The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution

This book goes beyond being a cookbook. Alice Waters has included many helpful facts and methods for foods and food preparation. Its a great book and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in "good" cooking and food prep.

Can you still use this book if you don't have a Meyer lemon tree in your backyard, a friend who makes artisanal cheeses and a farmers market overflowing with organic heirloom vegetables? Yes, you can. I have several of the Chez Panisse cookbooks and while I enjoy them, I only use them occasionally. This is not a restaurant cookbook but one with everyday recipes that I use frequently. I have made several of the salads, soups and vegetable dishes. The recipes are, as the title promises, simple and usually there are several variations given. I find these are particularly helpful as they give you a starting point but also encourage you to be a little more creative and use what you have instead of requiring a long shopping list. In addition to the recipes there is a lot of text, many detailed explanations of techniques and even an accomplished cook can learn something new.

I signed this out of the library, renewed it as long as I could, returned it, signed it out again, and once again kept it as long as I could. I rarely buy cookbooks any more, but I'll be setting aside some money from next month's grocery budget for this one.

I think this book will be most useful to a beginning cook, or to anyone who uses a lot of convenience and prepared foods at home and wants to start cooking more 'from scratch'. Alice Waters covers all the basics in Part I "Starting From Scratch" including choosing ingredients, planning menus, and a good set of 'foundation recipes.' Part II expands on the foundation recipes and includes plenty of interesting and tasty variations.

I usually use recipes and cookbooks for inspiration and rarely follow recipes to the letter. However, I decided to use this book with my 10 yr. old who is learning to cook. Since she wanted to begin with dessert (naturally!) we made the 1-2-3-4 Cake, which turned out beautifully with the suggested variation of adding orange zest and juice and filling with whipped cream. We also tried several of the salads in Part II for our lunchtime. The Jicama Salad with Orange and Cilantro was good, but we increased the cilantro to twice the maximum amount suggested. We also enjoyed the Green Bean and Tomato Salad (we subbed Roma for cherry tomatoes, and added feta) and the Lentil Salad. I've never prepared a lentil dish my children liked until this one, so I was very pleased, and my daughter quite proud.

Although I like Alice Waters' approach and enjoyed reading this book and trying the recipes, I've given it 4 instead of 5 stars. First, although I try to 'eat locally and sustainably' I'm awfully tired of reading/hearing chefs' admonitions to do so. Like a lot of people, I have to work within a strict food budget, and it is more expensive to get fresh local produce, dairy, and meat than it it to get it at the supermarket. It's a privilege to be able to choose this, and I'm grateful that I can, but it's also a struggle and I'm a little weary of people who talk about sustainability as a moral imperative rather than a privileged choice. Another criticism of this book is simply that many of the recipes are very restrained in their use of herbs and spices. Beginning cooks might not even detect these flavors unless they increase amounts, and beginning cooks are often reluctant to deviate from the recipe. However, to be fair, Waters' does encourage readers to cook with all their senses, and to adjust seasonings. A good method for learning how to cook herbs and spices is to add the seasoning incrementally, tasting after each addition until you can taste it and are happy with the flavor.

So, buy this book and use it often, but don't feel guilty if your potatoes came from the supermarket and your eggs aren't organic, and be sure to follow Waters' advice about looking, smelling, and tasting as you cook.

I love this book- it is one of the first guides I reach for in the kitchen when I want to get something good cooking properly. I am not a seasoned pro, and cooking is a fairly new venture for me. For this reason, the lengthy descriptions of particular techniques are very, very helpful. I like that the book is sprinkled with philosophy about healthy relationships with food, and the value that goes into making healthy, fresh foods. Definitly a great addition to any kitchen.

A terrific, versatile, useful book--- the best Waters have ever done. It lives up to it's name exactly. If you are looking for more complex fare then look elsewhere. This is for excellent simple food, with suggestions on ingredient changes to make different versions of same. I've cooked for many years from very challenging books, but this is a refreshing, unpretentious book, and one I now refer to regularly.. Highly recommended!!!!