Graham Kerr's Swiftly Seasoned

Huh, I haven't done an OOP review in a while, have I?

There isn't a whole lot to say about this one. It is literally the *only* book of Kerr's later work that's even remotely worth reading. It's something of a whirlwind tour of some of the culinary possibilities that were becoming popular at the time the book was written, including unusual meats (like ostrich) and various aspects of appliance cooking. Overall, it's an interesting overview of thinking waaaay outside the box on cooking, and if you want some creative ideas, this is definitely going to give you a few.

However, there is a bit of a tin ear aspect to the book as well. Among other things, Kerr decided to tackle the problem of vegetarian meals not fitting very well into Western service patterns by creating something called the Molded Ethnic Vegetable, a roughly muffin-shaped stack of vegetables and starches (and occasionally, but rarely, meats) meant to serve as the centerpiece of a meal that would otherwise consist primarily of side dishes. This was an odd enough idea, but at least a reasonable one, but he tied it in with the painfully named Ethmix seasoning blends, which (in the manner of Italian seasoning or curry powder) try to reduce ethnic flavors to a handful of mixed seasonings. This isn't inherently bad (Penzeys Spices, among other companies, does this masterfully) but Kerr comes off as culturally insensitive and generally clueless with his combinations, seemingly representing them as more authentic than they really are. It's sort of sad.

Then again, "sort of sad" describes the long decline of Kerr's career into inept, ascetic health food. While his reasons (his alcoholism, his wife's heart disease) are perfectly sound, he has never fully pulled off the transition and his later work just is not very good. "Swiftly Seasoned", despite its occasional moments of ineptitude and its extreme weirdness, is pretty much the only exception, so if you know someone who is a wannabe Thomas Keller or Heston Blumenthal, this book is a nice one to seek out as a gift (and, if the prices for used copies quoted here are any indication, a spectacularly good deal).