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A review by soph_sol
Start Here: Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook by Sohla El-Waylly
4.0
Sohla El-Waylly is a chef and I've loved following her youtube career on various channels for the last few years -- she has such presence, vibrancy, obvious skill and passion. She seems to enjoy deliberately giving herself higher bars to reach, greater challenges to figure out how to work through, and it's such fun to watch.
And this recipe book has a neat premise -- it's not just a collection of recipes, but is designed to lead you through developing various skills in the kitchen as you work your way through the book. I enjoy that this means the recipes are organised by technique instead of by what stage of the meal it's to be eaten at; a different way of organizing a cookbook than the standard, but I think it makes just as much sense this way!
Unfortunately a lot of the recipes turned out to be ones I have no interest in, whether featuring ingredients I don't enjoy eating, or ingredients I'm not willing to pay for, or having processes that require owning a stand mixer. As a result I can't go through the book as she intended. So I ended up just skimming through it and then putting it aside, though I did save a few recipes to try later.
I think that if you're a person with more interest than me in seafood and/or dairy, this could be a really good book for you! And from what I see I think it does a very good job of teaching various skills. But as it is, for me, I'll go back to just watching Sohla on youtube.
And this recipe book has a neat premise -- it's not just a collection of recipes, but is designed to lead you through developing various skills in the kitchen as you work your way through the book. I enjoy that this means the recipes are organised by technique instead of by what stage of the meal it's to be eaten at; a different way of organizing a cookbook than the standard, but I think it makes just as much sense this way!
Unfortunately a lot of the recipes turned out to be ones I have no interest in, whether featuring ingredients I don't enjoy eating, or ingredients I'm not willing to pay for, or having processes that require owning a stand mixer. As a result I can't go through the book as she intended. So I ended up just skimming through it and then putting it aside, though I did save a few recipes to try later.
I think that if you're a person with more interest than me in seafood and/or dairy, this could be a really good book for you! And from what I see I think it does a very good job of teaching various skills. But as it is, for me, I'll go back to just watching Sohla on youtube.