Sam Stern

I love this cookbook. Don't tell the author, but I plan to double the recipes and share the results with my husband. The general idea is that you make a base recipe including extras that can be used for a second (or more) meals over the next few days.

There are also ideas for baking and other desserts that are suitable for one person. It finishes with a mug cake sticky toffee pudding. First I need to buy dates. ...

I finally got around to trying a few of these recipes. My husband's reaction to both was 'bland', and since one of those was for a curry, I would suggest trying to add flavour. Still, both were fairly easy to make, and we ate them.… (más)

In this book Sam asks 7 of his friends what their favorite food.ingredient is and makes recipes around each of those ingredients. Sam is a very talented chef. I would not recommend this book for beginners but anyone who knows their way around a kitchen may enjoy it. Sam is from England and so some of his terminology is different than ours so be sure to read a recipe all the way through before starting it. Also some of the ingredients you may not be able to find in small communities so you may have to take a trip to the "big city" to get what you need.
I love how he gives advice through out the book about the recipes such as "good as a date recipe" "pick me up recipe" things like that.… (más)

Intended to inspire the novice cook Sam Sterns's Virgin to Veteran has something for everyone. He opens with a very down to earth summary of the basics for the kitchen, both equipment and basic food stores, and more, and does so with an open mind and is never proscriptive. Then follows the recipes, and these are certainly varied and interesting, and clearly presented in terms of the instructions. Most of the recipes are accompanied by a full page colour photograph of the finished dish, and these do make the dishes look attractive. The recipes pages often include alternative ideas for the dish, additions or substitutions, along with suggestions of what to serve with the dish.

Looking at some of the recipes the advice given seems sound and practical. What I really like though are the short introductions to each section where Sam offers advice on choosing and buying, and often includes useful and simple little tips such as how to tell if the food is cooked and to what degree without resorting to the thermometer. There is also information on the nutritional value of the food.

The presentation of the the book is lively, some might find it a little too much so with the almost chaotic typography with more fonts to the page than any self-respecting typographer might consider decent, yet it works and gives the book a character all its own.

There is much here to inspire and give confidence, and it will no doubt appeal to those just starting to discover the delights of cooking. But there is plenty here for the experienced cook too.… (más)