Review: Cooking Your Way to Romance by Carl R. Wendtland
Friday, February 8, 2008
"Cooking Your Way to Romance" by Carl R. Wendtland
Illustrations by Lanny Liu
CatsCurious Press, 2007
ISBN: 0979088917 / 978-0979088919
$17.99 paperback, 88 pages
This is a great book for the epi-curious romantic, but also stands on its own as an inspiration for the more experienced. The humor, full-meal suggestions, and anecdotes make this much more than a simple collection of recipes; and it's further enriched with a guide to wine selection, a guide on setting the table, unit conversions, and a glossary of terms. And while the book is very oriented towards "the traditionally inexperienced man cooking for his woman", it's innocent enough that I think it lends itself to any wooing situation.
One of the hardest things with any new endeavor is getting past the learned or imagined certainty that you're doomed to failure--Cooking Your Way to Romance eases this fear with its light humor, personal stories to pull you in, and calm assurance that if you try, it'll be all right. It's also filled with recipes for more than just the food on the table. It guides you through eight full meals--dinners and lunches, soups, salads--and preparation of mood and self.
Romance is kindled with some setting with a bit of the author's background--and a delicious dinner centered around a chicken parmigiana. The first accompanying illustration shows a young man choking a still-feathered chicken in a pot, a skeptical woman standing back: "I appreciate your intentions, but who's going to clean up this mess when you're done?" The instructions are much more sane, and easy to follow (though I still made a few mistakes--I can say from experience that the recipes in this book are very forgiving).
The meals are an international tour for your loved one: Italy, Mexico, France, New Orleans, and more, with running commentary egging you on, lovely illustrations, and decent full-color photos of many of the meals to let you know what you should be winding up with.
While none of the individual recipes are intrinsically more romantic than they would be if found somewhere else, Cooking Your Way to Romance packages everything in such a way that romance is always close at hand. The book weaves a tale through the planned meals, guiding setting and mood, and telling the story of your romancing--not just from your point of view, but from your partner's, as well, with snippets of conversation between your partner and their friends, suggesting the effects your cooking is having so that you can feel them and believe them. Just remember the mantra--you're doing this for _them_.
As an inexperienced cook, I could have used more suggestions as to how long things would take to prepare (a gimmick could have been ratings--novice, journeyman, master); and perhaps hints on possible substitutions (I had a tough time tracking down tomatillos), and something that's always perplexed me--what to do with the extra ingredients when you inevitably buy more than the recipe calls for.
That said, I'm looking forward to revisiting the meals I've accomplished so far and approaching meals I haven't yet found the time for; my wife insisted that I get a copy to keep in addition to the one we raffle off.
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She still cooks a turkey 3 or 4 times a year and I always remember that dinner.
I've yet to have that in my life yet. But once, I took a young woman out to dinner. (Who I knew as a casual friend)
It was a pretty horrible experience for me. My hands would not stop shaking and I was constantly worried she was conscious of this. Conversation was sparse, but I did manage to let her do most of the talking. The only time I felt comfortable talking was when I was criticizing myself.
The meal wasn't good in any way. All in all, it was just boring. But as we left the restaurant, she commented on my music and we found out we have the exact same taste in music. So our night ended on the peak of our conversations and we agreed to meet again.
We ordered our breakfast through room service. Simply eggs, bacon, hashbrowns and OJ.
Right then they were married to each other, and J. and I had just gotten involved, with B.'s awareness and permission, but not yet her blessing. It didn't help that there had been a communication snare which left B. angry with J. and uncomfortable with me.
Now, J. always cooks, and I can describe a lot of his cooking: Thai curries with Kafir lime leaf, wild mushroom risotto with cashews and leeks, roasted cherry tomatoes over ice cream (try it), polenta with shallots in red wine sauce -- sometimes our friends call us up saying they haven't had one of his meals in too long.
The night B. and I had the talk, he had to stay out of it because the whole point was that she and I were talking to each other, without intercession, without proxy or artificial smoothness. Bridging the gap from being intimate by chance to becoming friends. Approaching each other like two proud cats introduced to the same household.
While we were talking, he was in the kitchen cooking. And after the talk, we had a meal.
I can tell you what J. cooked -- kitsune udon, Japanese noodles in fish broth with delectable, sweet fried tofu; a salad on the side with Balsamic vinegar dressing -- but I can only tell you the flavors because I've had the dish many more times since. Right then it only tasted like love, tenuous and new and real.
And just a note--we have two other book/ebook raffles going on at the moment, so be sure to check them out if you haven't yet! (Ten Plagues, and Shutterbug)
And of course, plenty more to come. I've got a shelf full of reading to do. :)
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We'll choose TWO winners at random from the valid entries received. Contest open to US/Canada shipping addresses, and closes on 13th February (midnight pacific time).
One winner gets the "Advance Reading Copy - NOT FOR SALE" + errata sheet; and one an updated copy, retail version.
And yes, that still leaves me with one to finish going through with my wife. :)