Review of Two Cookbooks

The first of the cookbooks I reviewed was "Four Winds Cookbook" by Cyril von Baumann and Beulah Phelps Harris. This cookbook is about food in general from all the regions of the world. It represents food from different continents such as Latin America, Asia, Africa etc. It also contains different food groups such as salads, meat, desserts, appetizers and main course. I thought it contained all the different elements of cooking by covering all the continents. When it comes to recipes and description of food this book explains it all but it fails to capture the attention of new readers. For example only those people would like this book if they know exactly what they are looking for. People who are just glancing through the book might find the book a bit dull especially due to the lack of pictures. Hnece I think that it is meant for an older audience who are slightly adept at cooking. The descriptions are pretty straight forward and before each recipe there is an introduction to the region in which the food is famous. With regards to a cookbook, this book does a fair job in the sense that it provides a lot of useful information about food and cooking. The author tends to be authoritative while writing down the recipes and only focuses on the preparation of good food without trying to please majority of the audience. People who are really into cooking would find this book helpful while others would get tired after the first few pages.

The other cookbook that caught my attention is "Soups" by The Editors of Time Life Books under a collection of cookbooks- The Good Cooks Techniques and Recipes. Even though this book covers a narrower range of food items it is more appealing and the design of the book is well aligned. The space inside the book is well utilised and hardly any space goes to waste. It consists of many pictures depicting various steps in making soup from the cutting of vegetables to the final cooking. The pictures and text are combined in a wonderful manner. The book starts with an intro to soups and the various ways it can be cooked and eaten. Then the book separates into different categories of soups such as Purees, Compound Broths, Panades, Cold Soups and Full meal soups. The recipes for soups are represented by lesser numbers and figures. Therefore it makes a good read for everyone as they can read through it without having to encounter straight forward cooking. The pictures add an exciting factor to the recipes. At the end of the book there is an anthology of recipes which includes numbers and figures which can be used by interested cooks to try out the recipes. But even for an ignorant reader it is quite hard to go through the book without noticing the enticing and mouth watering pictures of soups. Hence the intended audience for this book is a greater range than that of the previous book. The author does not impose himself much but does a really good job in attracting the attention of the audience no matter what the age of the audience is. It is a more complete cookbook because it first gives a brilliant first impression of the food through pictures and description of the processes and then in the end gives the complete recipe for the soup.