4 out of 4 stars
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Not My Mother’s Kitchen: Rediscovering Italian-American Cooking Through Stories and Recipes by Rob Chirico is a wonderful mixture of history, culture, family, and food. The book opens with an Introduction about Chirico’s early life and why cooking became so important to him. While reading, I found myself feeling sorry for his mother, because he makes it clear that her lack of skill and motivation in the kitchen is precisely what motivated him. However, there are many fond memories in this cookbook/memoir as well. He even includes family pictures in the Introduction and at the end of the book.
I tried a couple recipes from the book including Linguine with Broccolini in Spicy Tomato Cream Sauce (I used penne and zucchini instead as suggested). I really like this recipe, because even with the heavy cream it’s a very light meal. I don’t know how to describe it other than it tastes like Summer. I also made the Long Simmered Summer Tomato Sauce. I made a half a batch with 1.5 pounds of tomatoes and ended up with about 1 ½ cups of sauce. Cut in half it should have made 1 quart of sauce. Therefore, I believe that the measurements are off. However, the sauce was very good. I haven’t tried it yet, but I may like the April Tomato Sauce better. I also tried the Roasted Rosemary Chicken and Potatoes with Balsamic Vinegar and Minestrone with Pesto. My favorite was hands down the Minestrone. The soup itself had wonderful flavor with all of the vegetables and the Parmesan rind, but the pesto gave it the extra kick that it needed to taste wonderful. All of the recipes have very good flavor, but they are similar to what you would find in other Italian cookbooks.
The author outlines the difference between traditional Italian and American cooking and how much these food cultures have blended together. He emphasizes quality ingredients and informs the reader about different types of cheeses, tomatoes, pepper, eggplant, etc. He specifies what is the best for each recipe and methods that will make sure that each recipe results in optimal deliciousness. Occasionally, he explains when different vegetables and fruits featured in a recipe are in season and how to best preserve them when they are not.
What set this apart from other cookbooks are the paragraphs before each recipe that detail pieces of the Italian culture and history that pertain to that particular dish. He reveals who really created the Caesar salad and why olive oil tastes so different in America than it does it Italy. Why does everything taste better in Rome, from meat to cheese to olive oil? He has the answer. I found the history lessons in this book interesting, and Chirico’s humorous explanations made it even more enjoyable. Sometimes the recipe is also preceded by a memory of for example a dinner with friends. I can really appreciate that because I also associate food with memories. I believe that cooking, eating, and life should not be separate entities, because food has the capability of bringing people together.
Another major element of this book is the debate that food is over processed and that America in particular has been brainwashed by the promise of fast, wonderful, cheap meals in the freezer section. He writes about his awe seeing ads depicting strong men eating ready-made meals. He emphasizes that these promises from the food industry are empty because these foods that never go bad “were never good in the first place.” Moreover, this book is about good food and how the food industry is full of nutritionally lacking junk and how it tends to prey on lower income families the most with their quick, cheap appeal.
The memoir section of the book closes with a nice part about his mother. I think that was a good way to end the book. The Appendix lists influential cookbooks for Italian cuisine and just cooking in general. There is also a “Mail Order and Online Sources” section for finding ingredients that may not be sold in American grocery stores.
I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. The way that the book is formatted, the font, and the pictures are all visually appealing. I noticed very few grammar or formatting mistakes. The most noticeable was that salt can kill yeast which was mentioned twice under the “Pizza” section. The measurements did appear to be off in at least one of the recipes. However, I really like the idea of the cookbook/memoir, and I think that this book is very interesting. The Minestrone was so tasty that I have to give it a high rating. If you find historical explanations and family stories monotonous, this book is not for you. If you cook the recipes in this book, you will mostly be shopping in the produce section of the grocery store. As Chirico says, “pass the Parmigiano.”
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Not My Mother's Kitchen
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