Cookbooks
Top gear
Long, gleaming prep tables, professional equip-
ment, and 800-degree pizza ovens are nice to
have, but many chef-authors acknowledge the
likely limitations of the reader’s home kitchen. “I
always try to approach a recipe that I’m scaling
down by using relatable equipment; if I’d use my
Vitamix, I just say blender, ” Suzanne Vizethann
says of the approach she took in Welcome to
Buttermilk Kitchen (Gibbs Smith, Apr.), named for
her Atlanta restaurant. “I try to think in terms of
what a home cook is likely to have. I learned a lot
from doing demonstrations at farmer’s markets
and talking to people who were just learning.”
In Beatrix Bakes (Hardie Grant, Mar.), Natalie
Paull, who owns the North Melbourne bakery for
which the book is named, recommends a $4 dowel
from the hardware store in place of her commercial
dough roller. She scaled down the batches and prep
time of her popular cakes, leaving the essence of
the recipes intact: a 24-layer red velvet cake, for
instance, became a two-layer confection. “As long
as you love what you’re baking,” she says, “size doesn’t matter.
And plenty of mistakes can be rescued; I give
readers backup plans to tuck in their apron
pocket.” Paull tested all the cookbook’s recipes in
her own “terrible” home oven to make sure lay-
people could get good results without professional
appliances.
Sometimes success depends on making the most
of the tools on hand. “In restaurants, stoves are on
all the time and ovens are always at 500 degrees,”
says Annemarie Ahearn, author of Modern Country
Cooking (Roost, Apr.). “Home cooks are afraid to
use high heat, and I’m always encouraging them
to keep the ovens hotter and cook faster than the
recipes call for.” She also advises against sacrificing
flavor for virtue. “Home cooks never properly
season food—they don’t use enough salt or butter.
There’s a point at which food is most flavorful,
which may not be the most healthful.” It’s the
kind of advice she serves up in her book, which
PW’s review called “a presentation of hearty,
simple country cooking and entertaining,” and at
Salt Water Farm, the cooking school she runs in
Lincolnville, Maine.“I find myself craving her food. A lot.
Laura Lea’s cooking is not simply for sustenance—
it makes you feel something. You can taste the
love and passion she has for her craft.”—SEAN BROCKSimply Healthy.
Simply Delicious.
Available from IPS at 1-866-400-5351
or [email protected].Hardback | 978-1-951217-22-8 | $35.00 | 368 Pages
Visit Laura Lea @ LLBalanced.comcontinued on p. 31