I love to cook, and I am a reasonably good home cook, possibly better than that. I rarely use recipes, though if I am cooking something traditional or belonging to a cuisine with which I am unfamiliar I often cook it from the recipe the first time or two, and then start riffing. I do sometimes read cookbooks to get ideas of what things go together and I use that as a foundation -- I recently started working on my iteration of chicken adobo, but Filipino flavors are new to me so I read about a dozen recipes and had a lengthy chat with one of the cooks at a favorite Filipino restaurant and started cooking and success was mine. This cookbook is written for home cooks like me. There are no real recipes, everything can be switched out for other things you happen to have in your fridge and pantry, and food science is explained so the cook can use that to make substitutions. There are lots of knobs of butter and glugs of oil and "when you touch it it will do this when ready" kinds of instructions. I got some good ideas especially for soups and stews, and completely changed my dal recipe for the better. Chang also convinced me to use more traditionally Asian flavoring agents in Western food. I have been deploying fish sauce a lot more in the week since I finished this, and he is right, a dash changed my puttanesca for the better and really amped up and deepened the flavor of my braising liquid for poultry.

All this said, a lot of his methods are not to my taste at all -- so much boiling -- and every recipe has rice and/or noodles, which are not every day foods for me. I get that his tradition is Korean and much of his training is Japanese, and this is his comfort food, it just doesn't work for me personally. (I like David Chang, but in all truth I do not love Momofuku or Ssam -- both are fine, but I can get iterations of their signature dishes I like better at many other restaurants with more comfortable seating.) Still, full of great ideas for the home cook without weird ingredients, or tons of ingredients, and with no difficult techniques. Very worthwhile for cooks who understand basic techniques and who have a basic idea of how flavor works. ( )

This isn’t set up like most cookbooks course or even some by season. This is set up taking an item and then showing what a few changes to it can make several different meals based on different cultures. There is a lot of back and forth from both writer in the book and there is also reference titles they give of you want to learn more in-depth about certain dishes and other dishes from that culture. This is much more of a cook at home book and a discussion of home cooking than “Let’s do recipes from my restaurant”. I was reviewing a digital copy of the book but I do want to look at the final version because I think some stuff will be different. This book feels like it is geared to someone who wants to be more adventurous in the kitchen but is a bit hesitant about playing with flavors. It feels more like an intermediate book, something for someone that is used to cooking a few things but is ready to take the next step in the kitchen.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelwiess
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