Hidden Kitchens: Stories, Recipes, and More from NPR's The Kitchen Sisters (Hardcover)

by Nikki Silva (Author), Davia Nelson (Author), Alice L. Waters (Foreword)
Key Phrases: chili queens, hidden kitchens, kitchen vision, San Antonio, George Foreman, Georgia Gilmore (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
NPR listeners are probably familiar with Nelson and Silva's radio program, "Hidden Kitchens," in which they interview amateur cooks who use improvisational methods to prepare food in unconventional places. This book expands on that concept, with Nelson and Silva offering expanded commentary and a handful of recipes from their interview subjects. While the cooks profiled use everything from George Foreman grills to makeshift fryers to whip up their meals, the recipes assume the reader has a conventional, working kitchen and are fairly straightforward and easy to make. But it's the stories behind the food that comprise the book's soul. The Sisters solicited tips from listeners in researching this book, which provided them with plenty of leads, though the verbatim transcripts of phoned-in tips that appear on nearly every page, and sometimes several times on a page, can make for a frustrating read. However, Nelson and Silva's mini-expose on the popularity of the George Foreman grill among the homeless is a solid piece of reportage that blends in the narrative of Foreman's life with that of the people who depend on his countertop appliance for their meals. The Chili Queens of Texas, women who sold tamales, chili and tacos as unlicensed street vendors at the turn of the century, also receive an in-depth profile, as do cooks on the NASCAR circuit. The book isn't so much about Rube Goldberg-like contraptions used to cook food (although there is some of that) as it is about American ingenuity and people making the most of what they have.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

From THE MIAMI HERALD and THE PALM BEACH POST
A Chicago homeless man explains the beauty of the George Foreman Grill that he uses to make meals in a tunnel. An inmate at Louisiana's Angola prison made praline candies while in solitary confinement. There are underground meetings of raw milk societies in New York City and Indiana.Who knew? In one of the year's best nonfiction audio books, National Public Radio's Kitchen Sisters - Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva - take you to weird places where people sometimes create strange food, proving that not everyone in this country eats only microwave or takeout.You meet the Chili Queens of San Antonio and vegetarian tailgaters at Phish concerts; You visit a cooking schoolat a San Francisco jail. After Nelson and Silva put out the word on all-powerful NPR for listeners to call in their favorite hidden kitchens, they were swamped with responses. This audiobook lets you hear those radio tips that were taped on an answering machine. Actress Frances McDormand as the reader is more than you should expect for $19.95. She fits this material perfectly (remember the pregnant deputy in Fargo, asking about buffets?) As a bonus, you get to hear Tony Joe White's Polk Salad Annie. You'll love this audio book if you're a fan of NPR's eclectic mix of stories on All Things Considered, which first aired the Kitchen Sisters. These stories, each one better than the last, stream past: Mexican street vendors; a Sicilian gourmet cook; cooking for NASCAR teams; Native Americans harvesting wild rice in northern Minnesota. My advice? Buy four or five copies for holiday gift-giving, because you don't know anyone who won't love Hidden Kitchens.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Rodale Books (October 13, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159486313X
• ISBN-13: 978-1594863134
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #390,223 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Joy of Cooking in Unlikely Places, May 4, 2008

By	Carol L. Emory (Chicago) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Hidden Kitchens: Stories, Recipes and More from NPR's The Kitchen Sisters (Paperback)

This was a membership gift from NPR. I thought, of all my choices, it would be most interesting. I'm glad that I didn't buy it. The book focuses more on the narratives of the different cooks in unlikely places than on the recipes that they use. All of the stories are excellent reminders that all people love food, and that we are quite clever in inserting good food in our daily life, wherever that might be. The most inspiring to me was the first story of the homeless and nearly homeless who use the George Foreman grill on the streets or in SRO hotels where cooking is forbidden. This is contrasted with Foreman's life as a child, where hunger was a constant presence. I am sure that I will try some of the recipes, but cannot recommend the book unless you like The Hidden Kitchens on NPR, which I had never heard of until now.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Random selection of phone messages !?!, May 17, 2008

By	Ommm "YogaMama" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hidden Kitchens: Stories and More from NPR's The Kitchen Sisters (Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva) and Jay Allison (Audio CD)

A selection of quirky pieces. Most are phone message left for the kitchen sisters. Some good, some just ramble on and on. I am a fan of the show so I was expecting more.

15 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars PURE DELIGHT !, October 20, 2005

By	Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This review is from: Hidden Kitchens: Stories and More from NPR's The Kitchen Sisters (Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva) and Jay Allison (Audio CD)

Someone has said that a kitchen is the heart of a home - it's certainly the heart of this delightful audio book splendidly read by Academy Award winning actress Frances McDormand. Few who saw "Fargo" will forget her command of the screen; few who listen to "Hidden Kitchens" will not be enchanted by her command of the stories, whether they're funny, moving or absurd.

Renowned chef Alice Waters contributes a special commentary in which she notes: "The curious and wonderful thing about the stories in this book is how much they resemble good things to eat. They can be surprising and they can be reassuringly familiar and they can be comforting and they can be outrageous."

How true!

The audio is taken in part from NPR's Hidden Kitchen Hotline, which hundreds of listeners have called with a plethora of messages regarding recipes, kitchen happenings, and cooking successes and failures. There is also a good deal of new material which Nelson and Silva have gathered from a variety of sources.

Listeners will be amazed to hear of the doings in a San Francisco cab yard, or by the lakes of Minnesota, or in a NASCAR kitchen paralleling a race track. And, there's more.

"Hidden Kitchens" is pure delight.

- Gail Cooke