Review: Sam Stern's Get Cooking

My shelves are packed with cookbooks, but I'm always on the lookout for a new one. Although I have gotten a bit pickier in terms of which ones I buy myself, that doesn't stop me from adding to my shelves every now and again. Recently I was introduced to Sam Stern's Get Cooking, the third cookbook from the teenage British cook (set to publish May 2009). The premise is that he asked seven of his best buds what types of foods they liked the most, and then he dedicated a chapter to each of them, creating recipes that celebrated their favorites. Foods include tomatoes, cheese, pasta and more, with Sam adding a chapter for chocolate, his own personal favorite food.

What I liked about the cookbook is easy ... the pages were filled with big, easy-to-read text (no squinting necessary), full color pictures and simple step-by-step directions. I'm a total picture girl at heart, so I loved that there was a picture on every page, and then some. All the recipes were very easy and a lot of them even include regular pantry ingredients that you likely already have on hand.

I tried his Tomato and Mozzarella Bruschetta to start with, in the Tomato chapter, of course. A simple riff on an old classic, it was fine, but I sorely missed the addition of fresh basil. For me, and my fellow taste-testers, it just wasn't the same.

Next up were his Crunchy Herb Spuds and French Country Chicken. The spuds lacked the crunch and the chicken was just ok. Hardly the "luxurious" entree promised, it made for a simple weeknight meal however.

Lastly, his pancakes. Pancakes are not a hard sell in my house, but these sure were. When I told my son I was making pancakes, he excitedly ran to the table, ready to dig in. After a few bites, he pushed the plate away and wouldn't touch them. They weren't the same as mine. I felt bad because he was so looking forward to them. Maybe it's because a Brit is doing something that we've Americanized too much? Maybe we just like ours too much. These were much thicker and denser than the ones we usually make. The recipe was created after Sam visited America and developed a fondness for pancakes, so they should have been easy for my family to like, but even I didn't. No airy fluffiness, and just not the same.

Is the cookbook bad? No. Just nothing to rave about, and after trying three so-so recipes, I'm done. Sorry, Sam.