Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsDisappointed
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 2, 2014
Ina has done lovely cookbooks before & always the photography is fantastic (it's always nice to envision a recipe before making it). However, everyone on Earth knows you can make soups, dips, sauces, hummus, & lasagna ahead of time, & then heat/reheat. Everyone knows if you freeze something, it needs thawing before heating/serving (except for ice cream-like items, course). She "borrows" recipes from her former cookbooks for this book, which is extremely disappointing. She even showcases a dog biscuit recipe which you do ahead of time (you have to anyhow as that is what makes 'em crunchy....leaving the oven door open as the oven cools {following a King Arthur Flour recipe}, or just plain using a very hot oven which she does. Then you just keep them in a tightly covered container or Ziplock bag - I don't get the inclusion of a dog biscuit recipe in this cookbook at all. Does she serve her guests dog biscuits that she made months ago?
I don't care for the style - she writes the recipe "as is" with no "do aheadedness" to it, that is the main (lengthy) focus to all the recipes, then she writes 1 to 2 tiny sentences in the corner on how a partial recipe component - or the whole recipe - can be made ahead. Everyone knows how to cut up veggies, put them in Ziplock bags and then toss together at the last moment. At times it's only a couple of hours ahead that she talks about (which really doesn't help a cook in the long run in most cases).
? Uncorking the wine one day ahead to taste it? You better have a Vacuvin or some other reliable method of "recorking", keeping oxygen out, and maintaining the integrity of that wine (especially if it's expensive!) while you wait for the serving time! You do not want a stupendous wine to change over hours, which it could for better or worse. Tasting it one day is one taste, keeping it open and then tasting it the second day is another thing. She doesn't touch upon the aspect of wine preservation at all. I wouldn't do that ahead of time under most circumstances, and if she really believes in doing this, she's got to explain more on keeping wine and tasting wine.
I'm so sorry to say I'm disappointed. She has had a long ride of good cookbooks and recipes, but it appears she's gone up-n-over the hill now. I won't buy any more of her cookbooks. Sorry!
The Summer Paella Salad sounds interesting and I will try that (again, with most salads you do make ahead and chill, whatever...).
She borrows from the Sinskey Napa winemakers, which is great! I have been to that winery and enjoyed their food and presentation many a time, so found those entries intriguing and I will try those recipes. I have several of their wines in my cellar and it would be neat and fun to pair those with their recipes, I think, anyhow, trying to say something positive here!
So, to recap, probably 3 recipes I will try but not because of the "do aheadedness", but out of curiosity and creativity.
