`the improvisational cook' by notable cookbook author, Sally Schneider is an inspired approach to a fascinating aspect of cooking. It is notably superior to the one other book I have reviewed on this subject, `How to Cook Without a Book' by Pam Anderson. Unlike Ms. Anderson, Madame Schneider is aiming at high end cooking rather than quick or easy cooking.
Ms. Schneider's precepts are not original. Her suggestions have appeared here and there in hundreds of other books, most notably in `How to Think Like a Chef' by Tom Colicchio' and in several different books by the Brits, Nigel Slater (`Appetite', `the Kitchen Diaries') and Nigella Lawson (`How to Eat'). Even if you do not consult these books or other similar books, you will acquire an understanding of Ms. Schneider's principles by simply cooking on a regular basis, working with a wide variety of recipes from at least two or three different cuisines, preferably including one native (such as Italian, Mexican, Polish, Jewish, Southern, Pennsylvania Dutch, or whatever) to cooks in your immediate family. This is due to my belief that learning how to cook well is very much like learning how to play chess. All good chess instruction books are little more than collections of games with commentaries on the techniques used in each game.
What Ms. Schneider has is a great way with presenting her principles. Her basic approach is an odd admixture of the `Julia Child' model of master recipes with the `Elizabeth David' approach (especially in her earliest books) of minimal information on precise measurements. Surrounding this is a special emphasis on paying attention to and thinking about the taste and smell of ingredients. If you don't think this is important, watch the combatants on `Iron Chef America'. The moment the theme ingredient is unveiled, you will see Bobby or Mario or Masaharu or Cat taking a piece of the mound of goodies and giving it a taste. This is followed by constant tasting as the dishes progress throughout the course of the hour's competition. Thus, one of Ms. Schneider's main principles of improvisation is to smell and taste the goodies and reflect on the various flavors and aromas, and what they have in common with the flavors and aromas of other foods.
A second major principle is that of `terroir', commonly expressed as `what grows together, goes together'. Three of the most famous examples may be strawberries and rhubarb in America, the apples and butter or Normandy, France and the vanilla and chocolate of Mexico and Central America. The most common mode of using this principle is in combining wines with food, but it obviously has wider application, as wines are only really important in the cuisines of Western Europe.
The heart of the book lies in 51 master recipes, all relatively simple, and from three to eight `improvisations which are primarily variations of the technique or uses of the results of the technique. A simple example of variations is the recipe for herbal salt. An example of where the improvisations use the result of the master recipe is the roasted tomato. This master recipe is an excellent example in that the author does not stipulate a single type of tomato (although I suspect Roma or `plum' tomatoes are the best in the off-season). She gives instructions for how to use several different sizes. The technique is also excellent in that it is the perfect way to `improve' off-season' tomatoes, which tend to be a bit flavorless when they have been shipped in from sunny Florida or sunny California or sunny Chile. Since Ms. Schneider emphasizes improvisation, sometimes she may be just a bit light on some of the finer points. While her roasted tomato recipes do use a blender or food processor to whiz up some of the tougher parts of tomatoes, two excellent recent recipes for roasted tomato soup by Ina Garten and Alton Brown both suggest running the tomatoes through a food mill before adding to other ingredients in a soup. I have made it both ways and removing the skins with the food mill makes a BIG improvement.
One excellent result of Ms. Schneider's approach is that her book gives her reader several superb general techniques that are directly applicable to many common cooking situations. One of the more useful master recipes may be the one for macaroni and cheese. If there were ever a recipe you want to know without the aid of a cookbook, this is one. The improvisations reveal that as well as being a classic pasta and sauce dish, it is also at the heart of the technique for making gratins. I almost regret she did not add that the technique also has a strong family resemblance to creamed dishes such as creamed chipped beef, creamed eggs, and creamed chicken.
Ms. Schneider has given us an excellent book and I have no problem giving her five stars; however, if one does cook a lot and already has many cookbooks (and is limited shelf space or money), you may not need to jump to the top of this page and order yourself a copy. The book's design makes it a much better armchair cookbook than one that plays well in the kitchen. It is pretty and well laid out, but it has a rather stiff spine and will not nicely lie flat on the kitchen table. It has an excellent listing of all master recipes and improvisations in the back of the book, which I think would have better gone in the front. The short appendices on kitchen tools would have also been better in the front rather than the back. I think the biggest single lapse in the book is that it does not have a good bibliography of cookbooks and other references that are superior sources for the improvisational cook. I would start with the `Larousse Gastronomique', `The Silver Spoon', and Shirley Corriher's `Cookwise'.
An excellent foodie read!
