Chris Kimball's Book Reviews
Get a taste of what Christopher Kimball is reading at Milk Street.
Wafu Cooking
By Sonoko Sakai
I cooked with Sonoko Sakai a few years back in her home in Los Angeles and was captivated by her charm, her garden, her kitchen and her food. I ended up jumping up and down, in stocking feet, on a plastic-wrapped lump of udon dough in order to knead it, with two of her assistants singing a rap song that was way past my music expiration date (I am still stuck on the Grateful Dead). Sakai’s latest book, “Wafu Cooking,” takes a less traditional approach, since wafu loosely translates to “in the style of.” A winter salad of citrus and daikon gets a grapefruit-EVOO dressing. Five-dal masala has curry powder and tofu. There is ceviche and tuna crudo, mochi waffles, pumpkin muffins, a Japanese take on posole and much more. Sakai is not playing with her food without rules; she is simply broadening a lifetime of Japanese cooking in new directions. I found that in Sakai’s kitchen, time stopped as the cooking seeped into my consciousness and soul. Please take these recipes seriously and enjoy the deep craft that went into making them.
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Thank You Please Come Again
By Kate Medley
Over 10 years, Kate Medley visited 150 gas stations across the 11 states of the South to document the rise of the gas station restaurant. There are more than 145,000 gas stations in the U.S., of which 61 percent are owned by immigrants. Up until the 1980s, you could get your car fully serviced in the gas station garages; now the garages are largely gone, and in their place are stores filled with fried chicken, taquitos and Monster Energy drinks. But that is just for starters. In New Orleans, there is Cajun banh mi (topped with fried garlic butter shrimp) or Shawarma On the Go (found inside a Jetgo station). Many gas stations around the country are owned by people of Indian descent, so there is a growing number of dhabas, Indian cafés, showing up near highway exits—for example, Punjabi Dhaba, at the intersection of Interstates 55 and 12. Of course, you can still get boiled peanuts, fried chicken, soul food and a fried olive po’ boy, but younger chefs who do not have the wherewithal to start an actual restaurant have made the gas station restaurant their startup of choice. The next time you think that Americans have lost their character, let me introduce you to Ms. Joyce, who cooks at Jr. Food Mart, a place that sells batteries and gizzards, biscuits and Super Glue. When asked if Jr. Food Mart was a restaurant that served gas or a gas station that served food, Ms. Joyce said she thought of Jr. Food Mart as “my damn job.” That’s America in a nutshell.
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Giuseppe’s Italian Bakes
and
Giuseppe’s Easy Bakes
By Giuseppe Dell’Anno
I thought I knew something about Italian baking until I met Giuseppe Dell’Anno. Of course, Italy is not really a country per se—it is a collection of regions that were not united until 1861. This means that Italian cooking is a myth. It depends not only on which region you are in but which town and which family. The good news is none of us are familiar with the vast majority of baking recipes that exist from east to west, from north to south. That’s why we need Dell’Anno. Peach loaf made from peach pulp. Drunk chocolate cake with red wine. Shrove Tuesday cake with semolina flour. Sunken ricotta cake with a cream mixture piped on top that slowly becomes the filling during baking. Polenta sponge cake—or perhaps a Milky Slice? Dell’Anno is politic enough not to weigh in on the French-Italian argument about who invented what, but let it be said that Italian desserts are every bit as good as what a French patisserie has to offer and are also better suited to home cooking. In my experience, the French buy their bread and sweets in shops, whereas I have found Italians to do more home baking.
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Hear interviews with Sonoko Sakai, Kate Medley and Giuseppe Dell’Anno at 177milkstreet.com/radio.
Christopher Kimball
Christopher Kimball is founder of Milk Street, which produces Milk Street Magazine, Milk Street Television on PBS, and the weekly public radio show Milk Street Radio. He founded Cook’s Magazine in 1980 and was host and executive producer of America’s Test Kitchen until 2016. Kimball is the author of several books, including "The Yellow Farmhouse" and "Fannie’s Last Supper."
