"This could be the most important book you'll ever read." Super Size Me
“…[A] terrific, inspiring book…”
-People (A People Pick, 4 stars)
"If you are going to read one book to change your diet and your life, The Kitchen Counter Cooking School is it."
-AP
The Essential New York Times Cookbook The School for Essential Ingredients A Homemade Life
"An engaging...book on the joys of home cooking and the teaching thereof."
-The Wall Street Journal
"The author''s humble approach is inviting and shows why her students were enthusiastic."
-Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
"Flinn guides you patiently in the kitchen like the mom you always wish you''d had to learn to cook from...the women gained confidence under Flinn''s wonderfully encouraging tutelage, and fearlessly faced their kitchens and grocery stores with useful knowledge."
-Publishers Weekly
"Flinn winningly offers inspiration to anyone who cares about cooking but lacks basic tools and skills."
-Booklist
"An amiable companion to cookbook stalwarts such as Mark Bittman''s How To Cook Everything , Pam Anderson''s How To Cook Without a Book , and Michael Ruhlman''s Ratio , this title provides encouragement where the others offer direction. A mash-up of inspiration and reference, it will appeal to readers who enjoy a story with their instruction."
-Library Journal
The Kitchen Counter Cooking School
"This could be the most important book you'll ever read."Super Size Me
“…[A] terrific, inspiring book…”-People (A People Pick, 4 stars)
"If you are going to read one book to change your diet and your life, The Kitchen Counter Cooking School is it."
"Kathleen entered the kitchens of strangers and took the time to understand how they think about food before changing their cooking forever." The Essential New York Times Cookbook
“A life-changing book—entertaining, inspiring, and deeply educational."The School for Essential Ingredients
"A funny, thoroughly engrossing book...get ready to be inspired—and to eat well along the way." —Molly Wizenberg, Orangette.com, A Homemade Life
"An engaging...book on the joys of home cooking and the teaching thereof."The Wall Street Journal
"The author's humble approach is inviting and shows why her students were enthusiastic."Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
"Flinn guides you patiently in the kitchen like the mom you always wish you'd had to learn to cook from...the women gained confidence under Flinn's wonderfully encouraging tutelage, and fearlessly faced their kitchens and grocery stores with useful knowledge."Publishers Weekly
"Flinn winningly offers inspiration to anyone who cares about cooking but lacks basic tools and skills."Booklist
"An amiable companion to cookbook stalwarts such as Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything , Pam Anderson's How To Cook Without a Book , and Michael Ruhlman's Ratio , this title provides encouragement where the others offer direction. A mash-up of inspiration and reference, it will appeal to readers who enjoy a story with their instruction."Library Journal
The Kitchen Counter Cooking School
"If you are going to read one book to change your diet and your life, The Kitchen Counter Cooking School is it."
Seattle food writer Flinn (The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry) guides you patiently in the kitchen like the mom you always wish you’d had to learn how to cook from. Although a graduate of Paris’s elite Cordon Bleu School, Flinn, like Julia Child before her, aims to demystify rarefied culinary know-how and bring basic cooking lessons to the simplest level.. Inspired by a cable TV show that walked guests through their own closets and tutored them on what to wear, Flinn chose nine eager-to-learn women of all backgrounds and ages for her experiment, examined their kitchen cabinets and refrigerators with them, and made each one prepare one of their typical dishes. The results were sadly predictable, as most relied on prepackaged ingredients. Moreover, the waste was staggering (many shop at warehouse stores and buy too much). Over the course of several weeks’ worth of lessons, recorded in chapters, Flinn instructed the women in the rudiments of preparing food: from wielding knives, comparing tastes (i.e., salts, mustards), cooking vegetables four ways then “splashing” with flavors, mastering a vinaigrette and omelet, handling chicken, meat cuts, and fish, and even baking bread. In the end, the women gained confidence under Flinn’s wonderfully encouraging tutelage, and fearlessly faced their kitchens and grocery stores with useful knowledge. (Oct.)
A different kind of culinary treatise, one that focuses on practical, healthy home culinary tips, bypasses celebrity chefs and goes right to grocery market savings, butchery skills, and simple recipes. Marguerite Gavin's precise enunciation works well with the story of nine beginners who gained culinary expertise without drama or angst. The author’s Cordon Bleu training, replete with challenging French terms, does not daunt Gavin, who soldiers on in carrying out the book's intended purpose—demystifying cooking for the purpose of enabling beginners to embrace basic cooking skills to create economical and healthy cuisine at home. Flinn strives to bridge the gap between available food and quality home cooking by sharing food shopping tips and preparation strategies, which Gavin shares energetically. Only the print book's accompanying recipes are missed in the audio version. A.W. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine
A Seattle-based writer turned chef demonstrates how readers can transform their lives with the right recipe.
After a stint at Paris' Le Cordon Bleu, Flinn returned to the States to pen her 2008 debut,The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry . But after the critical acclaim and the endless book touring subsided, the author found herself at a loss for her next project until she stumbled across the TV program What Not to Wear . Envisioning a cooking class that would dig through pantries and cupboards in a manner befitting the show's hosts, Flinn took on a group of nine culinary novitiates and imparted technique and skill, giving them confidence in the kitchen. The author began by taking inventory of each participants' refrigerator, cabinets and eating habits. A friend's step-daughter, Sabra, was a disaster in the kitchen, so she usually relied on frozen dinners. One of her go-to concoctions, "White Trash Garlic Bread," is enough to give any reader, no matter how unseasoned a chef, pause: "She slathered one-half of a soft hamburger bun with Gold 'n Soft margarine, added a few hearty shakes of generic garlic salt, and topped it with dried Parmesan cheese from a can." Another woman admitted to buying in bulk, only to later feel awful about the amount of food she wasted. Flinn's chronicle of her culinary coaching discusses how her students fared, and acknowledges how the process led her to clean out her own cupboards: "I am in a battle with myself. It seemed that I had as much to learn as the people I'd just visited."
The author's humble approach is inviting and shows why her students were enthusiastic.
