooks are less likely to set out and measure absolutely everything before they begin. So they might be flummoxed when they have to search the whole list to find the amounts.

Aside from the cheffy-quirks, the recipes look decent. There's a tomato soup that's very similar to one I make (except that I don't use V-8). There's a salad dressing with sherry that sounds interesting; I might cut that down to a more petite size for my own use. The tandoori chicken sounds like a winner, and I'm probably going to try the peach cream pie, too.

Whether this is the right book for you is going to depend on whether you can get past the quirkiness of the instructions. But I don't suggest giving it to a beginning cook; I they'd find it too difficult to follow.

I received Method of Procedure from the publisher for the purpose of a review at no cost to me.

Mastering My Mistakes in the Kitchen

The premise of Mastering My Mistakes in the Kitchen by Dana Cowin is interesting. Unlike other cookbook authors who talk about their cooking experience, Cowin readily admits that she was never much of a cook.

However, as editor-in-chief of Food & Wine Magazine, Cowin had access to a whole lot of accomplished cooks and chefs who helped her correct her mistakes in the kitchen. Marcus Samuelson helped her conquer fried chicken, the Food & Wine test kitchen crew talked her through bechamel, David Chang helped her with kimchi, and Renato Poliafito and Matt Lewis (from Baked) helped her with brownies.

At least 65 chefs helped her with the 100 recipes in the book, so it's as much about the different chefs as it is about Cowin's kitchen adventures.

Since she talks about the things that went wrong with her cooking, it reassures novice cooks that they can conquer the revised recipes, while at the same time her errors help warn new cooks of the pitfalls they might encounter.

The recipes here seem solid - the ones I tried have worked well. And for the most part, the recipes use ingredients that should be easy to find without hunting the ends of the earth. That's also great for newer cooks who might not want to use ingredients they aren't familiar with.

But this book isn't just for beginners. More accomplished cooks will appreciate the tips from the well-known chefs, like Bryant Ng's explanation of the differences between red and green curry, how to season curry, and what else to use curry paste for, or Mario Batali's tips about pasta, canned tomatoes, bread crumbs, and more.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the recipes, and the stories are an interesting read. Look for a recipe from this book soon on Cookistry.

Milk Bar Life

The first thing I have to say is that Milk Bar Life by Christina Tosi is absolutely not the book I expected it to be. I have the book Momofuku Milk Bar, which she also wrote, and I expected something ... similar, but perhaps more homey.

Momofuku Milk Bar is a somewhat difficult book to cook from, because a lot of the ingredients aren't very common. And many of the recipes build on other recipes. So you can't just make the cake, you have to make the things that go into the cake. It's definitely a "project" book and not one that you open on a whim and start cooking from.

Milk Bar Life isn't a simplified version of Momofuku cooking, it's a complete 180 in terms of recipe ingredients. You'll find recipes calling for cake mix, canned soup, crescent rolls in a can, Cool Whip, and Velveeta.

Now, not all of the recipes use those ingredients, and some are completely from-scratch. But I was surprised at the number of recipes that included convenience foods.

And then I got off that high horse I was on and looked around. I realized that if you work in a restaurant all day long, a box of cake mix and some canned soup probably looks like a really good idea. And let's face it, a lot of people cook with those ingredients.

Even me.

Yup, I said it. I have a few recipes passed down from my mom that include canned soups, and they're just not the same without them. And one of the best mac and cheese recipes I've made recently had Velveeta as an ingredient. We all have a few of those recipes in our closets, right?

The lemon bars in this book start with lemon cake mix, and Tosi says she hasn't found a lemon bar recipe that she likes better. It's her grandmother's recipe, and it sounds pretty darned simple. I might try it one of these days.

And, like I said, there are recipes that are completely from scratch, like a ranch dressing that I've bookmarked. Some recipes are decidedly strange, like the Tang Toast that calls for margarine (it specifically says not to use butter) and Tang drink mix. Some are simple, like the egg soup, which is essentially soft-boiled eggs in a bowl. And some are more complicated, like the enchiladas or jerk chicken.

There's something for everyone, although I suspect some fans of Momofuku and Momofuku Milk Bar will be ... not pleased with the simplicity of some of the recipes.