How I Taught My Brother to Cook: A Food Memoir and Guide to Simple Improvisational Cooking in the Tuscan, Provencal, and American Peasant Traditions [Hardcover]

John & Patrick Barrows (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2007

Respect your food. Play with it too.
How many recipes do you have on your kitchen shelf, if you add up all your cookbooks? Ten thousand? Probably more! You like to cook, but searching for a recipe that matches your mood and your pantry has become a chore. It's time to leave rote instructions behind and unleash the confidence to improvise, and discover a style all your own. How I Taught My Brother To Cook is part family memoir, part cookbook and part raucous sibling rivalry. Most of all it's a story of two men's journey: to embrace their family roots in rural Italy and upstate New York, put good food on their family's tables, and avoid the anxiety over diet fad and fashion that afflicts most Americans. Weaving a dialogue in recipes and techniques, the brothers take a lowfalutin approach, though they rarely agree on whose approach is the more unpretentious. Bring your own opinion to the countertop conversation, and your memories of what your own grandparents and parents and favorite aunt fed you, and renew your joy in food.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Brothers Patrick and John Barrows want you to think more about your food, but not to stress over it. Taking cues from the peasant cuisines of the North of Italy and the South of France, their approach is fresh, simple and honest. Local in-season vegetables, the kind of meat that s handed over the counter by an expert in an apron instead of shrink-wrapped, fresh eggs for hand-made pasta-- these home cooks show that the more you embrace a palette of basic high-quality ingredients, the more you and your family will enjoy what you re putting in your mouths, and realize that convenience foods aren't saving you time or money, and might be sapping your soul.

For more, visit www.gnapoleone.com

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Inkwater Pr (September 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592992986
• ISBN-13: 978-1592992980
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,222,423 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Slumgullion and Nude-ish, October 5, 2007

By 

A. Schell (San Diego) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How I Taught My Brother to Cook: A Food Memoir and Guide to Simple Improvisational Cooking in the Tuscan, Provencal, and American Peasant Traditions (Hardcover)

I was given this book as a gift and I placed it directly onto the bookshelf, where it sat for over a month - probably because the pictures of the authors/brothers make them look like two psycho killers. I'm glad I finally found time to start thumbing through it (my thumbing turned to reading - the discourse between the two brothers is hilarious) and I got hooked on the whole crazy thing: Italian relatives, Italian pathos, and Italian cuisine. Well, according to the book jacket, there is also cuisine from the South of France (but I can't remember finding any). This cookbook is funny, cool, and easy. The recipes are healthy - even if the brothers are not. Other than being encourged to make your own pasta, the Barrows brothers provide recipes that are accessible and fresh. I've mastered Slumgullion, braised lamb shanks, and nude-ish tomatoes. A cookbook only succeeds if it makes the reader WANT to cook. This book not only made me laugh, but it made me want to cook.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just a good cookbook!, September 25, 2007

By 

Hilary Conway - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How I Taught My Brother to Cook: A Food Memoir and Guide to Simple Improvisational Cooking in the Tuscan, Provencal, and American Peasant Traditions (Hardcover)

John and Patrick Barrows have done something that few cookbooks come close to doing - they have written a book about food that is also food for thought. Usually I will flip through a cookbook looking for recipes of interest, but I found myself engaged in the discussion between John and Patrick and their opinions about cooking and food. Their often opposite views teach us that in much of cooking there isn't an exact answer - it is about trusting your instinct and your tastebuds while respecting your ingredients and ditching so-called "convienence". Cooking does not have to be complicated and it doesn't have to take a lot of time and it can be fun. I also enjoyed reflecting on my own cooking heritage and how I want my kids to see me as a "cook". What foods will they remember from their childhood? Hopefully, not something from a box!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How I taught my brother to cook has a lot to teach all of us., September 22, 2007

By 

N. J. Clevenger III "Than" (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How I Taught My Brother to Cook: A Food Memoir and Guide to Simple Improvisational Cooking in the Tuscan, Provencal, and American Peasant Traditions (Hardcover)

"Always think about food," urges John Barrows in one of this excellent book's early chapters on Food Rules. John and Patrick Barrows -- two brothers from New York -- share some pragmatic advice on how Americans, in particular, can reach back to their not-too-distant roots (if you will) for healthy eating. The early tete-a-tete between these two brothers is as entertaining as it is informative. And the recipes are as easy to swallow as the food is. Their range is also impressive moving from Bistecca alla Fiorentina to Sloppy Joe's to Vegetarian Lasagna with ease.

How I Taught My Brother to Cook has a lot to teach all of us about ourselves too. I found that it reminded me of my own childhood growing up in Southern Virginia eating lots of fresh fish, succotash, greens and cold buttermilk with my grandfather. Patrick and John have taken a page from the past and presented recipes here that seem as fresh today as they did centuries ago.

I strongly recommend this fine book.