The Happy Cook

November 15, 2016

Oz (Relish) is the daughter of Dr. Mehmet Oz and cohost of The Chew. Sharing healthy-ish recipes aimed at busy parents and professionals, she frames cooking as an enjoyable activity rather than a duty. To keep everyday cooking from becoming overwhelming, she favors quick-and-easy preparations that require little hands-on cooking time. Readers can mix and match dishes such as kale and plum salad with miso vinaigrette, avocado toast with lemon-chile oil, skirt steak with brown sugar-cumin rub, and pistachio cakes with rose-cardamom icing. Alternately, they can follow one of 15-plus special occasion menus (e.g., spring dinner party, vegan delight brunch). VERDICT Sure to satisfy Oz's fans, this contemporary cookbook features many delicious recipes. However, there are a few errors, like a missing oven temperature for chocolate-dulce de leche layer cake.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2016
With the success of her previous Relish: An Adventure in Food, Style, and Everyday Fun (2013), cohost of The Chew Oz expounds on her philosophy that good food prepared by a happy chef is the heart of any familyand home. Dishes reflect cross-country trends: the now ubiquitous avocado toast (with a variation like butternut-squash and ricotta toast); lots of kale, cauliflower, and broccolieither hidden in recipes or the featured main ingredient; and unusual-usual spices and additives, like muhammara and sriracha, among others. Along the way, attention is given to lightening up traditional and nouvelle fare: a carrot cake, sans raisins and cream-cheese frosting; roasted plums with tahini dressing as a salad substitute. Tips, variations, and sidebars will guide inexperienced cooks to consider shortcuts and alternatives (try refrigerated piecrust, or include horseradish for its healing properties). Unfortunately, claims notwithstanding, many of the 125 recipes are rather long or need unusual or hard-to-find ingredients, and don't include time estimates or nutritional analyses. Still, the name draw alone will find eager readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)