| Here is one of those friend-of-a-friend tales that I could not believe – a young man went into a kitchen armed with a recipe and all the ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies. When asked how they turned out, he replied, "Good, but next time I think I’ll take the eggs out of the shells." Find that hard to swallow? Maybe it is the stuff of urban legend, or maybe we are more detached from food preparation than we think.
Enter Julie Van Rosendaal. She cooks, writes about cooking and even teaches people how to cook – and her new book, Starting Out: The Essential Guide to Cooking on Your Own, will most likely help prevent any more urban legends from sprouting up.
"I meet a lot of people who can’t cook and I have a lot of friends who can’t cook," says Van Rosendaal. "It occurred to me that people are missing a basic cooking knowledge – most cookbooks presume you have that so that you can go forward with a recipe."
This is not the case with Starting Out, which actually includes a recipe for boiling an egg. Inspired, in part, by her teenage nephew, who has not yet taken an interest in cooking, Van Rosendaal set out to make a book that would ensure those leaving home for the first time wouldn’t have to resort to eating cereal or Kraft Dinner every night.
Having been in the kitchen since she was quite young – she even took first place in the Calgary Stampede Chili Cook-off when she was 12 years old – Van Rosendaal does come from a point of privilege with regard to culinary skills. Yet her approach is simple, fun and engaging, no matter what your experience level might be.
"I’ve been cooking my whole life, but that isn’t the case for some kids," she says. "The fast food and convenience food industries spend billions of dollars to convince us that we don’t have time to cook, that we should spend more time with our kids and open a package, order a pizza or go through drive thru. But what better way to spend time with your kids than in the kitchen cooking with them?"
In an effort to get back to the basics, which was admittedly a little tricky for her, Van Rosendaal called her non-cooking friends to ask questions about what they look for and what helps them out in the kitchen. The result is a very user-friendly book that offers suggestions, advice and recipes that are slightly more descriptive than usual.
"I wrote (the recipes) as if I was e-mailing a friend of mine, telling her how to bake a potato." Without sounding the least bit patronizing, I might add.
Starting Out begins with a chapter that describes different kitchen supplies, outlining what is essential and what is just plain handy. There are sections that guide you through stocking your pantry, shopping for produce, applying heat and general kitchen tips, all before you even get to the recipes, which are followed by sections on menu planning, troubleshooting and how to do your laundry (!) – complete with illustrations by the inimitable Tom Bagley. Macaroni & Cheese, Mushroom Lentil Burgers, Basic Pie Crust and Pad Thai are just a few of the treats on the menu, and there is always a little space devoted to storing leftovers and alternate possibilities for each meal. In a cool way, by providing so much comprehensive information, Van Rosendaal has granted us considerable freedom, even if we did move out years ago.
"People are so afraid of straying from a recipe and ruining it, but I really wanted to teach people how to cook rather than how to follow a recipe. Let the amounts be dictated by taste.
"We eat to be social and to celebrate and to comfort ourselves and each other," she says. "It’s such a huge part of our lives, it should be accessible to everybody. There’s a huge appreciation for food and chefs are suddenly celebrities and yet, we seem to be cooking less and less. We are so into convenience. Everyone’s got the same amount of time. What do you want to spend your time on?" |
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