The Kitchen Counter Cooking School: How a Few Simple Lessons Transformed Nine Culinary Novices into Fearless Home Cooks
Viking
Published by The Penguin Group
Jacket Illustration by Rachel Ross
Jacket Design by Roseanne Serra
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Kathleen Flinn returns from Paris where she studied at Le Cordon Bleu. Back in the Seattle she is unsure what to do with her new culinary degree until a trip to a local grocery store give her an epiphany. Seeing a woman’s cart filled with boxes of “ultraprocessed products” kicked her “chefternal” instincts into overdrive. As she talked to the woman she realized this woman was afraid to cook things fresh because she thought it would be too hard or wouldn’t taste right. She spent some time traveling with her around the store and convinced her to put the packaged food back on the shelf and try cooking with real food. This made her start to wonder if she had found what to do with her degree.
This led Kathleen to gather a group of volunteers who felt the same as the woman in the grocery store. She enlisted the help of other culinary professionals, rented kitchen space and started a class on cooking fundamentals from making simple Alfredo sauce to proper chopping techniques and even weekly taste testing of things like olive oil and salt. This book tracks the volunteers through the classes and includes common sense recipes and details for the reader as well.
My Thoughts
I enjoyed this book. My husband is the “chef” in our family and have inserted several post it’s within the pages of things I want to share with him.
This book really reads a lot like fiction, taking peeks into these people’s lives with wonderful lessons and recipes as an added bonus. While very instructional it is entertaining and humorous. The author has a delightful writing style.
With fast food quickly becoming the common way to eat these days, this book will teach you that fast food can be nourishing, tasteful and does not come from a drive thru lane. I was actually stunned how easy it is to make dishes that I thought could only be found in a restaurant, with wonderful flavor and none of the preservatives found it the prepackaged dishes found on the grocery shelves. This may be a book to add to your cookbook shelf after reading the story of the volunteer’s journey at the The Kitchen Counter Cooking School. It could change your life.
To find out more about Kathleen Flinn check out her webpage at kathleenflinn.com You may even be able to catch her on tour!
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Viking. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
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I really want to read this book. I am always trying to eat and cook healthier so this book sounds like just the ticket. I do try to cook from scratch as much as possible but I am always looking for new ideas and ways to make my time in the kitchen easier. Great review!
I like the way you review. Maybe it is because I worked with students for 30+ years giving booktalks but don’t want a full-blown diagnosis of a book. I want impressions and pertinent information to help me choose what to read – like you do it. Thanks.