Kitchen Life: Real Food for Real Families--Even Yours!

by Art Smith

Book Overview

The indispensable new cookbook for today's busy families from the New York Times bestselling author of Back to the Table . From James Beard Awardwinning chef Art Smith comes a book that gives readers... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1401307736
• ISBN13: 9781401307738
• Release Date: October 2004
• Publisher: Hachette Books
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.0" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Love Love Love!!!!

Great recipes and great reading! And, I love how certain recipes are called "Kitchen Workhorses." And, in addition to the recipes on those pages, he also lists "spin-off" recipes you can make from the Kitchen Workhorse recipes. I love this book from cover to cover, and because of the quality and 'everything else' in this book -I just ordered his other cookbooks. Thank You Art Smith❣️

delicious recipes!

I love this cookbook. I found the recipes interesting, yet not so esoteric that I didn't have easy access to most ingredients. I loved the finished recipes - they were fun, and have received rave reviews from my friends and family. Love it! I count this among my top 3 favorite cookbooks. Highly reccomended.

Excellent book for great meals

This is a fantastic book for learning more about cooking, the kitchen and great recipes in general. The best thing about this book is that there is a lot of extra knowledge that is very helpful, like tips on when to use regular garlic or garlic powder and other hints on what you should and should not do. I've been cooking seriously for only about a year and I have to say that this book is teaching me a lot and I really enjoy it. Get a copy for yourself!

Excellent Handbook for Kitchen Newbies. Highly Recommended

`Kitchen Life' is personal chef Art Smith's second book, having won a James Beard award for his first, `Back to the Table'. The most important feature of this book is that it is about much more than just recipes. It would not be at all inappropriate to call this `Knowing Your Kitchen for Dummies', as it touches a bit on just about every aspect of ingredients, kitchen management, cooking equipment, pantries, techniques, and recipes. An experienced cook may easily find much in this book a little too basic, but for the average person who wants to improve their return their investment in refrigerator, oven, range, sink, and tableware in their kitchen, this is the book for them! A paragraph on this book in a `New York Times' article on new cookbooks attracted me to the work in that it said the author wrote that you really don't need dumbed down recipes for cooking with kids. I had just finished reviewing some books on cooking with kids where I was put off by the cutsey tone adapted to appeal to kids. So, I suspected that Art Smith had something to say to me. It turns out that people with a lot of culinary experience will probably find little that is new in this book, but a newbie in the kitchen will find a whole lot to orient them to what is essential and what is fluff. I can find no statements in this book with which I would argue; although there are several small differences in opinion which should have no impact on the value of the book to its best audience. For example, Smith does the novice a great service by providing a lot of very useful top five lists for pantry items. A symptom of how good these lists are is the fact that I have almost all these items in my pantry. Their biggest weakness is that his lists violate one of his best principles, which is to always shop with a shopping list based on recipes you will actually cook that week. For small households, there is a lot of potential waste in stocking up on things like bell peppers, fresh thyme, frozen shrimp, sweet potatoes, chocolate chips, and ice cream. Bell peppers are a really common ingredient but if they languish for a week in the crisper, you may end up with slime. I really find the cost of fresh thyme to be not worth the money, as dried thyme is an excellent product with a very long shelf life. As I buy a new bottle of dried thyme every three months, I have no problems with the herb's loosing its potency. And so on with the rest of these ingredients. Smith is not suggesting we run out and buy all these ingredients, but he is not warning against it either. On kitchen equipment, the same rule should apply. Don't buy anything, no matter how strongly recommended, unless you actually plan to use the stuff. To those who will benefit from this book, I would amend Smith's recommendations with the recommendation to get BIG pots and pans. It is less of a problem to have a cook pot that is too big than to have one which is too small. Where Smith recommends both a skillet and a saute pan, I

FANTASTIC!!!!!!!! WORTH EVERY PENNY!!!!!!!!

Art you did it again! The book is an interesting and quick read. Loved the recipes for picky eaters. I made the cauliflower and penne gratin at the private boarding school where i am the cook. The kids loved it. I am your #1 fan.

Second Helping

I already have Art's first book, "Back to the Table." I was expecting this one to be another outstanding cook book and I wasn't disappointed. I found the recipes to be easy to make, inexpensive to shop for and delicious for the entire family. Some of my favorites were the Asian Pork and theSausage Potato Soup. The idea of having a "workhorse Recipe" and using that main ingredient in several other meals was ingenious. Owing this book is the next best thing to having Art as my Personal Chef! C.T