Where Cooking Begins

I love “remix” cookbooks. If there's a sub-genre I'm a sucker for, that's it.

I love Music's “a dozen to [cooking method]” concept, where she explains a common cooking method, loosely, and then shows 12 ingredients that benefit from that treatment. It's simple, the photos are inviting, and it encourages experimentation and educated guesses.

In the same vein, her “spin it” concept (when she offers substitutions right off the bat, as a means of cooking to the produce that looks good that week) is a good one, and the two or three recipes I've made so far have all been with substitutions (kale instead of collards, e.g.).

My only gripe is that while I am a foodie and will totally spend my extra money on the nice anchovies, this shit gets to be a little bit wealthy and brooklyn-y and doesn't so much raise my hackles as it makes me long for class revolution. lol.

Using fucking instacart for your pantry staples is mayyyybe logistically sensible in nyc, but it's underpaid gig labor that shifts risk to contractors, and I'm ashamed that a hippie/boho cookbook made it from draft to publish with that still in as time-saving advice. We can do better, world.