Customer Reviews

The Urban Cookbook

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The Urban Cookbook is an overview of 5 cities under a concept design to offer a synopsis of urban culture, graffiti, artist, walks, or cooking. The graphic design ties the book together in a solid manner but little else does. 4 cities in Europe (Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, London) with the inevitable US icon (New York) form the snapshot at this global trend, and while this cities have a rightful spot in this narrative is quite limiting, superficial and predictable to keep on beating on a regular basis the same bunch of cities with so much going on around the world both in places large and small.

Some things work better than others, and I would say that either if you are going to visit one of these cities for the first time or have little familiarity with dominant urban culture trends the book is worth a read. Descriptions of walks, and urban routes are probably some of the best fragments, with good ideas to take a stroll around the city. The interviews do not work so well. Aimed at a selected group of artist in each town, the same questions become repetitive, and predictable, in particular those that do not work and offer little insight into each person interviewed or the city they are supposed to represent.

The notion to include cooking as a recognizable and key part of urban cultures is probably the most daring aspect of the book. But while the recipes seem cogent with some sense of quickness, wholesomeness and city creed, ultimately one feels they do not gel to offer interest as an urban cook book.

These might be 5 urban recipes for KingAdz and it is nice to have them shared but the personal experience only shines in places. Moreover, like many other volumes in the genre, it is quite a trite trend to pretend that the book is comprehensive or represents cogently a whole movement or group of people: "creative recipes for the graffiti generation"?
The Uban Cookbook might be good for a bite but you are having candy at best.

Great coffee table book but other than that not much to it. I thought there would be more cooking recipes maybe more pics

I love flipping through this book when I'm bored. I've only dared to try one of the recipes (I'm a horrible cook) but the food amounts to less than half of this books contents. The bleeding edge photos and graphics mean you'll always find something new when you pick it up. The narrative is trendy, almost hipster, but it's got more than enough flavor to keep it out of the corn. Lots of fresh finds that open your eyes to some new artistic styles are to be found here. If you're in to hip hop and graphic design (as I am), you'll absolutely love this book. There is something to be said about the unique fusion of urban art, food, and music which the author does tastefully well.