Book Snacks: The Kitchen Counter Cooking School
Review by Sarah Warburton
Photo Credit: Sarah Warburton
Author's website-- https://kathleenflinn.com/
One of my favorite books for reading and cooking is The Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn. Her two earlier books are a memoir of her time at the Le Cordon Bleu (The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry) and a “multi-generational memoir” of her midwestern family (Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good). The Kitchen Counter Cooking School is something different.
When Kathleen and her husband moved back to the States, she looked for a new culinary direction. One day in a grocery store, Kathleen saw a woman and her daughter with a cart full of processed and pre-made meals. They started chatting, and it turned out the barrier to cooking with less expensive, natural ingredients was the know-how to do it. Kathleen put out a call on a popular radio program, and the “Kitchen Counter Cooking School” was born.
This book chronicles the stories of the women who participated—from what was in their cupboards and refrigerators at the start to the way their lives were changed afterwards. The “meat” of the book are the chapters that correspond with the lessons: Knifework, Taste-testing, Chicken, Bread, Meat, Soup, Omelets, Left-Overs, and more.
We learn along with Jodi, mother of a young son, Sabra, a junk-food lover, Trish, who cooked without joy or confidence, Andra, making her food stamps stretch, and the other participants. Each woman helps highlight the ways our family histories, our relationships, our income, and our issues with health, convenience, and confidence affect what we eat. As they go through each lesson, we learn their stories as well as Kathleen’s.
The final chapter in the book revisits the participants to see what “stuck.” I once chose this book for a book club, and the biggest takeaways we shared overlapped with what the participants said. Salad dressing and tomato sauce are both actually easy and cheap to make at home. Kathleen’s no-knead bread was a huge hit with my family, and so simple. And being creative with leftovers is more do-able when you have a little expert advice. Recipes appear at the end of each chapter.
I can’t think of a book that offers more practical information in a more entertaining way. The subtitle really says it all: How a Few Simple Lessons Transformed Nine Culinary Novices into Fearless Home Cooks.
Sarah D. Warburton
Sarah D. Warburton is the author of the thrillers ONCE TWO SISTERS and YOU CAN NEVER TELL. You can find her on Instagram and Facebook as @sarahwarbutonauthor or at her website www.sarahwarburtonauthor.com, where you can sign up for her newsletter for more book recommendations.