What the Fork?
Will Parson
Issue date: 4/21/09 Section: Features
So I have been standing on my culinary soapbox for these past few weeks, ranting about this and that. If you have read any of my columns you just might have picked up on the fact that I have some strong opinions on food. I don't know, just maybe. I asked to start writing a weekly column because I hoped that what I had to say just might provide a touch of education to my fellow student, or would be mildly entertaining at least. However, you can't have a decent conversation if you can't listen, so this is me listening. If y'all have questions or comments write me at: willkyndig@yahoo.com. I'd truly love to hear feedback from one and all.
On to the rant…
Now I know that I'm a little obsessive, but if I wander into a bookstore I'll inevitably meander over to the cookbooks and poke around for a bit looking for a something to catch my eye. A good cookbook is a rare find because there seems to be the mistaken belief that they're easy to write. Yeah, just throw a couple recipes into a book, a toothy smile on the cover and you're good to go, right? Not so much. So what makes a good cookbook? Well, the obvious is that the food recipes in it don't suck. Beyond that, I think there are two criteria. The first criterion is that the reasoning behind the recipes and food choices is well thought-out and there's an effort to educate the reader on what that reasoning is.
The second is that style points count. Reading a good cookbook should make you hungry and there are a million different cues that can be exploited to achieve that aim.
In my mind, the wide world of cookbooks falls into basically four categories. The most numerous and insidious is the totally useless. You can usually spot these because they'll have a D-list celebrity of some kind on the cover. Oh, and by the by, if you're a Rachel Ray fan or you actually believe that the orange powder you put on your Easy Mac‚ can be called cheese, you're beyond help and I can do nothing for you. I'm not going to talk about these, because futile screaming doesn't really translate to the printed page.
On to the rant…
Now I know that I'm a little obsessive, but if I wander into a bookstore I'll inevitably meander over to the cookbooks and poke around for a bit looking for a something to catch my eye. A good cookbook is a rare find because there seems to be the mistaken belief that they're easy to write. Yeah, just throw a couple recipes into a book, a toothy smile on the cover and you're good to go, right? Not so much. So what makes a good cookbook? Well, the obvious is that the food recipes in it don't suck. Beyond that, I think there are two criteria. The first criterion is that the reasoning behind the recipes and food choices is well thought-out and there's an effort to educate the reader on what that reasoning is.
The second is that style points count. Reading a good cookbook should make you hungry and there are a million different cues that can be exploited to achieve that aim.
In my mind, the wide world of cookbooks falls into basically four categories. The most numerous and insidious is the totally useless. You can usually spot these because they'll have a D-list celebrity of some kind on the cover. Oh, and by the by, if you're a Rachel Ray fan or you actually believe that the orange powder you put on your Easy Mac‚ can be called cheese, you're beyond help and I can do nothing for you. I'm not going to talk about these, because futile screaming doesn't really translate to the printed page.
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