Nathalie Dupree's Favorite Stories & Recipes

Hello everyone.  I hope you are having a nice day.

I have to do something you may not like.  I try to be good to you mixing it up with current and backlist books, popular and lesser known authors, and different genres. Yes, I know I'm thriller heavy...thanks for reminding me. I'd say thrillers are my guilty pleasure but I wear my thriller addiction proudly. Nope, today I must be my housewifey best and review....wait for it....you knew it was coming someday....oh yes, I MUST review a cookbook. I swear I hear at least one person out there cheering and the rest of you stop pouting, it's just one book.

I recently read Nathalie Dupree's Favorite Stories and Recipes by Nathalie Dupree, Cynthia Graubart. This book is a kind of a "best of" tale, although I only see one recipe in it that I already have in another volume. Favorites Stories and Recipes is just that it has stories about her life and the food she cooks. I have at least nine of her cookbooks, and I am not a cookbook collector. Frankly, there are way too many recipes to  be had online, why spend money on a book.  I buy these books because they teach you,  there are tips, explanations and variations offered throughout each of Nathalie's books.  She is a trained chef, restaurant owner, teacher, and tv show cooking host and you really reap the benefit of her experience.  It would be so easy to take advantage of her following and just put out great recipes but her books go the extra mile and that's why I buy them.  I actually learn. 

Years ago when I was first married, I couldn't cook.  I literally had to call my mother to find out how to make a baked potato.  You wash the potato, put it in the oven and bake it.  You test to see if it's soft by sticking it with a fork.  I did that and it exploded in my face, all over my clothes and the oven.  You actually have to poke them before baking or kaboom.  My mother left that out.  While she found it quite funny, I realized I REALLY knew nothing about cooking if I couldn't chuck something in the oven and turn it on and be successful.  During that time Nathalie Dupree was on PBS every Saturday morning with a cooking show.  Not only was she talking about what she was doing but she told you why.  One time she mentioned the amount of money that is spent learning to play golf, reasoning that learning to cook was just ...learning...and a bad pie crust was a small amount of money to pay for a successful future.  

Today, I can cook almost anything and I owe that to Nathalie Dupree.  Favorite Stories and Recipes is a book filled with stories, recipes and beautiful, large color photos.  Honestly, you can't go wrong with any of her books. You will learn loads, get an interesting book to actually read (not just reference) and get some great workable recipes too.