A review by nd2712
The Kitchen Counter Cooking School: How a Few Simple Lessons Transformed Nine Culinary Novices Into Fearless Home Cooks by Kathleen Flinn
5.0
Why did I love this book so much? It's not because I learned plenty of tips within it (because I did). It's not because I fell in love with the stories of Flinn demystifying the process of cooking and eating well for a bunch of novice cooks. It was because there is a heavy, beating heart beneath the pages of this memoir - and it draws you in within the first handful f pages.
I really enjoyed Flinn's almost prequel to this book 'The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry' but I only gave it four stars. It felt as though it was missing something. That something was fully present in 'The Kitchen Counter Cooking School'. What pushes it over the edge is the presence of non-cooks. The whole book revolves around Flinn's desire to help people cook better - catalysed by a chance encounter with a woman in a supermarket - and follows the trials and tribulations that come with transforming the way people shop.
Honestly, if I had read this book a few years ago, I would have had a completely different attitude to the way I bought groceries when I was living on my own. I used to throw stuff out quickly because I was buying for the long-run, not the short run. I've only just started to experiment with the things I cook, using different flavours and textures than before. This memoir has made me want to get back into the kitchen and try some of these tips - I made pasta for lunch today with four different vegetables in it and could hear Flinn's voice rattling around my head, reminding me that I needed to use what I had - and I could make something good for me in the process.
As someone with disordered eating, I can find the subject matter in food books a little triggering. But 'The Kitchen Counter Cooking School' feels like a warm blanket, a guiding hand as I enter the kitchen at mealtimes.
Bon Appetit, indeed. Five stars.
I really enjoyed Flinn's almost prequel to this book 'The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry' but I only gave it four stars. It felt as though it was missing something. That something was fully present in 'The Kitchen Counter Cooking School'. What pushes it over the edge is the presence of non-cooks. The whole book revolves around Flinn's desire to help people cook better - catalysed by a chance encounter with a woman in a supermarket - and follows the trials and tribulations that come with transforming the way people shop.
Honestly, if I had read this book a few years ago, I would have had a completely different attitude to the way I bought groceries when I was living on my own. I used to throw stuff out quickly because I was buying for the long-run, not the short run. I've only just started to experiment with the things I cook, using different flavours and textures than before. This memoir has made me want to get back into the kitchen and try some of these tips - I made pasta for lunch today with four different vegetables in it and could hear Flinn's voice rattling around my head, reminding me that I needed to use what I had - and I could make something good for me in the process.
As someone with disordered eating, I can find the subject matter in food books a little triggering. But 'The Kitchen Counter Cooking School' feels like a warm blanket, a guiding hand as I enter the kitchen at mealtimes.
Bon Appetit, indeed. Five stars.