Not My Cup of Tea…

Kristen Kish Cooking: Recipes and Techniques – Kristen Kish (Clarkson Potter)

Growing up as a latch key kid, I taught myself how to cook out of necessity; if I wanted to eat something beyond peanut butter and jelly or grilled cheese sandwiches, I had to be able to cook. So at a very early age, I started to experiment in the kitchen and never looked back. To this day I cook almost all of our family meals and I am not afraid to use the gang as my taste testers.

That being said, when it comes to cookbooks, cooking shows and food based websites, I tend to stick to things that I would like to eat when it comes to trying new recipes. I fully admit, that I tend to not be a fan of the competition based cooking shows; the original English dubbed Iron Chef remains my favorite of these kinds of shows.

So when it came to Chef Kristen Kish’s debut cook book, Kristen Kish Cooking: Recipes and Techniques, I was totally unfamiliar with this former winner of the Top Chef and the co-host of the Travel Channel show 36 Hours. Flipping through the book’s pages it’s clear that Chef Kish has a wide range of skills and taste pallets. While the pictures belie the intricate skill that Kish brings to the table, when it comes to my pretty straight forward, pretty basic yard stick of “would I try/make this?” my answer more often than not is…No.

Clearly I am not a high end, high concept kind of guy who churns out what I consider tiny, delicate plates, which is Kish’s sweet spot. The book is clearly beautiful and features a nice design, but it simply in not my cup of tea.