Customer Reviews

The Pleasures of Cooking for One

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I love to cook and after my youngest child moved out, I found myself cooking large amounts and either wasting the leftovers or freezing them, which is never as good as fresh. This book has wonderful recipes and it just doesn't take a large recipe and quarter it, so you have a bunch of half-eaten ingredients left over again. Judith Jones shows you ways to use leftover ingredients creatively and deliciously.

I saw this book on Anna and Kristina's Grocery bag and was so impressed that I bought it for my brother for Christmas.

Judith Jones worked with Julia Child, James Beard and many others. When her husband died she felt her cooking days were over but discovered that preparing a nice meal for ones self is very rewarding. She passes her recipes and tips on in this book which is a great read, even without the great recipes which can easily be doubled when entertaining. Her Boeuf Bourguignone is outstanding!

i bought this book for a friend who is himself an excellent cook but is about to live alone for the first time in awhile. so the one thing to say is that many of the recipes are not going to be anything new for someone like him who already knows how to cool loads of things from simple to fancy. but i think the really nice things about the book are:
a) it is inspiring b/c she writes about things that you might not think to make just for one person but she shows that you can do them more simply, or how to use the extras so that it is still worth the effort for one
b) she's done all the work of putting all the measurements into 'one person' amounts which saves you that hassle and for some wierd reason makes the recipes seem simpler even when the steps are the same. (like there is one dish that you can prepare in a coffee mug in the microwave! )
c) she just has this nice voice/mood that comes through - it isn't written in the terse lingo of most cookbooks ... sometimes she's making little suggestions and calling you to reflect on your mood, or discussing the pain of leftovers etc. so if i lived alone i think i would find this nice - like a friend in the kitchen in a tiny way.

lovely stuff from a grande dame of the cookbook field.

Hooray, finally quick and easy recipes for those who live alone and like it! There are also numerous tips, tricks and helpful hints on how to stretch your dollar. All of the recipes can be expanded in different forms for two or three other meals from the same ingredients, and I am not talking left-overs. Thank you from someone who has been looking for years for this kind of cookbook.

We had purchased this for our daughter who is just starting to cook for herself. The quality of the recipes and resulting meals is high, but the organization and skills required are well beyond the beginning cook. If you're a fan of Rogers' Zuni Cafe or Bertolli's "Cooking by Hand" and want some recipes geared for one or two, you would probably enjoy this book.