The Cook's Canon: 101 Classic Recipes Everyone Should Know (Cookbooks)

The Cook's Canon: 101 Classic Recipes Everyone Should Know is Rayomond Sokolov's tenth book. Add to that his years of magazine and newspaper columns devoted to digging down to the roots of a dish or food tradition and you have a man who knows a thing or two. Drawing on his own taste and ideas--and his concern that a current generation of talented food enthusiasts, amateur and professional alike, don't seem to know much at all about the evolution of the food we eat and take for granted--Sokolov has come up with 101 recipes he thinks everyone should know and understand. He's looking to "train the palates of a generation whose connection with traditional food has been short-circuited." The recipes he has chosen, then, are classics accompanied by "historical and cultural and sometimes scientific information that tells in some depth where they came from, what they meant to the people who first ate them before they spread to other societies, and why they are importa! nt to us now."

Since Sokolov is writing for an English-speaking readership, he has chosen the recipes that reflect that prejudice, Euro- and Gallocentric recipes for the most part, with a tip of the hat to China, India, and Morocco. For those inclined to argue with the choices, Sokolov says so much the better, "because that will mean that you have thought passionately about the subject." He begins with Apple Pie and ends with Zabiglione. In between, in alphabetical order, you'll find the likes of Chicken Adobo, Doughnuts, Jambon Persillé, Osso Buco alla Milanese, Pork Vindaloo, Shepherd's Pie, Suckling Pig, Terrine of Foie Gras, and Vinaigrette. His notes accompanying each recipe are entertaining and informative. --Schuyler Ingle