Things Cooks Love Reviewed By Shelf Awareness

Things Cooks Love: Implements. Ingredients. Recipes.
by Sur La Table and Marie Simmons
is reviewed by Shelf Awareness

...Another "equipment" book comes from Marie Simmons and the folks at Sur la Table: Things Cooks Love: Implements, Ingredients, and Recipes (Andrews McMeel, $35, 9780740769764/0740769766, May 2008). They say that cooking is easier and more fun with the right tools, and they help you figure out what you need for your style, from basic essentials to global essentials (a Portuguese cataplana, a Moroccan couscoussière, a tortilla press.) Not everything is that exotic; the chapter on cast-iron skillets is excellent, explaining not only how to season them, but what they are good at, and what they are not. But the cookbook is not just a tool book, it has more than 300 pages of scrumptious recipes, like Oven-Roasted Tomato Sauce, Sautéed Fish Fillets with Herb Butter and Mango, Fresh-Fruit Quesadillas. The only thing missing is dessert, but that leaves more room for Cornish Hens with Basil and Mint, and Pommes Anna.