Unplugged Kitchen: A Return to the Simple, Authentic Joys of Cooking [Hardcover]

Viana LA Place (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1996

Pull the plug on fancy techniques and fall in love with food again with this beautifully illustrated new book by the co-author of Cucina Fresca and Pasta Fresca. Viana's food is nothing less than inspired. In nearly 200 tastefully evocative recipes she cooks the foods she loves from the fresh flavors of the world's cuisines.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

One is quickly motivated to follow Viana La Place's advice in Unplugged Kitchen, which is to simplify what you cook and how you prepare it. More than a cookbook, this is her manifesto on bringing back the simple pleasures of honest, good food in everyday eating. An artfully designed and illustrated work, it includes recipes for such humble Italian dishes as Penne with Roasted Tomatoes, Panino (a kind of sandwich) of Grilled Portobello Mushroom, and Green Peas Cooked Pearl Onions and a Lettuce Hat. Using the best ingredients is essential. Part of La Place's purpose is to promote a demand that will make these foods more available to all of us.

From Publishers Weekly

LaPlace (Verdura) extols the sensual rewards of cooking?and eating?simple Italian fare. In her utopian kitchen, produce from roadside markets shares space on well-worn countertops with hand-driven tools. Slicing, chopping, grinding a pestle in a mortar or turning the handle of a food mill or cheese grater are physical acts that bring the cook close to her ingredients and preclude the need for kitchen machines. Some 200 meatless recipes rely on established tradition and embrace the current vogue for simplicity. Most call for surprisingly few ingredients and preparation steps, allowing cooks to attend closely to selecting the best ingredients, to engage fully in the processes of preparation (one of which is the oft-forgotten step of tasting) and presentation. Recipes include such earthy fare as Persian Herb Pie; Red Squash and Bread Soup; Refined Artichoke and Potato Stew; Green Tomato Risotto; and Fresh Figs with Almond and Chocolate Stuffing. LaPlace's focus on simplicity revives such elementary satisfactions as a Tomato Cocktail, a Peach Sandwich or tangerines eaten with a cup of espresso. Chapter headings and brief essays scattered throughout recall how a food or dining custom transformed a routine moment into a lasting, redolent memory. This is a purist's book that is likely to reawaken for many modern cooks the essential pleasures of the basic acts of cooking.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow and Company; 1st edition (October 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688113133
• ISBN-13: 978-0688113131
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #584,272 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delicious writing --- my favorite book about food., August 23, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Unplugged Kitchen: A Return to the Simple, Authentic Joys of Cooking (Hardcover)

Before I begin, let's get one thing straight: I don't cook. I HATE to cook. I grew up dodging my mom's requests for help in the kitchen, reasoning that if I never learned to cook, I'd never be trapped in the domestic drudgery of slaving over a stove for myself or anyone else. Eating disorders, weight wars, and a long ambivalent relationship with food ensued.

This book was one of the best things that happened to me after I started healing myself from these woes. La Place pares down the processes of "cooking" to their essence: choosing, preparing, and enjoying the nourishment we all need to stay alive. She lists simple tools that bring the cook into direct contact with the lovely colors, shapes, smells, and textures of food --- a sharp knife replaces the food processor, for example --- and suggests a basic pantry of ingredients to have on hand for a nearly endless variety of delicious combinations. There are also shopping tips, ideas for reducing waste in the kitchen, wonderful memories of favorite meals, excerpts from classic writings on food, and more.

La Place's writing is inspiring yet down to earth, and the recipes are lovely, wholesome, and extremely simple. This, I suspect, is why this book is out of print --- there's no hype here, no trendy ingredients or complicated gadgets required, and thus, not much to sell. Too bad. It's held a place of honor in my kitchen from the day I got it, and would no doubt add a healthy dose of simplicity to many more.

If you're lucky enough to find a copy, get it.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars for a Cookbook? Absolutely, October 19, 2006

By 

Carol D. O'Dell "aka Carol D. O'Dell, Author... (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Unplugged Kitchen: A Return to the Simple, Authentic Joys of Cooking (Hardcover)

Unplugged Kitchen is a romp through the Italian countryside. Viana La Place is not a pretentious culinary snob, but a down-to-earth woman you'd find behind an apron with olive-oil drenched hands. Her writing and her recipes are exquisite. I read the book for pleasure, and everything I've made is simple and clean and delicious. Forget the machinery and assortment of kitchen gadgetry. Get back to the food and the land--and this book will make this journey and elegant delight. It's one of my favorite cookbooks--stains and all. It's been well-used and well-loved.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wholesome food, prepared simply, August 24, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Unplugged Kitchen: A Return to the Simple, Authentic Joys of Cooking (Hardcover)

What a refreshing presentation of foods in their healthiest and most delicious forms. This is just plain good reading, never mind great cooking. LaPlace lets the beauty of the foods shine through.