Tamasin's Kitchen Bible: The One and Only Book for Every ... (ISBN 029784363X)

Excellent Tutorial, Memoir, and Food Read. Buy It.:
`Tamasin's Kitchen Bible' by Anglo-Irish culinary writer, Tamasin Day-Lewis is a most unusual cookbook to American eyes, but not, I suspect, to Tamasin's UK and Irish newspaper column readers. I say this because there is a strong family resemblance between Ms. Day-Lewis' writing and that of other contemporary culinary writers such as Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver, and Nigel Slater. The most pervasive attitude running through this book as well as those by Lawson, Oliver, and Slater is a celebration of food and cooking as it affects all aspects of life, unlike so many American writers who seem intent on teaching us how to squeeze food preparation and eating into as little time as possible so we can get on with the more important things in life. One sure sign of this dedication to eating for life is Ms. Day-Lewis' concern with English school food. By either coincidence or copycat motives, this also happens to be one of Jamie Oliver's latest causes. It is important to note the title of this book carefully, as it is specifically `Tamasin's' kitchen bible. The first thing this means is that it is quite different from the kind of kitchen reference done by, for example, Julia Child or Christopher Kimball (both of whom have done kitchen reference books). It is so personal that one could easily overlook the title and take it for the diary of a culinary life. Unlike the major cooking manual `Appetite' by colleague Nigel Slater, this book has no single culinary credo. Unlike important culinary training manuals such as Madeleine Kamman's `The New Making of a Chef' or Anne Willan's `The Good Cook', it does not move from one subject to another in a systematic fashion. Rather, it jumps around from one subject to another in a very personal manner. The primary chapter subjects are: Easy Things, such as tarts, flapjacks, chocolate cakes, fudge and `Victorian sponge'. Simple Skills such as pasta dishes, salads, soups, roasts, game, puddings and cakes. Frugal Food, inexpensive dishes primarily with grains and pastas, plus `dinner party lore'. Christmas countdown, with pies, sauces, roast birds, puddings, and ice cream. Classic Recipes with coq au vin, southern fried chicken, poached salmon, lobster, sorbets, and souffles. Foolproof Favorites with soups, starters, gnocchi, salads, vegetable dishes, lamb, fish, and ice creams. Serious skills such as bread making, jams, jellies, curds, marmalade, and chutneys. It almost seems like each one of these chapters could be the subject of its own book. It also seems like certain techniques and types of food such as pasta and `puddings' pop up in several different chapters. All this means that this is a `bible' much more in the sense that it is best read from front to back than it's being used as a reference, even though it will do quite well as a reference for relatively straightforward recipes for classic dishes. It is also a good `read' because the book is filled with lots of memoir material, tied together much better than the usual series of recipe headnotes, but not as much a full memoir as, for example, Nigel Slater's `Toast' or Ruth Reichl's three volumes of memoirs. The writing is especially delightful, as Ms. Day-Lewis uses lots of sophisticated words and words in cleverly metaphoric ways to indicate measurements. One gets the strong impression that Jamie Oliver's `glugs' were borrowed from Miss Tamasin's uniquely colorful and pervasively musical way with culinary language. One thing the reader must note is that Ms. Day-Lewis is most definitely writing for a British audience. This is clear not only from her combined metric and imperial measurements as it is from practically every colloquialism we see. My favorite is where she refers to a `black cab driver's knowledge' which may seem very strange to invoke an African-American's culinary wisdom, until one remembers that all London taxicab vehicles are black, just as all New York City cabs are yellow. While this may make the book more difficult as a reference text, it makes it more appealing as a great read. Another introductory reference covers lists of what Ms. Day-Lewis has in her kitchen, which seems, like most lists of this type, to be too long for the average cook and too imprecise for the diehard foodie gadget collector. One feature which one can envy is the `Seasonal British Diary', which is probably next to worthless for American readers, as it gives us only seasonal availability for the British Isles, which I'm sure is a lot different than what one can get in San Diego or even New York City. Another dimension of this book is that it is a truly excellent guide for teaching children how to cook. Unlike many other cookbooks for children, such as those from Emeril Lagasse and Rachael Ray, this one doesn't talk down to kids. This means, of course, that it really must be used by a child and adult pair with care, but it gives the youngster a real sense that they are entering a grownup world and doing grownup things. If you do embark on using recipes from this book, I believe you will not be disappointed with the results. In even small matters of technique, such as adding garlic to a sautee with care not to burn it, the book is constantly careful, and seems to have a better and more straightforward solution to these issues than all but the best Italian culinary writers. The cuisine is very cosmopolitan, with a mix of English, French, Italian, American, and Irish standards, with no pretensions that any of the recipes are original. Her primary influences are the great English writers, Elizabeth David and Jane Grigson, both of whom I love to read, but Ms. Day-Lewis has her own distinct style which, I suspect, has some influence with her modern colleagues. Excellent culinary read.

Forget Nigella - Tamasin's your woman...:
Tamasin Day-Lewis (yes, she is actor Daniel's sister) writes beautifully. Quite simply, she is the most inspiring cookery writer working in the English language today. This, her latest tome, focusses on how to cook with passion and flair no matter what level of skills you posess in the kitchen. And she knows her stuff - encouraging, nay insisting, you seek the BEST animal products, i.e. those treated humanely and allowed to live organically. Her belief is that you should reward farmers who rear breeds that are rare to keep biodiversity alive, eat orgaincally produced vegetables and teach your children to cook by your side. But this is not a preachy book by any means - it is the kind of cookbook that will not leave your kitchen. Not ever, and I speak as someone whose copy is spattered already! From the simplicity of jam (jelly) tarts to a timetable for cooking the most glamorous Christmas feast and her divine Cep and Red Onion Tart, you can't go wrong. Eat and enjoy what you cook - couldn't be simpler right?