Outlaw Cook [Paperback]

John Thorne (Author), Matt Lewis Thorne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 1994

In essays ranging from his earliest cooking lessons in a cold-water walk-up apartment on New York's Lower East Side to opinions both admiring and acerbic on the food writers of the past ten years, John Thorne argues that to eat exactly what you want, you

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"I think you don't have to be a good cook . . . to be an interested cook," opines John Thorne ( Simple Cooking ) in this enlightening collection of essays, which illustrate, through their range and idiosyncrasy, exactly the sweep of that "interested" cook. Composed primarily of selections from the newsletter Simple Cooking , which Thorne writes with his wife, Matt, the book offers a series of extended comments on foods that interest him for their simple perfection, like avocados, for their relation to a national people, like boeuf aux carottes to the French during WW II, or for their place in his personal history (the metaphysics of bread, and its baking, led him to build his own outdoor wood-fired bread oven). The thoughtful selection of recipes includes Spanish meatball soup, "plowman's lunch" and fresh raspberry cake, reflecting the bent of an erudite, self-made cook. As in other collections of short, previously published works, the voice and pace of the essays may wane on repetition. But in moderate spells, the essays delight with passion and originality. This is one of few recent books that can successfully encompass the history of the recent enshrinement of pesto, an analysis of Martha Stewart's need to be loved and a culinary awakening caused by Gunter Grass's The Tin Drum.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This is the type of cookbook an avid cook would like to curl up with and read from cover to cover on a cold winter's day. John Thorne, who publishes the quarterly newsletter Simple Cooking with Matt Lewis Thorne and who is author of a book with the same title ( LJ 9/15/87), has winnowed from this newsletter a tasty collection of essays and recipes. He discusses the historical background and regional derivatives for many dishes spanning the globe, and he includes many easy-to-prepare, flavorful recipes. The "outlaw" theme is drawn from Thorne's insistence that people use recipes only as a guideline and experiment heavily according to individual tastes. Thorne closes his book with a critique of the current culinary scene, expressing disdain for the hype and faddishness of contemporary cooking and urging a return to our gastronomic roots. An alternative approach to cookery worthy of selection by most public libraries.
- Michael A. Lutes, Univ. of Notre Dame Lib., Ind.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 378 pages
• Publisher: North Point Press (October 31, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865474796
• ISBN-13: 978-0865474796
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,022,686 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars John Thorne is my culinary hero, September 9, 1999

By 

Michael Connor "Michael Connor" (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Outlaw Cook (Paperback)

My first contact with John Thorne was a review of "Serious Pig" that appeared in the Washington Post. I quickly bought the book, and Thorne's two other books, "Simple Cooking" and "Outlaw Cook," and devoured them all. I have bought many copies of each (especially "Outlaw Cook") to share with friends who are serious cooks.

Unlike an ordinary cookbook writers, John Thorne doesn't just share recipes (although there are plenty of them); he inspires good cooks to be better. His style is less about fancy food for dinner parties than about stunningly good food to share with close friends, or to enjoy in contemplative solitude.

In "Outlaw Cook," John shares his memories of his first kitchen, in a cold-water flat on the lower east side of Manhattan, and the important lessons he learned there. He goes on to talk about the properties of garlic as a seducer that possesses body and soul(10 pages on garlic soup!), and about food that is loaded with it. He writes a chapter on "The Perfect Pecan Pie," not to tell you how to make it, but to help you find your own perfect pecan pie. He spends forty pages on sourdough bread, and I felt when I finished that I understood the process (although it took some practice before I really had it just right). There is a pear-ginger cake that is a revelation, although I added a warm caramel sauce to John's recipe for a Christmas dinner treat that has become a tradition.

John Thorne writes about food with keen knowledge, imagination, emotion, wit, and heart I've never found before. He's been compared to M.F.K. Fisher, but he's earthier. His writing has a visceral quality that evokes our most hidden emotions about the food we eat.

John Thorne's books are not for the novice. They are for the cook who knows the ways of the kitchen, but wants to learn to trust his imagination, to leap forward into a new realm where the food one cooks satisfies the hunger of the soul as well as the stomach.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars COOKING SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, July 26, 2005

By 

Gaelan Benway (Rhode Island) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Outlaw Cook (Paperback)

Serendipity put this book into my hands, and I am most grateful. To declare that OUTLAW COOK is a skillful, fascinating collection of essays, recipes, and reviews is accurate, but fails to acknowledge the truest contributions of this unique volume. John Thorne writes with a warmth and self-effacing humor that welcomes even the most callow non-foodie to the kitchen. Thorne, in delicious morsels served throughout the book, offers his readers a sort of cook's autobiography. He's wonderfully transparent about the whys and wherefores of learning to cook, inviting us to give ourselves permission - as he has done for himself - to play in the kitchen, honor our appetites, and be imperfect. The measures of mastery, it would seem, are an idiosyncratic cuisine and a perpetual sense of curiosity. Most of all, though, Thorne gives voice to the myriad celebrations, comforts, and connections inherent in the preparation and sharing of food.

Many of the essays in OUTLAW COOK are striking in their anthropological or historical depth. Thorne is adept at placing food into contexts; time, place, and culture (high and low) are all important here, but so are individual memory and experience. I was moved repeatedly, reading the book, as Thorne's descriptions triggered my own memories of particular foods in particular places. I was also deeply touched by the relationships Thorne draws among food and cooking, preparation and consumption, solitary and social pleasures. I found as I read that my own sense of myself as a cook and as an eater became more clear, balanced, and healthy. By the end of reading OUTLAW COOK, I had begun the transition from observer - wanting only to watch John and Matt Lewis Thorne work their magic - to participant - trying to cast a spell or two of my own. A marvelous gift from a remarkable book!

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A culinary outlaw and food philosopher strikes gold, May 25, 2002

By 

Catherine S. Vodrey (East Liverpool, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Outlaw Cook (Paperback)

John Thorne is one of the most thoughtful, provocative and downright talented writers going, and the book he and his wife, Matt Lewis Thorne, have produced is ample evidence of this. In addition to providing some excellent recipes, "Outlaw Cook" is just plain old good reading.

I was first introduced to Thorne's writing years ago when a colleague gave me a copy of his first book, "Simple Cooking." "Simple Cooking" is a compilation of essays and recipes from his newsletter (by the same name), and it charmed me. From the best essay I have ever read on cheesecake to the recounting of a long-ago romantic evening highlighted by the appearance of homemade Philly cheesesteak sandwiches, Thorne covered a wealth of disparate material and covered it all with an unstuffy and contagious isn't-this-fascinating spirit. "Outlaw Cook" serves up more of the same delicious dish.

One of the most exhilarating things in "Outlaw Cook" is the chapter called "On Not Being a Good Cook." For a man who makes his living writing about food and cooking, this baldly titled essay is a brazen thing to include in a book that bears the imprimatur of the International Association of Culinary Professionals (it was a winner of one of the Julia Child Cookbook Awards). Throwing down the gauntlet to the rarefied world of foodies (as food writers are commonly called), he begins the essay by asserting, "I'm not a good cook." He goes on:

" . . . if our criterion for goodness is whether I possess anything like a genuinely well-rounded repertoire of dishes I consistently prepare well, then my credentials are nothing much to boast about. Quite honestly, this has never bothered me much at all . . . It's my experience that truly good cooks are born. I was not born to be one, and I don't like being trained, especially if the result is going to be mere competency. I've generally found life a lot more interesting learning to use my limitations than struggling to overcome them."

Take that, all you Cordon Bleu-trained snobs! After all, most of us haven't been trained in cooking--except perhaps at a parent's knee, if we are lucky--so his comments, while surprising coming from a food writer, do apply to the majority of the general population. The essay serves the dual purpose of endearing Thorne to his readers and emboldening them to share his defiance of the conventions of cookery.

There are other goodies as well. Thorne writes convincingly (if somewhat obsessively) about the need to bake bread in a wood-fired, outdoor oven. He takes deadly aim at food writer Paula Wolfert and wickedly skewers Martha Stewart. And as if the polished prose weren't enough, there are many worthwhile recipes; his takes on lemon ice cream, Texas toast, Swedish pea soup and pecan pie all leap to the fore.

Matt Lewis Thorne and John Thorne have, with "Outlaw Cook" produced a quiet classic of food writing that deserves to be on any thoughtful cook's bookshelf--or on the bedside table. It's that good.