Heidi Swanson

Gorgeous photography, much like Swanson's beautiful blog. I tried two chickpea recipes right off the bat: chickpea stew and roasted chickpeas. One had a flavor profile I don't visit often (saffron and yogurt); the other used a new roasting technique. Both were successful, especially the roasted chickpeas. If you're a fan of 101 Cookbooks blog, you'll find the writing style and photography familiar and inspirational. Flipping through the book, I mostly found myself thinking, Oh, that would be good with X, Y, and Z, instead of P, Q , and R.… (mer)

Swanson's narrative is one of privilege, it is true. A lot of other reviews have mentioned this, with varying degrees of annoyance. The book, however, does not pretend. The minute you touch the embossed hard cover and look at the photos, you know that this is a chichi cookbook (although the recipes are simple), not Betty Crocker's Cookbook or The Joy of Cooking. The subtitle does not lie: "Recipes Inspired by Home and Travel." And traveled she has: India, Japan, Morocco, France, and Italy. The photos of the destinations are sometimes so artsy as to feel contrived, but they anchor each section in its own ethos. I haven't yet made any of the recipes, but I am inspired. As a committed omnivore, vegetarian recipes rarely inspire me, but I find her approach to flavors intriguing.

If you are someone who likes hunting down interesting ingredients, you will likely enjoy this book. She isn't writing for someone who does not know anything about ethnic foods, so you will not find explanations and definitions for a lot of the ingredients. I think she could have done more in that regard, and it was a missed opportunity. Overall, however, this is a beautifully produced cookbook, with accessible-but-not-accommodating prose. I'm looking forward to digging in to the recipes.… (mer)

I really like the idea of this book.

Introduce a basic recipe concept (e.g. frittata, smoothie, 'smooth soup') and then offer variations presented in a way that reinforces that the recipes are really all kinda the same. It reminds me of "Ratio" in that way - the goal is to convey a skeleton and teach you about the variety of fleshes that skeleton can wear.

Nothing super inspiring that I had to go out and cook RIGHT THEN, but a fuck of a lot less pretentious than the shit Heidi is getting up to now, with organic monk blessed pollen from unionized bees etc. etc.… (mer)