The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper: Recipes, Stories, and Opinions from Public Radio's Award-Winning Food Show (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. A joint effort between Kasper, public radio host of The Splendid Table, and her producer and fellow foodie, Swift, this superb book should grace the shelves of even the most infrequent of cooks. Full of tantalizing, fast and easy-to-assemble meals, this collection also focuses on the ideas behind the techniques: what to look for as the food cooks, what kind of pot ensures success, and where substitutions will work. Helpful information such as why buying imported Italian pasta and why salting pasta water are important help the less experienced extract flavor from basic ingredients. Recipes center on quick and nutritious dinner options, including Dressing-in-a-Bowl Supper Salad, North Shore Shrimp Scampi, and Lamb Chops with Crossover Spice Crust. The authors also provide valuable references such as a tasting guide to salad greens, advice for imparting flavor to frozen shrimp and suggestions for using pasta water in sauces. Given the show's popularity, the accessibility of the recipes and the authors' practical and useful advice, this excellent book is sure to become a kitchen staple. (Apr.)
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Product Description

Just when you thought the last thing the world needed was another book on weeknight cooking, along comes an entirely fresh take on the subject. As they do on their weekly show, host Lynne Rossetto Kasper and producer Sally Swift approach their topic with attitude and originality, making The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper one of the most engaging cookbooks of this or any other year.

As loyal listeners know, Lynne and Sally share an unrelenting curiosity about everything to do with food. Their show, The Splendid Table, looks at the role food plays in our lives—inspiring us, making us laugh, nourishing us, and opening us up to the world around us. Now they have compiled all the most trenchant tips, never-fail recipes, and everyday culinary know-how from the program in How to Eat Supper, a kitchen companion unlike any other.

This is no mere cookbook. Like the show, this book goes far beyond the recipe, introducing the people and stories that are shaping America’s changing sense of food. We don’t eat, shop, or cook as we used to. Our relationship with food has intensified, become more controversial, richer, more pleasurable, and sometimes more puzzling. How to Eat Supper gives voice to rarely heard perspectives on food—from the quirky to the political, from the grassroots to the scholarly, from the highbrow to the humble—and shows the essential role breaking bread together plays in our world.

How to Eat Supper takes you through a plethora of inviting recipes simple enough to ensure success even if you’ve never cooked before. And if you are experienced in the kitchen, you’ll find challenging new concepts and dishes to spark your imagination.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Clarkson Potter (April 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307346714
• ISBN-13: 978-0307346711
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #10,097 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

92 of 93 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I got inspired!, April 16, 2008

By	Lynne Homeyer - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I love to cook but was in a rut with my weeknight standard recipes, and heard Lynne talk about this new book on NPR. I immediately bought it just for the Hoisin Noodles 4 Flavors recipe, which I made this weekend for a very appreciative audience of husband and dad - it was easy and delicious of course, but most happily it was something different. I can't wait to try many of the ideas I've found there - now I need a bottle of fish sauce to add the umami to lots of recipes - and am excited about weeknight cooking again. I'd recommend this to anyone who isn't afraid of red pepper flakes, roasting a vegetable, or the occasional pat of butter or dollop of cream. It's full of tips, clear explanations, realistic cooking times for recipes, and a great "Here's a basic equipment list," plus great little stories and quotes. I love this book! I'm ultra-confident that new recipes will put the "Wow" back into our weeknight AND weekend cooking! Thank you, Lynne and Sally!

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An utterly satisfying cookbook... and reading material for foodies, June 12, 2008

By	Esther Schindler (Scottsdale, AZ USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I like, not love, The Splendid Table. I enjoy it when I happen to turn on the radio, but I don't market my calendar to ensure I catch the radio show.

On the other hand, I'm completely taken with this cookbook. It fills a specific niche: real non-shortcut cooking, with the awareness that you probably have to start dinner after you get home from work. The recipes are all chosen with that desire/limitation in mind, and give you an estimate of how long it'll take from start to finish.

There's a pretty wide range of ethnic flavors, from Italian pasta to Chinese stir fries, which can keep the supper table interesting. So far, I've made only one recipe, but it was a clear winner: tarragon chicken breasts with buttery leeks. It promised to be done in half an hour... which was really more like 45 minutes, but we spent less than ten minutes in the kitchen. Many recipes suggest improvisations, simple or complex; she suggests other herbs instead of the tarragon for that chicken recipe, but another recipe for pasta with butternut squash and greens extends to a fennel garlic roast. I have my eye on this recipe for corn chowder and on the tamarind-glazed pork chops.

Among the features I like in this cookbook (and wish others would adopt) is that the ingredient is in boldface. That is, "2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice" has the "lemon juice" in bold type, making it easy to scan through the ingredient list while you're composing a shopping list or cooking.

A more major component of the cookbook is the little essays that come from the radio show, such as the discovery that consuming different cheeses before bedtime affects the nature of your dreams, and an explanation of the seed savers' exchange. Plus, a "building your library" sidebar will recommend cookbooks that you probably want to explore. The result is an inordinately *readable* cookbook, not just one to grab when you're wondering what you can possibly feed the family.

69 of 81 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars devil in the details, May 14, 2008

By	Pearlie (Alpharetta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

Am I the only person who was surprised to find grammatical errors in this book? I know, I know, it's a cook/lifestyle book and I should get a life, but I wish they had sent me a galley copy so I could have fixed the handful of errors. And no, grammar isn't that important when the food and life promulgated on the pages are so passionately, lushishly described.

But here's the thing: I have begun to wonder if there might be some finer points missing in the directions as well. The first recipe I chose to make was the Butter-Steamed Leeks, and nowhere does it say if the leeks should be sliced. The authors want me to make a vertical cut down the length of each leek (which to me is not the same thing as "slice in half vertically") and then soak them to remove grit. Fair enough, but that's it. Most recipes then have you cut the leeks crosswise into one or half inch slices. But I am left to my own devices here. Not that I am going to get into serious trouble if I decide to slice or not to slice, but this is the kind of attention to detail (as well as grammar) that differentiates good cookbooks from great cookbooks.

Regardless, it's still a recommended book (tomorrow night I'm making the covershot Tumeric Potatoes) though I would have appreciated more photos of the dishes and/or their preparation.