The point of this book is what do you do when you have no power, little to no fresh ingredients, and want to avoid a daily menu of generic "Beef Stew" or "Baked beans", etc. The recipes here are vegetarian and rely about 95% on shelf stable items--and the remaining 5% could be substituted fairly easily (dried for fresh herbs, some lemon juice packets vs fresh lemon juice, etc.). Many recipes are 100% off the shelf. I have actually made several of the recipes in this book--after 3 different stints of 6 days with no power (October Snow, and 2 massive storms), I wanted to be better prepared 'the next time"!
This is NOT a book about how to use rotate and use your shelf staples as a part of your day-to-day cooking--though you could use it that way by substituting ingredients for fresh and making recipes you like regularly. These recipes are truly usable "as is" when the power is gone and you have well stocked shelves (that's the planning part--covered in the first portion of the book). Some small heat source such as an outdoor grill, or gas stove, camp stove or fireplace is presumed for many recipes, but not all of the recipes require heating (for example, canned black beans and salsa combined are featured in one instance).
Some recipes are actually quite interesting concepts, such as coconut milk and pumpkin (plus seasonings & more) in a soup , hence the "gourmet" aspirations, but the authors are clearly aware that anytime you are relying on nearly 100% shelf stable foods the result is not comparable to what you could do with fresh ingredients. That is the point--this gives you options when there is no fresh food due to some emergency--e.g. Apocalypse Chow--a tongue-in-cheek description with a nod to the movie of similar sounding name.
I have made a few recipes as is, and, since we are not vegetarian, I have improvised. For example, I added chicken to the pasta and Alfredo sauce recipe. In an emergency, the chicken (or salmon) will be canned, but I'll have an actually decent sauce with the evaporated milk to rely on, as well as some desserts, soups, etc, that don't require an oven, or long cooking times.
Since you can't shop for the food when the markets are closed, you will need to read this book ahead of time so your larder is well stocked, and, ideally you will try some of the recipes out ahead of time perhaps with fresh ingredients mixed in, since that always improves a recipe. This way, when disaster strikes you can rely on the recipes you liked albeit with less (or no) fresh ingredients--compared to you neighbors, this may well be gourmet for the duration of the emergency. Good Luck!
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