Wander, Eat, and Tell

how to cook from a new cookbook

Seems simple enough. Right? Pick up a book, choose a recipe, start cooking. But no. If you want to get the most out of your new cookbook, take your time to get to know it! Here’s how I do it…

approaching a new cookbook with Chef Annette

Read the book and the recipes like any other book… get a feel for the story and how it’s being told.
Read the recipe for ingredient and equipment needs, then gather your mise en place.
Read the recipe one last time before cooking. This time, visualize each step as you go. Make mental notes of unusual techniques or transition places.
Enjoy the process!

Want to know more about the Cookbook Club? Start by reading my post HERE.

Happy cooking!

I’d love to hear how you like to approach a new cookbook or recipe. Share your own experiences in the comments below.

Also – this is my first time posting videos to this site. Would you like to see more? Let me know!

the autumn 2021 cookbook club: flavors of New York

autumn 2021 cookbook club featured books

Have you been following along with the cookbook club? If not, you can catch up starting here. This is my third season hosting the 92nd Street Y and Kitchen Arts & Letters online cookbook club. The season hasn’t even started yet and it’s already my favorite! The autumn 2021 cookbook club theme is Flavors of New York. For me (and millions more), that means the flavors of home.

cookbook club: Ruffage

The lazy days of summer are definitely upon us, and our cookbook club is ready to take a summer vacation. But there’s still plenty of summer vegetables left to explore! Our last book of the season is a perfect companion for foraging your local farmers’ markets, or if you’re lucky, maybe your home garden as well.

Our fourth book, Ruffage: A Practical Guide to Vegetables by Abra Berens, actually served as a textbook of sorts for all the others. If you ever wanted a field guide to the produce aisle, this is the book you need! Whether our vegetable-focused cooking adventure was focused on the simplicity of Nigel Slater’s Greenfeast: Spring, Summer, or flavors from further afield in to Asia With Love by Hettie McKinnon, or the West African dishes of Senegal by Pierre Thiam – learning how to select, store, and work with different vegetables has been priceless.

And the recipes are great too (as you’ll soon read)!

stack of four cookbooks — all books available for purchase from http://www.kitchenartsandletters.com

cookbook club: Senegal

Welcome to the third book of our summer cookbook club. Our theme this season is Summer Vegetables – perfect for a time when local farmers’ markets are thriving, and maybe even your home garden. After easing into our vegetable-focused cooking adventure with Nigel Slater’s Greenfeast: Spring, Summer, we began an intercontinental journey; first to Asia, now to West Africa!

summer cookbook club selection — www.kitchenartsandletters.com

Senegal: Modern Senegalese recipes from the source to the bowl by Pierre Thiam with Jennifer Sit is a stunningly beautiful cultural tour of the author’s beloved homeland. The photography, by Evan Sung, brings the vibrancy and richness of Senegal and its people, and the feeling of teranga – warm hospitality – to life on every page.

cookbook club: To Asia, With Love

Welcome to the second book of our summer cookbook club! Our theme this season is Summer Vegetables – perfect for a time when local farmers’ markets are thriving, and maybe even your home garden. After easing into our vegetable-focused cooking adventure with Nigel Slater’s Greenfeast: Spring, Summer, we begin our journey of exploration of other continents. Asia and Africa await!

Our next book is To Asia, With Love: Everyday Asian recipes and stories from the heart by Hetty McKinnon. This is Hetty’s fourth book. Beginning with Neighborhood, then to Community, and Family – with each we join her on a journey continuously closer to her heart.

cookbook club: Greenfeast: Spring, Summer

Welcome to the first book of the summer season of our cookbook club! Our first book is the most recent edition from the UK’s Nigel Slater, Greenfeast: Spring, Summer. Our theme this season is Summer Vegetables – perfect for a time when local farmers’ markets are thriving, and maybe even your home garden.

I’m feeling inspired. And with an international lineup of vegetable-focused books to work our way through, I’m betting you will be too!

Our first book, Greenfeast: Spring, Summer, was originally published in Great Britain in 2019. The North American “translation” was just released last month. I’m working from the UK version, everyone else has the new US edition. Does that make a difference? Read on to find out…

savor the season – summer cookbook club starts soon!

from the farmers’ market or your own garden to your table… with a little help from these amazing books

The spring cookbook club, Classic to Modern, was such a huge hit that we’re going to make a regular thing of it! The summer cookbook club begins on May 26, 2021 (register here!). I’ll be leading an enthusiastic group of passionate home cooks and culinary adventurers through four awesome books. Are you going to one of them?

https://www.92y.org/class/summer-cookbook-group – Join the Club!

Every 2 weeks for 8 weeks we meet on Zoom for a 90-minute discussion about our experiences reading, cooking, and eating from a new cookbook. Conversations are always lively and engaging. And, we get to host some pretty spectacular guests from the world of food and words. Last time we were joined by an America’s Test Kitchen cook, a cookbook author who runs a cooking school in Paris, and the one and only Sam Sifton of The New York Times Cooking. I’ve got a few new surprises in store for this round… you’ll have to join to find out!

cookbook club: The New York Times Cooking No-Recipe Recipes

Cookbooks and kitchens are the heart of many great adventures. Last week our spring cookbook club, Classic to Modern, ended our journey with a return to the present. Over the course of 4 books in 8 weeks, we time traveled from the days of Edna Lewis to Sam Sifton’s contemporary approach to creating delicious meals. In between, we traveled via our pantries and spice cabinets to Paris in the 2020s and to India by way of Brooklynin the 1980s.