Caroline O'Donoghue's Reviews > Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen

This is a three star cookbook, and five star collection of essays. A friend gave this to me in 2015 with the inscription "Caroline– you don't cook, but when you do, start here". At first I thought this was bad advice, because the recipes are extremely American, the measurements are vague, the ingredients not very easy to find. Some the recipes are dated. There's a heavy preoccupation with stews and casseroles, which – even now, that i can cook – I don't ever make. The reason you read this book before you start cooking is because it psychically places you within the world of food, where meals go wrong, where disasters are frequent, but where the rewards are great. This very slim and chatty book isn't so much about how to cook but how to live a life well.