The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution Reviews

• "Cooking 101" from the mother of modern cooking

  
  By A3856FA2O4FXXF on 2007-10-04
  It's hard to write a review of a cookbook that you've only had for two days-- you have to actually try the recipes to know if they will work. (I have several beautiful cookbooks by famous chefs that omit important directions, or give wrong quantities of food.) However, I felt strongly enough about this book that I wanted to write an early review.
  
  For those of you who don't know, Alice Waters's restaurant, Chez Panisse, is probably the most important American restaurant in the past forty years. Waters pioneered the use of high quality, local ingredients. The restaurant itself is delightful; they've served some of the best food I've ever eaten. In the Bay area, where I live, farmers and artisans at local markets often proudly claim that their food is served at her restaurant.
  
  Waters begins the book by extolling her philosophy: buy local, high quality ingredients, and cook them simply. (Of course, simple for a professional chef is different than simple for a home chef. I consider 6 ingredients to be pretty complicated, especially if they are all fresh ingredients.) She then proceeds to give very explicit directions on how to cook things: roasts, vegetables, baked goods, reminiscent of the explicit directions given by Julia Child in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume One, or by Maida Heatter in Maida Heatter'S Book Of Great Desserts. Finally, she gives lists of recipes for many dishes.
  
  What makes her recipes unique are the variations that she provides for each recipe. Here's one simple example: for a chard frittata, she recommends substituting other greens, such as collards, rapini, or stinging nettles (I have alway wondered what to do with stinging nettles). Or, in a recipe for pancakes, she says to add one cup of whole grain flours, telling you to mix multiple grains including spelt, wheat, corn, or whatever else you feel like adding. (She does note that you need to use a minimum amount of whole wheat flour for the gluten to bind it all together.) I've seen other books that tried to teach you how to vary recipes (for example, Cookwise: The Secrets of Cooking Revealed), but this one does a very good job of explaining where you should improvise and where you should not. Most importantly, this book gives you a real feeling of why each dish is great, and really captures the soul of each recipe. I've never seen another cookbook that had this much discussion of each recipe.
  
  This is a very good book about food. It's similar to other introductory cookbooks like The New Basics Cookbook, or The New Best Recipe: All-New Edition with 1,000 Recipes, but I think Alice Waters does a much better job explaining how to cook. (For example, I like the two pages she devotes to pan-frying pork chops. That recipe, incidentally, has four ingredients: chops, oil, salt, pepper.) She is not as good a writer as, say, Jeffrey Steingarden (author of The Man Who Ate Everything), but I don't expect her to be. (This is more of a cookbook than a book of essays.) Honestly, I have dozens of books that cover the same set of recipes as this book, but I have no other book that makes me want to cook every recipe. I would recommend this book to anyone who cares seriously about food.
  
  [Update on 8/1/2008. I've now tried a number of recipes from this book, including the short ribs, apricot jam, many of the salads, pork chops, and sauerkraut. Every recipe I've tied has worked, and most of them have been very straightforward. This has become my "desert island" cookbook; it's the first place I turn when I don't know how to make something. I strongly recommend this book to anyone, experienced or not.]
  
  

• Disappointing if you know how to cook.

  
  By A3BLVQWXR2XPS9 on 2007-10-10
  As an experienced recreational cook I am very disappointed by this book. It has been getting alot of press from the NY Times and the Today show. Alice Waters is no doubt a wonderful cook and I have her other books - especially usefull is her book on vegetables. No doubt she has access to fresh and wonderful produce living in California and running a successful restaurant. We all want to buy the freshest ingredients possible. There is nothing "revolutionary" about this book - instead it is a basic book for people who are just learning to cook and/or put together a kitchen. The recipes are basic and somewhat boring. For anyone who would like to learn cooking basics I would recommend James Beard's Theory and Basics of Cooking instead.
  
  

• very nice cookbook

  
  By AQQLWCMRNDFGI on 2007-10-03
  A few preliminary comments from the author that put the book in context. From the author (pages 4, 5): "This book is for everyone who wants to learn to cook, or to become a better cook. . . . I'm convinced that the underlying principles of good cooking are the same everywhere. These principles have less to do with recipes and techniques than they do with gathering good ingredients, which for me is the essence of cooking." Key aspects of her "philosophy" are printed on pages 6-7, among which are: eat locally and sustainably (use small, local producers as sources of fruits and vegetables, for instance); eat seasonally (a companion rule to the previous one); shop at farmer's markets; etc.
  
  The start is nice, in that she lays out what ingredients (herbs, for instance) and equipment should be on hand for effective cooking. One simple example: the author's emphasis at several points on the value of a good supply of fresh aromatic foods to enhance flavors in a recipe (e.g., onions, carrots, and celery). Then, she discusses how to plan menus and entertain friends for dinner. Not recipes, but useful context.
  
  The recipe sections begin with a rendering of how to make several essential sauces, including vinaigrette, salsa verde, aioli, and herb butter. None of the recipes calls for rocket science knowledge, but they are well explained and doable. One nice feature--some possible variations on the recipe. E.g., with vinaigrette, she notes that one variation could be to beat in a bit of mustard before you add the oil; alternatively, she suggests that one could a fresh nut oil for the olive oil.
  
  There is a nice discussion of sautéing as a technique, with a nice example immediately thereafter (sautéed cauliflower). Another example of technique--poaching. Following the general discussion, she uses an example quite familiar to me: poaching salmon. I have a handful of recipes featuring poached salmon (the fish cooks through, satisfying my family, and still stays moist, satisfying me).
  
  There are a sampling of recipes for poultry, fish/seafood, meat, etc. While the recipes are nice, I wish that there had been more. One thing I like in cookbooks is abundant choice!
  
  Anyhow, this is a nice reference for those who enjoy cooking; it's probably also apt to be useful to those who don't like much cooking but want some doable and good recipes when called upon to fix up a meal. Worth taking a look at.
  
  
  

• Superb Tutorial on Home Cooking Techniques. Buy It!

  
  By A20IIR0422G3A5 on 2007-10-12
  `The Art of Simple Food' by the one and only Alice Waters is a rare treat for foodie readers, and an even rarer treat for those who wish to master the craft of cooking effortlessly. I can think of very, very few cookbooks which succeed as well as this one at teaching good, creative cooking at home. Those very few are the last two books by Jacques Pepin, `Chez Jacques' and `Fast Food, My Way', a few of Nigel Slater's books, especially `The Kitchen Diaries', and Waters' mentor's book, Richard Olney's `Simple French Food'.
  As with Pepin's works, my initial reaction to any important culinary figure's producing a `fast' or `easy' cookbook is suspicion that they are trying to cash in on the popularity of Rachael Ray's 30 minute meal mantra or Sandra Lee's `semi-homemade' fast and easy rubrics. And, like Pepin's books, this book is the real deal, giving superb, original insights on SIMPLE cooking at home. One of the very first things to realize, as Olney stated it in his book, `simple' is not the same as `fast' or `easy'. The notion of `simple' food is itself complicated enough to require seven pages in his introduction to thoroughly explain. In a nutshell, it excludes complicated menus, elaborate plating, and fancy sauces. It does include baking bread, making our own pastry, making our own homemade pasta, and making our own stocks and broths. Each of these activities can easily take several hours.
  We cook simply not to save time or effort, but to avoid masking the great qualities of our ingredients. So, simplicity in cooking has a symbiotic relation to Ms. Waters' most famous doctrines, of using fresh, organically grown local ingredients, when they are in season. And, if there were anything at all with which to find fault in this book, it is the constant preaching on that topic. This is not entirely Miss Alice's fault, as reading this book is much like reading `Hamlet'. So many lines sound like clichés, not because Shakespeare was a hack, but because `Hamlet' is easily the most often quoted play in the English language.
  This book fits exactly into my perennial analogy between learning cooking and learning chess. The rules of chess are quite simple, and yet it is almost impossible to summarize the principles of good chess strategy. So, learning the deeper lessons of chess involves simply replaying the games of the great chess masters, and appreciating how they saw their moves. Similarly, almost everything written about how to cook involves simply reciting recipes. And yet, the very best writing on cooking rises above simply following recipes and reaches that way of thinking one achieves when they are finally able to cook without a book. Paradoxically, Waters begins with some of the very strictest recommendations on how to successfully follow a particular recipe, going far beyond the simple suggestions of reading through it and gathering all your ingredients together. But, like the famous little book on chess by Emanuel Lasker, `Common Sense in Chess', one achieves independent thinking by experiencing the patterns from great games. With Olney and Waters, the great exemplar is the very best home cooking.
  The subtitle of the book, `Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution' may have been just a bit more accurate if it had emphasized the `lessons', since these are the soul of the book. Almost half the book is filled with 17 chapters on important cooking techniques that every home cook should really know by heart. These are `Four Essential Sauces', `Salads', `Bread', `Broth and Soup', `Beans, Dried and Fresh', `Pasta and Polenta', `Rice', `Into the Oven (Roasting)', `Out of the Frying Pan', `Slow Cooking', `Simmering', `Over the Coals' (grilling), Omelets and Souffles', `Tarts, Savory and Sweet', `Fruit Desserts', `Custard and Ice Cream', and `Cookies and Cake'. In a very gentle, very motherly way, Miss Alice communicates something like `master recipes', however, they are generally simpler than the famous `Master Recipe' template used so successfully by Julia Child. But then, Alice and Julia are really not doing quite the same thing. The lessons in the first half of the book are so well presented, I would easily recommend this as a superb textbook for a course on home cooking. And, in spite of having read over 400 cookbooks, I still found new insights in this book.
  The second half of the book is comprised of recipes which emulate the model Alice creates in the first half of the book. The selection of recipes reminds me of Ted Allen's book title, `The Food You Want to Eat', in that we have great simple recipes for lots of everyone's favorite dishes. The `Salads' chapter, in its 27 recipes, includes `Hearts of Romaine with Creamy Dressing', `Caesar Salad', `Chicken Salad', `Green Bean and Cherry Tomato Salad', `Nicoise Salad', `Coleslaw', `Potato Salad', `Carrot Salad', and `Greek Salad'. Most recipes have multiple variations, except for the real `standards' such as Caesar's salad.
  The first chapter on `Getting Started' is as good as or better than most I've seen on basic equipment and techniques. In this area, Ms. Waters really does well as a model for the home cook, as she describes herself as a minimalist, and prefers to work with as few tools as possible. Her lessons here on knife skills are not as complete as Pepin's `Complete Techniques', but that is not what this book is about. It's about common sense cooking at home. The second chapter, `What to Cook' is another lesson in simplicity, with some inspired suggestions on how to get the most out of novel eating venues.
  The writing flows so smoothly, I'm surprised at how fast I get through its impressive 405 pages. I'm even more impressed by the fact that it seems Ms. Waters probably contributed more herself to this book than many others where she is listed as the author. Thus, this is a classic foodie treasure, in that reading it gives as much pleasure as cooking from it.
  
  
  
  

• Our generation's finest cookbook

  
  By A2H5V3S0TCI8W on 2007-10-06
  Nothing more to say: in every generation there exists one memorable cookbook behind which all others pale in comparison. In the early 60s, it was Mastering the Art of French Cooking; in the late 70s, it was Silver Palate. It's always been The Joy of Cooking, and Jean Anderson's Doubleday Cookbook. But for this generation, tired of overwrought recipes created by celeb TV chefs and meant for the restaurant kitchen, The Art of Simple Food is a brilliant instant classic packed with recipes that are as close to perfection as I've seen. This is a keeper that will endure for years and years.
  
  
• a good looking book, but the recipes are on the bland side...
  By A3O58GH96PYPFU on 2008-01-11
  I am so sorry to give your cookbook such a low review Ms. Waters, but I was very disappointed with it. At first read, the book seemed very informative with a clean, new layout. But when you read the text closely, you will find that the information is not that groundbreaking and the organization of the book is a bit confusing.
  
  But more importantly, I was underwhelmed with the recipes in this book. I have so far cooked 3 recipes and they both needed a bit more zing. The author has at least stuck to the title of the book and provided us with recipes for "simple food", with very few ingredients and steps (a big contrast to the other Chez Panisse book I own) but the results of the recipes really needed a lot of help from sharp spices. I just read through the first few 5-star reviews and it didn't seem to me that any of those reviewers had actually cooked out of the book.
  
  
• A Great Basic but Holistic Approach to Cooking
  By A2PN65B6BSTIYZ on 2007-10-17
  After our trip to Italy this summer, we decided to take a more simplistic approach to cooking--better ingredients, fewer flourishes--inspired by italian cooking. I read a review of this book and a story on its author Alice Waters in the NYTimes just before it was released and I knew I wanted to get it immediately to help in our transition to easier cooking. This is not a traditional cookbook, it has no glossy pictures and builds on themes instead of just listing recipies alphabetically. It's good for mastering the basics, and has some good foundation recipies that it offers variations to (i've tried a few of the deserts and they are all very good). A lot of the recipies in this book are not geared towards people who are working on a limited time frame or budget. Simple food for Waters does not equal fast or cheap food. But the food is good, and you feel like its good for you. It is great for my husband and I though, since we live in an urban area and have access to lots of the things needed.
  
  But if you're looking for fast easy recipies, or even recipies that you won't have to visit a nicer grocery store to make well, this isn't the book for you.
  
  
• This Is It!
  By A20L3SICZP2HUV on 2007-11-07
  I looked forward to this book with eager anticipation. I was not disappointed. I have followed Alice Waters' life and career for more than 20 years and have always looked to her for inspiration. I have all of her other books, and while "Pat's Biscotti" from her first book, The Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook, has been a staple from my kitchen, this new collection far outshines the rest.
  
  I have been cooking exclusively from this book for the past two weeks. Everything, absolutely everything I have made has been stellar! First, there was the minestrone, which included homemade chicken stock and beans cooked from scratch. I have made both for years, but was never really satisfied, and more recently have relied on boxed broths and canned beans. No longer. The chicken stock was not over-powered by too many vegetables as recommended in other recipes, the beans were tender and held together, and they were seasoned to perfection with Alice's direction to taste and salt along the way. This resulted in a minstrone that was as near to perfection as I have ever tasted. I added kale to mine, which added great color.
  
  As I write this review, I am eating my lunch, which is the Polenta Torta, which I made two days ago. It is still as fabulous as it was then. First, Alice directs us to cook the polenta for one hour - yes, one hour. I thought to myself, oh, I don't need to do that; 30 minutes will suffice. I had the time, so I let the polenta cook quietly on the back burner for the entire hour. What a difference! Unbelievable taste and consistency! I layered this goodness with the Simple Tomato Sauce and added a layer of sauteed mushrooms and a separate layer of sauteed zucchini. This is comfort food at its best!
  
  In addition, I've made the scones - light, sweet, but not cloying; the Bean Gratin, which I served alongside plain ploenta - great taste and texture combination; and the peach crisp - a juxtaposition of texture, with the soft peaches and raspberries contrasted with the crunchy topping (I used slivered almonds, which I chopped and toasted in a dry skillet. I also added the zest of an orange - an Ina Garten trick.)
  
  Tonight, I can't wait to get home to cook the Braised Chicken Legs with Tomato and Garlic. I've been cooking avidly and passionately for a long time, and I haven't been this inspired by a single cookbook for a while. It's great to get the spark back. Thank you, Alice.
  
  I've eaten in the Chez Panisse Cafe and Cafe Fanny (the breakfast bar) every time I get to Berkely. Someday, I will get to eat Downstairs. Until then, I'll just have to be content with this most treasured tome.
  
  
• A gem of a cookbook
  By A2PESA62AKAZAU on 2007-10-13
  I agree with some of the other reviewers that this is a very special cookbook, and I don't say that lightly. I am an avid reader and user of cookbooks and have a collection of over 100 volumes. I have learned to discern the quality of a recipe by reading it and I am very keen on simple cooking techniques. At first blush the book may not appear to be so special, but a careful reading of the recipes proves otherwise. While I have always admired Alice Waters for her philosophy about food I am not an especial fan and have never bought one of her cookbooks before. From reading this book I can see that Alice Waters excels at using the simplest methods with the freshest ingredients to let the food's natural goodness shine through, and she is also a master at how to use just the right amount of subtle tweaking with herbs and spices or a special little technique that really makes the difference between a good dish and a great dish, but not a contrived dish. I especially liked her novel ideas about "shallow poaching" and "slow roasting" of salmon, two unique methods that require the minimum effort for maximum results. Many cookbooks claim to save time and effort or maximize creativity, but they usually result in mediocre food in my experience. Like any great artist Alice has mastered the foundation techniques such that she knows when to go beyond them and when to retain them for the best results. I also was impressed with her pared down lists of "pantry" and "perishable" staples (which has been done before, but not so well), which contain the most important ingredients upon which to build all recipes. With these staples in the cupboard & fridge all you need do is shop for the "ultra-perishables" such as fresh seafood, poulty, meat, fruit, vegetables and herbs. There isn't a recipe in this book that I am not eager to try.
  
  
• Brave New World
  By A2QNJARWTF9H89 on 2007-10-05
  I've barely owned this book a few days now, but its importance too me has skyrocketed in that time. I bought it because Alice Waters wrote it, and I have all her other books, so I might as well own this one too. By the second glance inside I was certain that isn't just another book to add to the collection. This is a powerhouse of a cookbook
  
  Alice knows what she is talking about it and she gets right too it. The recipes are direct and have some of the most relevant text I've ever seen in a cookbook. She talks about what you need to do, and gives some fabulous instructions on how go about cooking what you want. She lacks a bit of the why you need to do things, but you can read Alton Brown or people like him to find that out.
  
  I especially like the binding. It feels like a real book, in addition to looking like a real book. It isn't plagued with color photographs either, which helps to give it credibility as a legitimate cooking text. Looking at pictures is great if you want to look at pictures, but cooking isn't about looking at nice pictures of food; content about cooking is far more useful than pictures of things that have been cooked.
  
  
• Wonderful and problematic at the same time...
  By A1ZPKKWT79C6HW on 2007-11-26
  Alice Waters book is both wonderful and problematic at the same time. Ms. Waters restaurant is justly famous for its high quality and also for being located in Berkeley, the bluest patch of the bluest region of the bluest state in the United States. She has taken what in France would be just plain common sense - go to market filled with the week's fresh produce, recently caught fish, just butchered meats and artisanal wines, cheeses and breads and take it home and make something good to eat with it - and has, in the context of both her local Berkeley environment and the industrialized, dumbed down, pre packaged American food system, converted common sense into a typically Californian food ideology. The first part of her book is suffused with odes to and politically correct suggestions for doing good in the world, supporting alternative farmers, being a force for change, and suggestions for how you ought to relate to and involve other people in your cooking. She is, in short, a classic Berkeley type.
  
  The fact that her perch in Berkeley has both nurtured her and made her ideas seem reasonable, and that the San Francisco Bay Area is both economically and logistically perfect for supporting the ideas that she promotes, while many other places, where many of her readers live for example, would be much less perfect, seems of no importance to her. Although her ideas are, once again, just plain common sense, and have risen to the level of faith and ideology only in the context of the awful food culture that most Americans live in, they are presented as pseudo political imperatives. The fact that a reader in any of the hundreds of drab towns across America that depend on Wal-Mart for food supplies would be hard pressed to follow any of her advice on sourcing ingredients is, evidently, unimportant. Julia Child, for example, in her first book on French Cooking, did everything possible to somehow convert her knowledge of French cooking into terms and ingredients that an American housewife of the day could have actually purchased close to home without becoming a food activist and general pain in the rear.
  
  All that said, once you get past the introductory sections, what you have is a lovely, wonderful cookbook. Whatever Ms. Water believes in, it doesn't matter as long as that belief and mission have caused her to become such a good cook, make such wonderful meals and share such great insights and recipes in this otherwise marvelous cookbook. She could believe n Batman and tiny elves living in her light sockets who give her secret instructions about butterfat for all I care. If the end result was this kind of cooking that would be fine with me. I just wish she could of spared us the side trip to the East Bay outlook and suggestions for socially responsible participation in society.
  
  I am sure there are many people who LOVE this kind of stuff, and have been very comforted in their local hamlets to know that Ms. Waters is on their side, thinking right, doing good, wanting a better world, believing in justice, having a small footprint, and involving people in your responsible lifestyle and your caring relationships to nurture a better world. That's just fine. But cooking is ultimately about making something good with what you have at hand. And although it's important for people to both know and always seek the best ingredients, it is more important that they know what to do with ingredients once they have them.
  
  I firmly believe that this is such a good cookbook that you could have the carbon foot print of Godzilla, personally emit an entire cow herds worth of methane gas every day, drive a SUV gas guzzler, never recycle and be politically incorrect from cradle to grave and still be able to go to Wal-Mart, or even worse, and still make lovely, tasty dishes with this book. The take away here is that you don't have to own a Prius to like Alice Water's Cookbook, although I am sure that's her target audience. It's a great cookbook, assuming she will leave you alone to work in a guilt free kitchen, doing, eating and acting as you please.
  
  
  
  
• basic and boring
  By AZ0LJ43LNYZ3C on 2007-10-28
  This book is very basic and uninspiring. There were only one or two recipes that seemed interesting. This book would be good if your are new to thinking about meals and cooking food and sharing it with others. An old Joy of Cooking would do as well, if not better. I am disappointed.
  
  
• Short shelf life...
  By AN64Y6E2FKEKY on 2007-10-30
  Having been a fan of food and cook books for some years I was disappointed in the newest book from Alice Waters, The Art of Simple Food. My disappointment comes mainly from the fact that cookbooks should have covers and spines that can be kept clean or cleaned off with a damp cloth or sponge. A dust jacket would be helpful, too, in preserving a book that was meant to be used in a kitchen. But, this book has a cloth bound spine and no dust jacket and that means it will be prey to dust, dirt and grease and the covers and spine will have a short shelf life in a working kitchen. Catherine Pannell
  
  
• Fabulous FOUNDATION Cookbook to Expand On - A Great Education
  By A134OXKUUA2N57 on 2007-10-31
  I see a few complaints here and I think the writers of those complaints should realize that maybe while they're beyond this book (though I bet even they would find great things in it), many of us will find it the PERFECT foundation (and education!) from which to expand upon. (Indeed, on first thumbing through the book I was struck with what a great gift Alice Waters has made to us and to her family, passing down her hard-earned knowledge from one generation to another). I have bought well over 100 cookbooks in the past two years, and most are poorly written and make assumptions about what you know (or are all style and little substance). Alice Waters' new book, instead, gives the aspiring cook a great foundation upon which to build. All know is that (living in the Bay Area as I do, and eating at both Chez Panisse and Cafe Fanny many a time) you cannot go wrong with this book, if like me you have found most cookbooks very uneven or even impractical. This is simply superb and a great achievement. It's destined to be a classic in the not too distant future in the way that Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking is looked upon today. I could not have asked for anything more than what I bought here, and at such a great price relative to what I got in return for my money. Thank you, Alice Waters. I am not an everyday cook but I do like to get adventurous on weekends, and over time I find great recipes that are solid and nearly foolproof and have extraordinary flavor (like your can't miss ice cream recipe in Fanny at Chez Panisse, which I doctor up with whatever's in season -- especially a mix of raspberries and blackberries, which makes a beautiful color as well as tasting superb).
  
  
• Whatever...
  By A2OWLX6EVTMPU3 on 2008-06-01
  I really enjoyed Chez Panisse Fruit. So much so that I have asked my husband for it for my birthday. When I came across this book at the library, I got it out in high anticipation. Having read the reviews and having been so happy with the Fruit book, I can barely describe how disappointing this book is. First of all, Alice really needs to stop being so damn self congratulatory. I should have taken the title "Recipes from a Delicious Revolution" more seriously and realized that mostly the chatty comments are her saying how great she and her restaurant is.
  
  Am I wrong here or is local food pretty much what everyone ate before refrigerated trucks. So Basically she went back to cooking the way people cooked prior to WWII. Congratulations, how innovative.
  
  The book lacks the charm of her Fruit book. There are only small paragraphs at the beginning of each section and not enough comments. I really liked how she would talk about the different fruit or the different recipe. I wish she had done that with this book.
  
  Also, the lack of pictures is also a major pet peeve for me. I didn't try any of the recipes. They just didn't inspire me. You want a good book on how to cook food simply, get something by the folks at Cook's Illustrated.
  
  
• Simple food = Delicious Food
  By A22B00Q3RNCD8O on 2008-01-12
  I have been cooking regularly for about 18 years now, and for about the last 9 years or so it has become a real passion for me. I also have a personal library of hundreds of cook books. But I still found this book to be both an enjoyable and an educational read. The book has filled in some gaps in my cooking knowledge that I didn't even realize were there, or maybe more exactly, crystallized my thinking about some cooking ideas and techniques that I was somewhat fuzzy about. Reading this book also made me realize that somewhere along the way I had unconsciously developed the belief that if preparing my food was too simple, it wasn't "real" cooking. This was starting to take a lot of the fun out of cooking for me and turning it back into a chore. Ms. Waters has given me permission to explore all the ways that delicious food can be prepared with just a few steps and top notch ingredients. Cooking is fun again.
  
  More concretely, as a result of reading this book I find that I am wasting much less food, and finding much more creative ways to use the things that I have in my refrigerator and pantry, which is translating into spending less money at the grocery store.
  
  For me, the real value of the book was not the recipes, but the discussion of ingredients, cooking techniques and Ms. Waters' personal approach to preparing delicious food for her family and friends.
  
  
• Very disappointing
  By A3UBB26GNJ0KSE on 2008-01-20
  I was very excited to received this book since I had read so many positive reviews about it. Unfortunately, it was a pretty big disappointment. To start with the layout is, in my opinion, terrible. The pages are very crowded and since there is no ingredient list in teh beginning of every recipre, you need to read the whole recipe to make sure you have all of the ingredients. I have only made a few of the recipes so far but I found them to be just average.
  
  
• A great addition to your cookbooks
  By ADVLRJS633OTD on 2007-10-03
  I would have given the book five stars. But I found it just a bit difficult to navigate in parts. But I'm not really a cook. So those of you who are cooks and know your way around a kitchen may find this no issue at all.
  
  Alice Waters emphasizes good, fresh, healthy and simple ingredients in the dishes she makes. She goes through all the basic preparation techniques for creating delicious, balanced meals that don't take hours upon hours to create. That's what I like about it.
  
  She also tells you the utensils you'll need and how your should stock your kitchen.
  
  "We're trying to educate young people and show them how to use that lens of ingredients as a way to change their lives," she said. "Otherwise, it would be just another cookbook."
  
  "Food can be very transformational and it can be more than just about a dish," she said. "That's what happened to me when I first went to France. I fell in love. And if you fall in love, well, then everything is easy."
  
  I believe in simplicity. So I guess that's why I appreciate this book.
  
  Highly recommended.
  
  
• The Art of Simple Food
  By A2LDYLJRJ1887Y on 2007-11-21
  I bought this book for my wife, but it turned out to be as much of fun for me as for her. The book arrived just before we were leaving on a long car trip. I drove, and she read aloud. The book is beautifully written. The miles passed and I listened while she read about local foods and careful, loving preparation. Reading a good book can certainly be a group activity. Even better was when we got home and words were turned into meals.
  
  
• An Excellent Basic Cookbook
  By A2C3ZTNSL0T2CV on 2008-08-07
  I signed this out of the library, renewed it as long as I could, returned it, signed it out again, and once again kept it as long as I could. I rarely buy cookbooks any more, but I'll be setting aside some money from next month's grocery budget for this one.
  
  I think this book will be most useful to a beginning cook, or to anyone who uses a lot of convenience and prepared foods at home and wants to start cooking more 'from scratch'. Alice Waters covers all the basics in Part I "Starting From Scratch" including choosing ingredients, planning menus, and a good set of 'foundation recipes.' Part II expands on the foundation recipes and includes plenty of interesting and tasty variations.
  
  I usually use recipes and cookbooks for inspiration and rarely follow recipes to the letter. However, I decided to use this book with my 10 yr. old who is learning to cook. Since she wanted to begin with dessert (naturally!) we made the 1-2-3-4 Cake, which turned out beautifully with the suggested variation of adding orange zest and juice and filling with whipped cream. We also tried several of the salads in Part II for our lunchtime. The Jicama Salad with Orange and Cilantro was good, but we increased the cilantro to twice the maximum amount suggested. We also enjoyed the Green Bean and Tomato Salad (we subbed Roma for cherry tomatoes, and added feta) and the Lentil Salad. I've never prepared a lentil dish my children liked until this one, so I was very pleased, and my daughter quite proud.
  
  Although I like Alice Waters' approach and enjoyed reading this book and trying the recipes, I've given it 4 instead of 5 stars. First, although I try to 'eat locally and sustainably' I'm awfully tired of reading/hearing chefs' admonitions to do so. Like a lot of people, I have to work within a strict food budget, and it is more expensive to get fresh local produce, dairy, and meat than it it to get it at the supermarket. It's a privilege to be able to choose this, and I'm grateful that I can, but it's also a struggle and I'm a little weary of people who talk about sustainability as a moral imperative rather than a privileged choice. Another criticism of this book is simply that many of the recipes are very restrained in their use of herbs and spices. Beginning cooks might not even detect these flavors unless they increase amounts, and beginning cooks are often reluctant to deviate from the recipe. However, to be fair, Waters' does encourage readers to cook with all their senses, and to adjust seasonings. A good method for learning how to cook herbs and spices is to add the seasoning incrementally, tasting after each addition until you can taste it and are happy with the flavor.
  
  So, buy this book and use it often, but don't feel guilty if your potatoes came from the supermarket and your eggs aren't organic, and be sure to follow Waters' advice about looking, smelling, and tasting as you cook.
  
  
• general info and specific recipes
  By A1OFVSRNPDO4XU on 2007-11-07
  a useful addition to the Chez Panisse cookbook shelf. She begins with general information about types of foods and cooking methods with several example recipes for each, then moves to a more traditional cookbook recipe format. I have made 2 recipes from it so far:
  1) found the long-cooked lamb shoulder too sweet from all the carrots in the pureed vegetable sauce
  2) used the "fish in breadcrumbs" recipe for a salmon fillet and it was great.
  Certainly the book focuses on healthy foods sustainably grown.
  
  
• basic with a little more...
  By A14U93M7L9E5ET on 2007-11-15
  that little more is added in that this book does have some great breakdowns of basic recipes everyone should know, that some chefs take for granted in writing a cookbook. I like the idea that you can give people these simple outlines, and then allow them to take it where they want to, letting cooking be the free flowing "make it how you like it" sort of activity it should be. The problem is some people are still stuck there and fear the "i like it, but it won't taste good" sort of problem. Maybe the second half of the book with more recipe-recipes so to speak, will help the people suffering that fate.
  Though very basic at parts, i enjoyed the conversational aspects and notes i forget don't even enter most people's minds. Local, sustainable, and seasonal are words in my everyday vocabulary and involvement with the food i make, serve, and study.... but that is not so for the general american population. I applaud Waters for taking the extra step to inform people of the importance of that, but i think breaking the second half of the book down into recipes by season could have provided support for that aspect of her approach.
  This should be a book people have, and literally, cook their way through it, mastering the skills as they go.Nothing is too complicated for novices, but some recipes take some time, as they should. For the more advanced chefs in your life? Maybe not the best choice, but still a good read...just as the title implies.. a lovely simple book to have.
  
  
• A wonderful approach to food
  By A2EWAUAKXJRF0A on 2007-11-20
  It's funny -- about six months ago I was wishing for a cookbook that focused less on recipes than on cooking techniques. I don't much like cooking from a cookbook, really. I like to get some ingredients and then figure out how to bring them together, so this book really spoke to me.
  
  It's organized by cooking technique, and Waters speaks of the experience of cooking more than the step-by-step instructions -- although she includes those as well. In the section on roasting, for instance, she talks about how she knows a bird is done, what she is looking for as she observes and then tests the bird with her fingers. There is a palpable love for food in her words, as she walks you through her process of cooking, deciding what and how to cook and then creating it.
  
  If you enjoy cooking, I would definitely recommend this book.
  
  
• The Art of Simple Food
  By A7UJL3N7F9A46 on 2007-11-21
  How do you learn to cook like Alice Waters? This book is a great asset for all cooks. The simple recipes are time savers for the busy or new to the kitchen cook. The section on Alice Waters' favorite kitchen tools was very helpful; I bought a Japanese mortar & pestle called a suribachi and use it often for making salad dressings without having to use my knife and cutting board to finely chop garlic or shallots. The book makes a great gift!The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution
  
  
• Excellent cookbook
  By A15M45LCVU2QTR on 2007-11-24
  If I could only have one cookbook, this would be the one! Waters explains techniques with such clarity that a novice cook can get started in the kitchen, while an experienced cook can learn plenty of new things. She gives excellent, basic recipes that cover what most home cooks would want to make. (Every one I've tried has become my standard recipe!) She adds enough detail and suggestions for variation that you would never need another cookbook.
  
  
• mistitled subtitle
  By A3T5HAY8VCGSYG on 2008-03-27
  A was expecting a lot more Alice and less recipes. And the recipes are all pretty pedestrian, not Chez Pannise uber-recipes. A better title would have been- "Learning to Cook with Alice Waters"
  
  
• Better than review
  By A34AKDBPPEOYET on 2007-10-24
  I ordered this book because of a fantastic review I read in the New York Times. The book is all of that and more!!!
  
  
• The Art of Simple Food
  By AZ5RYWCNY48UB on 2007-11-23
  This is a wonderful cook book. She starts with the basics, yet the recipes are gourment quality. I like that she cooks with fresh herbs yet not many ingredients. Easy recipes for delicious results.
  
  
• Gift from An Elder
  By A1JEY0EERRPQNS on 2007-12-11
  Alice Waters helps cooks find their paths, while taking the snobbery and elusiveness out of the creation of a healthy, delicious, and stunning meal. She shares her methods, from the knives and pots and pans she uses to the ingredients she keeps stocked in her pantry and refrigerator. I felt like I was reading a guide passed down by an elder who understands both the spiritual and practical value of preparing wholesome food. As well, the recipes I tried are simple and outstanding. I'm thrilled that Alice wrote this book. This is a great gift for the experienced but jaded chef, a young person just exploring the meaning of a great meal, or anyone interested in simplifying their way of thinking about food and cooking. Big thanks, Alice!
  
  
• TOO Simple
  By A24CX7AIB0Y6N0 on 2008-05-20
  I think the average cookbook reader/cook has really moved beyond these very basic techniques and recipes. It might be a better purchase for someone just starting out. None of the recipes moved me to try them--indeed, it felt as if I'd already done some variation on most of them.
  
  

• In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
• How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food
• Alice Waters and Chez Panisse
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.)
• Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook