In the Green Kitchen: A Book Review

The minute I heard about In the Green Kitchen: Techniques to Learn by Heart by Alice Waters, I knew I had to have it. I purchased The Art of Simple Food earlier this year and, although I haven’t cooked anything out of it yet, I love the premise and the solid information in it.  The basic idea is that fresh, local ingredients need minimal preparation to be fabulous.

Here is the description according to the press release:

Alice Waters has been a champion of the sustainable, local cooking movement for decades.  To Alice, good food is a right, not a privilege.  In the Green Kitchen presents her essential cooking techniques to be learned by heart plus more than 50 recipes?for delicious fresh, local, and seasonal meals?from Alice and her friends.  She demystifies the basics including steaming a vegetable, dressing a salad, simmering stock, filleting a fish, roasting a chicken, and making bread. An indispensable cookbook, she gives you everything you need to bring out the truest flavor that the best ingredients of the season have to offer.



Contributors: Darina Allen * Dan Barber * Lidia Bastianich * Rick Bayless * Paul Bertolli * David Chang * Traci Des Jardins * Angelo Garro * Joyce Goldstein * Thomas Keller * Niloufer Ichaporia King * Peggy Knickerbocker * Anna Lappé & Bryant Terry * Deborah Madison * Clodagh McKenna * Jean-Pierre Moullé * Joan Nathan * Scott Peacock * Cal Peternell * Gilbert Pilgram * Clair Ptak * Oliver Rowe * Amaryll Schwertner * Fanny Singer * David Tanis * Poppy Tooker * Charlie Trotter * Jerôme Waag * Beth Wells

The verdict: I must profess my ignorance here. I’m not a celebrity chef follower, other than Chef Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares because it reminds me why I only want to eat at restaurants where I know the owner or people who work there. So, I could have done without the glamour shots of the contributors. The little bios under them were interesting, though.

The rest of it I thoroughly enjoyed. If you are an experienced cook, you might not be as excited as I was about the contents. There aren’t a *ton* of recipes, and nothing really new to see. But for those of us who grew up cooking out of a box, tube, or frozen dinners and want to learn how to take charge of the kitchen, this is a great place to start. As it states in the introduction, if one can commit some of these principles to memory, it will be easy to cook based on what ingredients one has on hand. While some of it may seem pretty basic, I frequent a number of cooking forums and several times a week people ask what the best way to roast a chicken is. And I love how she has tips sprinkled throughout – such as how to make your own baking powder and vinegar. This is the Betty Crocker book for those who wish to focus on clean, green eating. The Art of Simple Food would be the Joy of Cooking, following that analogy.

If you are experienced in the kitchen, you’ll probably want to pass. But if you’re new to cooking from scratch, it’s a great way to get started.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary review copy of this book. Also, if you order In the Green Kitchen: Techniques to Learn by Heart by following the link on my website, I will get a few cents from Amazon.com. This in no way influenced my opinion of this cookbook.

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