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The Kinfolk Table (2013)

by Nathan Williams(Favorite Author)

3.89 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1579655327 (ISBN13: 9781579655327)

languge

English

genre

Food & Cookbooks

publisher

Artisan

review 1: The subtitle of this book should be: White People* Looking Serious.Oh boy, what a pretentious, twee, book. But I couldn't stop reading it! I had to take a few days off each time I read a chunk to give my rolling eyes a rest, but oh my god, I can't believe this thing is real. I hesitate to call this a cookbook or a recipe book because most of the recipes are crap and don't seem tested at all. It's like if I were to write a recipe -- and if you know me, you'll know any recipe I write is crap.But seriously, there was a recipe for steel-cut oats with peanut butter and honey. The ingredients: steel cut oats, peanut butter, honey, cinnamon. The instructions, cook oats, and mix in the rest. Do you really need a recipe for that?!The first time I picked this up, I was biding my ... moretime in a public library in Austin. Of course. But I was intrigued in a, "So bad I can't stop" kind of way. So I had tried to look for it in my local library, but it wasn't there. But the librarian offered to order it for me. I declined, but after he saw the description for the book, he thought the library might like it, so he ordered it anyway, which is how I came to read it. I wish I could put a little camera inside this book just to watch the reactions of all the other library users who check this book out while they read the descriptions and stories of the contributors to this book* and a handful of Asians.
review 2: high 2 stars, flirting with a 3-star designationa sometimes-sweet curiosity -- quiet, often grave, naturally lit photographs of the recipe contributors provide a very hipster-minus-the-sneer sensibility. i wish they'd shown more detail shots of the finished recipes (though i suspect the people and lifestyle were more important to the publication than the food itself.) there were plenty of Hands Holding Bowls of Homemade Yogurt, raw linens, and gray tones. one picture, of a couple standing cheerfully against the side of a house behind a chest-high hedge, just made me laugh -- and not in an entirely kind way either -- at the "hey! look at us! we're TWEE!"the book puts forth recipes from the author's friends in brooklyn, copenhagen, and portland, with a final chapter offering recipes from friends in other cities. the recipes are usually quite simple -- some so simple as to be odd candidates for a cookbook ("prepare herring however you wish, and top with tomatoes and onions; serve.") -- with a few more complex offerings thrown in there, usually by folks who are actually chefs. shrimp, lentils, and sweet potatoes abound. the recipes range from italian to danish to japanese. few jumped out at me as really interesting. the author says the book has collected the participants' most frequently used recipes when these folks gather with friends in a simple, unpretentious way. it's perhaps for this reason that the collection feels more like a celebration of a lifestyle -- simple, nourishing, unfussy food with close, unfussy friends -- than it is a culinary inspiration or resource. less

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