Audience and level of use: millennials and others who want a quick but nourishing meal.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: roasted pasilla and goat cheese sauce; seared scallops in Thai broth; herbed falafel bowl; Spanish chopped salad with walnut paprika vinaigrette; mixed greens with beet and walnut puree; turkey meatballs in tomato sauce.
The downside to this book: too many cute non-food photos.
The upside to this book: a good idea, just the bowl and spoon.
Quality/Price Rating: 87.
4.CAKE MY DAY! (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015, 304 pages, ISBN 978-0-54426-369-7, $18.99 US soft covers) is by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson. Both are experienced cookbook authors with followings, and creators of the serious of cupcake books <www.hellocupcakebook.com> Here they have expanded to bigger things, but you would of course also consider the cake a larger cupcake. With more room for decorating. Nice good ideas for kids and parties, they are just having fun. Contents range from round cake, to rectangles, loaves, bowl cakes, measuring-cup cakes, and decorating store-bought pound cakes. Preparations have their ingredients listed in avoirdupois measurements, but there is no table of metric equivalents.
Audience and level of use: party lovers, kids' parties.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: yellow taxi cab; workman's boot; Barney; cow; gingerbread-type house; pumpkin; zebra; goat cake; pig cake, etc.
The downside to this book: a little goes a long way.
The upside to this book: good designs and templates.
Quality/Price Rating: 86.
5.THE GREAT ROTISSERIE CHICKEN COOKBOOK (Appetite by Random House, 2015, 202 pages, ISBN 978-0-449-01640-4, $24.95 CAN paper covers) is by Eric Akis, a Victoria-based food writer who had worked in the hospitality industry as a trained chef for 15 years before starting a journalism career. This is his eighth book. Given that you can buy rotisserie chicken in every supermarket, large convenience store (plus Costo, etc.) and butcher, it was just a matter of time before the millennials would have discovered it and used it in many meals – since the chicken is already prepared. If you want to cook it yourself, Akis gives a few recipes. Otherwise, just buy the chicken and use it in a variety of settings. There are over 100 recipes for the pre-cooked bird, plus others for doing it yourself. If it is just one or two of you, then there will be leftovers (certainly there will be enough for a stock for soup, or bone soup). The meals can be made within an hour or less. He's got preps using the bird and preps (salads, sides) to accompany the bird. International cuisines are the themes. He's also got 10 preps on spicing up your home-cooked birds: BBQ, Spanish, Moroccan, jerk, Piri-Piri, Chinese, Tandoori, Thai curry, et al. Preparations have their ingredients listed in both metric and avoirdupois measurements, but there is no table of equivalents.
Audience and level of use: millennials, those who may fear cooking.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: Asian-style noodle salad with chicken and peanuts; chicken pad thai; country-style chicken and cabbage soup; pulled chicken sliders; chicken on mixed-mushroom risotto; Vietnamese style chicken and rice noodles; shrimp and chicken paella.
The downside to this book: while he preaches food safety, rotisserie birds are notorious for their over-salting (not pointed out).
The upside to this book: a good idea, useful ideas.
Quality/Price Rating: 85.
6.FIKA; the art of the Swedish coffee break (Ten Speed Press, 2015, 162 pages, ISBN 978-1-60774-586-0, $17.99 US hard covers) is by Anna Brones and Johanna Kindvall, both of Swedish extraction and both involved in the food writing and blogging business. About half of the book concerns a history of Swedish coffee and the whole break thing, including a modern day break and eating outdoors. A lot of it is life stories and memoirs. Preparations have their ingredients listed in metric plus avoirdupois weights and volumes measurements.
Audience and level of use: lovers of Swedish food and coffee.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: sliced chocolate cookies; prunes and rye bread; caramel cake; jam fig preserves; anise and hazelnut biscotti; oat crisp chocolate sandwich cookies; Swedish mulled wine; Swedish pancakes.
Quality/Price Rating: 85.
7.SESAME & SPICE (Headline, 2015, 256 pages, ISBN 978-1-4722-2360-9, $36.99 CAN hard covers) is by Anne Shooter, food writer for the Daily Mail in England. It is a baking book, concentrating on the flavours of the Middle East, principally Jewish (her heritage). Thus one can expect apples, honey, almonds, figs, pomegranates, cinnamon, orange zest, sesame, lemons and vanilla aromas to be incorporated into flatbreads, cakes, and cookies. And here they are. It is a nice collection of recipes, with a chapter on baking for Passover (with gluten-free recipes). She's even got a small collection of savoury bakes too. Preparations have their ingredients listed in mainly metric measurements, but there is no table of equivalents.
Audience and level of use: lovers of Jewish food or new baking ideas.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: deli style rye bread, upside-down apple and honey cake; spiced raspberry and sour cream cake; Ottoman sponge cake; apricot and feta spelt with honey crème fraiche cookies; quinoa and pineapple spice cake; black and white cookies; Jerusalem cheesecake.
Quality/Price Rating: 86.
8.THE TOMATO BASKET (Ryland Peters & Small, 2015, 160 pages, ISBN 978-1-84975-598-6, $21.95 US hard covers) is by Jenny Linford, a London food writer and author of 15 books. Here she gives us 75 or so preps spread over chapters dealing with small bites, soups and salads, flesh, veggies, ice and pasta, breads, sauces and preserves. Along the way she discusses varieties, growers, festivals, and heritage tomatoes. All with the usual sharp photography from RP & S. Preparations have their ingredients listed in both metric and avoirdupois measurements, but there is no table of equivalents.
Audience and level of use: tomato lovers, intermediate level cooks.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: honeyed duck and apricot tagine;tomato ketchup; harissa sardines with tomato salad; tomato fennel buns; tomato tabbouleh; tomato risotto; eggplant lasagne; panzanella; sun-dried tomato and rosemary corn bread.
Quality/Price Rating: 86.
9.TWENTY DINNERS (Clarkson Potter, 2015, 272 pages, ISBN 978-0-385-34528-6, $37.50 US hard covers) is by Ithai Schori and Chris Taylor, partially trained in restaurants but great home cooks. This is entertaining at its finest, assisted by Rachel Holtzman as the focusing food writer. The arrangement is by season, beginning with fall and moving through to summer. At the end, there is ancillary material on pantries, techniques, equipment, shopping advice, and other lists. There are 20 dinners here for one to duplicate, five to a season, for every other week or so. Desserts are downplayed, and service is both family style and plated for the proper expression of flavours and of eating food together. Given that many food books go all out for gastroporn, there are way too many gratuitous non-food photos (an empty chair? A sunset? Logs?, Preparations have their ingredients listed in avoirdupois measurements, but there is no table of metric equivalents.
Audience and level of use: millennials looking for some ideas on easy food preps.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: from dinner 7 – duck confit and tagliatelle; radicchio salad with pears, blue cheese and bacon. With a smoked Earl Gray hot toddy as pre-prandial and pinot noir with the meal.
The downside to this book: the dinners really work well if you make the entire meal with no substitutions.
The upside to this book: wines are suggested by varietal name
Quality/Price Rating: 86.
10.SIMPLY ANCIENT GRAINS (Ten Speed Press, 2015, 262 pages, ISBN 978-1-60774-588-4, $27.50 US hard covers) is by Maria Speck, cookbook writer and multiple-award winner for her book "Ancient Grains for Modern Meals". Here, with some log rolling from Deborah Madison and The Joy of Cooking authors, she advances further into the realm of grains. There is the primer to some two dozen of these (all with an indication to gluten), including freekeh and some farros. This is followed by chapters on breakfast and brunch, salads and sides, soups and stews, pasta, mains, and sweets. At the end there is in ingredients section plus sources. Preparations have their ingredients listed in avoirdupois measurements, but there are tables of metric equivalents.
Audience and level of use: health conscious, those looking for new foods.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: quinoa salad with roasted red beets, blood oranges, and pomegranate; barley and wild rice dressing with fennel, apples and Marsala; warm wild rice salad with herb-roasted mushrooms and parmesan; minted lamb sliders with pine nuts and currants; red rice shakshuka with feta cheese.
Quality/Price Rating: 89.
11.YOGURT (Ten Speed Press, 2015, 144 pages, ISBN 978-1-60774-712-5, $19.99 US hard covers) is by Janet Fletcher, author or co-author of more than two dozen cookbooks. She writes a lot on cheese, and teaches cheese-appreciation courses. So yogurt fits right in. These are sweet and savoury recipes for every meal and snacks, arranged by course from apps to desserts. The opening primer on making yogurt at home is valuable, although of course you can buy your own. But with homemade yogurt you get to control the milk source (organic?) and its freshness. We make our own organic cow's milk yogurt but buy organic sheep milk yogurt for its richness. Preparations have their ingredients listed in avoirdupois measurements, but there is no table of metric equivalents.
Audience and level of use: yogurt lovers, cheesemakers.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: lamb meatballs in warm yogurt sauce; lamb souvlaki with skillet flatbread; orzo with spicy lamb, chickpeas and yogurt; yogurt parfait with peaches and peanut brittle; banana-fig smoothie.
The downside to this book: I'd like more discussion on sheep milk yogurt, and yogo cheese.
The upside to this book: she's got three nice recipes for yogurt (yogo) cheese.
Quality/Price Rating: 89.
12.MEAT MAN (Mosaic Press, 2015; distr. Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 154 pages, ISBN 978-1-77161-127-5, $27.95 CAN paper covers) is by Ronald Chapchuck, one of the major meat suppliers (principally beef) to Toronto's restaurants, delis, pubs, hotels, and steakhouses for over 40 years. He's worked at J.J. Derma Meats in Kensington Market, then Honeyman's Beef and then Sysco Fine Meat, through 2013. He still works at a meat purveyor in Oakville, but wrote this memoir in his spare time. The coverage is nominally 1950 – 2000. It is loosely arranged by type, beginning with his earliest moments in Chinatown and then progressing through delis, butcher shops, hotels, restaurants, et al. For each place he has some history and some stories to tell. Many, of course, are no longer with us (a quarter-century of life seems to be the limit): Bassel's, Bistro 990, Bombay Bicycle Club, Napoleon's, Brown Derby, Corner House, Danish Food Centre, Diana Sweets, Eaton's, Mermaid, Indian Rice Factory, Hop and Grape, Walker House (Franz Joseph, Rathskeller), and more. But some are still here: Fran's, La Bodega, Tom Jones Steak House, Black Angus Steak House, Shopsy's. He's got some nifty black and white photos along with reproductions of some menus and match boxes, and the like. But I am still waiting for the swizzle stick collection, like the one from Chicken Palace of the 1950s. A good collection of vignettes and anecdotes, with a valuable index to the places and people.
Audience and level of use: Toronto historians, food historians, nostalgia lovers.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: Napoleon's had a mysterious explosion in 1984.
The downside to this book: it needed a few more themes to pull it all together, otherwise it is a collection of vignettes.
The upside to this book: great stories, index.
Quality/Price Rating: 86.
13.WITHOUT THE CALORIES: takeaway favourites (Orion Books, 2015; distr. Hachette, 192 pages, ISBN 978-1-4091-5473-0, $18.99 CAN soft covers) and
14.WITHOUT THE CALORIES: quick and easy (Orion Books, 2015; distr. Hachette, 192 pages, ISBN 978-1-4091-5471-6, $18.99 CAN soft covers)...
...are both by Justine Pattison, a UK diet recipe writer who specializes in preparing recipes for TV chefs and presenters, as well as writing food columns for British publications. She's got four other books in this series, dealing with comfort food, past and rice, one pots, and baking). Her 123 Plan is an easy approach to meals: each prep has been counted for calories and some nutritional data. The emphasis is to reduce weight by reducing calories, and she also has some ideas and tips on a global scale. "Takeway favourites" is arranged by cuisine: Indian, Chinese, SE Asian, Japanese, Mediterranean, and US. For the latter she's got lower fat burgers, fish burgers, chicken strips, and smoky pulled pork. For the Mediterranean, there's red pepper hummus, pita crisps, Moroccan marinated olives, pollo pasta with pesto. "Quick and easy" is arranged by major ingredient (breakfast, chicken, pork, lamb, fish, meat-free, sweets) with avocado and cucumber soup, tom yum soup, poppadum poppers, and smoked trout pate. Preparations have their ingredients listed in metric measurements, but there are tables of equivalents.
Audience and level of use: beginners, the fat conscious.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: see above
The downside to these books: more preps are needed
The upside to these books: good layout, calories listed in large type of a different colour.
Quality/Price Rating: 88.
15.THE ELIMINATION DIET (Grand Central Life & Style; dist. Hachette, 2015, 331 pages, ISBN 978-1-4555-8188-7, $27 US hard covers) is by Alissa Segersten and Tom Malterre. She's a chef-blogger-nutritionist <nourishingmeals.com> while he is a nutrition academic researcher. Together they have also authored The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook (2008, 2014) and the website, concentrating on "whole food" recipes, including gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, and egg-free dishes. Almost something for everyone. Their current book helps you to discover the foods that are making you "sick and tired", and what you can do about it through whole life nutrition. It is thorough and comprehensive, beginning with a primer on diet sensitivities, the need for whole foods, the larder, the equipment, the cooking techniques. The 100 recipes begin on page 190, and are arranged by course, from soups to desserts, beginning with smoothies, bacteria-cultured foods, whole grains, dips and sauces, snacks and beverages. All with large type, easy to use instructions, and tips/tricks. There is also a web resources listing and a listing of printed references; there's more at www.wholelifenutrition.net (recipes, courses, newsletters, blogs). For all of this to work, you must detoxify (2 days of smoothie and juices), eliminate potentially inflammatory foods over two weeks, and then reintroduce the eliminated foods over two months to see what works and what doesn't work. Recipes have been sub-categorized into detox (phase 1), elimination (phase 2), and reintroduction (phase 3). Preparations have their ingredients listed in avoirdupois measurements, but there is no table of metric equivalents.
Audience and level of use: those seeking a cure that might actually work.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: Moroccan-spiced veggie stew; black beans and yam and avocado taco; chickpea curry with potatoes and kale; herb-roasted wild salmon; beet-fennel juice; purple veggie juice; red cabbage and berry smoothie.
Quality/Price Rating: 89.
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