Twelve Recipes

October 20, 2014
Chef Peternell, chef at Chez Panisse, offers an informal crash course in the “big 12” recipes “at the heart of home cooking.” His inspiration comes from his family kitchen and the realization that his son, attempting to cook while away at college, hadn’t absorbed cooking know-how through osmosis. While Peternell assembles this collection of recipes, tips, and loving reflections as a gift to his son, he creates more than a handbook for beginning cooks. In this survey of cooking basics, Peternell inspires home cooks to “break some rules” and let intuition be their guide. Chapters present ingredient-focused discussions along with several foundation recipes and variations. The eggs chapter instructs how to properly fry, hard-boil, devil, poach, and scramble, and follows with recipes for omelets and frittatas. A chapter on beans discusses legume varieties, storage, and preparation, including recipes for bean soups. Other chapters focus on pasta, rice, polenta, potatoes, chicken, sauces, and cake. Many suggested recipes are woven into the book’s narration while others are presented in a traditional format. There’s advice on tasting, timing, and using leftovers. Illustrations are by family members, and there’s plenty of anecdotes drawn from Peternell’s own home table. Essays have an inviting personal tone, and Peternell encourages cooks to use good sense, relax, and enjoy the unexpected pleasures that come with cooking for yourself and for others.

Starred review from October 15, 2014

When his college-bound son needed cooking advice, Chez Panisse chef Peternell provided it over the phone, narrating recipes that would eventually form the core of this delightful and instructive cookbook. In 13 chapters (covering eggs, beans, and salad dressings, for example), he teaches readers a fundamental cooking repertoire that includes rustic toasts and croutons, egg frittatas with myriad fillings, economical braises, easy sauces, and unfussy desserts. With practice, these can easily be made from memory and adjusted according to taste. For each recipe (and there are many more than the title suggests), Peternell provides lengthy written instructions that--like those from veteran food writers David Tanis (One Good Dish) and Nigel Slater (Ripe)--are best savored slowly. VERDICT Marked by Peternell's zeal for good, simple food, this title takes a very different approach from cooking handbooks that emphasize science or technical precision.

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