Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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!

"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.

A wonderful book and a must have for any kitchen. Apart from the excellent recipes, it truly humanizes the experience of cooking in the context of family life. Worth a read regardless of how much, or even if, you cook yourself.