Peter Kaminsky

I like to read food blogs and restaurant reviews, but I sometimes wonder, why aren't these people obese or diabetic? Well, here's a book written by a food writer in response to just that. Kaminsky writes in his opening chapters about his experience as a food writer and how he reconciled that with his doctor's advice to lose weight and eat more healthfully. Though some of the stories he tells about extravagant and fanciful meals are beyond the average cook, his advice about using flavors, quality ingredients, portion sizes, and smart choices are easily adoptable. The prose is enjoyable and readable. I particularly liked his chapter about eating on the road since I will be making a cross-country road trip in a few weeks.… (más)

Though it is contains quite a bit of what some would consider to be 'conventional wisdom' for educated eaters, it strikes a really nice balance of storytelling, food lust and dietary wisdom.

I'd really recommend it to anyone who has less than ideal eating habits and who might be easily put off by reading a standard nutrition or diet book. Peter's got a great writing sensibility and has clearly been around the block a few times. One part jaded New Yorker, one part clever chef uncle, one part foodie, one part common sense nutritionist equals some good umami. I plan on gifting it to a few people.… (más)

I approve of a lot of what Peter Kaminsky is saying in this book: not eating processed foods, using good ingredients and learning how to cook them. Given that these are his central tenets, I found the descriptions of fabulous restaurant meals prepared for him by amazing chefs a little hard to stomach after a while. There's a lot of place- and person-name dropping in the book, which doesn't interest me at all. And it really read in places like an extended advertisement for all the other books he's written. Didn't work, I'm afraid.… (más)