Weekend Cooking is a weekly feature hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Click here to check out Weekend Cooking posts from other bloggers.
Kitchen Round Table is an excellent example of the audio gems that AudioGO comes out with – small, sparkling, and a little out of the ordinary. (I love AudioGO! It’s a local, New England audiobook publisher.)
Last weekend, on a bus ride to New York, I spent an enjoyable hour listening to Kitchen Round Table, a delightful audio program that has Marja Samsom, owner of the iconic Kitchen Club restaurant, talking with five popular home cooks about food memories, frugal cooking , cooking habits, family meals, and the personal stories behind the way each one cooks.
All women, Marja Samsom’s guests are “tastemakers at work in the food world today”: Lidia Bastianich, Betty Fussell, Madhur Jaffrey, Judith Jones, and Deb Perelman, blogger and author of the bestselling cookbook, The Smitten Kitchen.
Recorded live in various locations around New York City, the chats are brief but revealing. They are organized into themes, tied together by Marja Samsom (who has a pleasant Dutch-inflected voice) describing her mother’s recipe for linzertorte. Each part of the recipe introduces the theme for the next section of conversations.
Here’s an excerpt from the audio program’s introduction by Marja Samsom, who, as it turns out, posts beautiful photos of her own cooking on her blog, The Dumpling Diva:
We are a nation of curious consumers. We want the latest gadgets, sub-zero refrigerators, even blowtorches for the perfect carmelized crust, but in the rush to serve the perfect meal, have we lost sight of the forces that bind us together? A quote I once heard comes to mind, “It’s not just the food, it’s the bringing of the food.”
Also from the introduction:
It might surprise you that none of the people we spoke to were formally trained as chefs, but all are known for their culinary wisdom. Might that be because some of the best meals we have are prepared at home?
I wish Kitchen Round Table had been longer because I would have especially liked to hear more from Deb Perelman, whose Smitten Kitchen blog is so good, but maybe other Kitchen Round Table programs are planned. I hope so!
The Kitchen Round Table download is a bargain from AudioGO at $2.99, or on CD at $4.95.
Disclosure: I received a free download of Kitchen Round Table for review from the publisher through Audiobook Jukebox, a great source for reviews from AudioGO and other audiobook publishers.
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28 Responses to Weekend Cooking: Visiting with NYC Cookbook Authors: Kitchen Round Table (Audio)
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June 17–21
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This sounds really interesting and entertaining. I agree, the best meals are at home,
. Linzer Torte, oh, so yummy! Now that you mentioned it, I want some.
I’ve always found linzer torte to be dry, but maybe I need to try her recipe!
It is a dry kind of “Torte”, you are right, but I am not one for the creamy stuff, so it is right up my alley.
Oh what a great group of cooks/authors/bloggers. And you know I’m an audio junkie. Must find this one quick!
You can download right from AudioGO and other places. I have a book I bought by Judith Jones on vacation last summer that I never read. I should dig it out!
I am a big fan of Lidia Bastianich since she has a restaurant in Kansas City.
I’d heard of her and her cookbooks, but I haven’t tried any of them yet.
This sounds wonderful — thanks for featuring it!
Oh, this sounds like one I would love! Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
Thanks for visiting!
This audio sounds like a great way to inspire me to spend more time in the kitchen! I definitely want to check this out. Thanks for sharing!
Rebecca @ The Key to the Gate
It’s a nice length, too. Not a long time commitment!
I am trying to do more cooking and less going out to eat or grabbing the quick fix for hubby and I on my way home. I am getting better at it and starting to enjoy cooking.
I’ve always preferred baking to fixing meals. Not great for the diet!
I love to cook and also love going out to eat. This sounds like a great audio. Will have to check out AudioGO as well.
I like my husband’s cooking better than most restaurant food, so he always has to persuade me to spend money on going out to eat!
Very nice review….I will have to check it out.
Thanks for stopping by!
I never thought to try an audio book like this. I’ll have to see if my library has any. If not, I’ll try AudioGo, which btw, I’ve never heard of, so thanks for letting us know about it!
Here’s My WC
AudioGO is a new name for an old company (BBC Audio, I think it was called), but I forgot to mention that in the post.
What a fun concept — almost a cross between an audio book and a radio show. Cool!
Yes, I should do a Weekend Cooking post about The Splendid Table podcast. Love it!
I haven’t listened to any food related audio books. I really must check and see what is available. Thanks.
I haven’t watched many cooking shows, but I do like reading about or hearing people talk about food and cooking.
It sounds a lot like a panel, which is really interesting and unique for a book. I hadn’t actually heard of the Kitchen Club so I’m off to have a look at the site. Loving that the people aren’t professionals, it must make for a more everyday feel and make cooking seem easier.
It’s more like bits and pieces from a series of interviews organized by theme, since the cooks aren’t all together in one place to talk to each other as they would be on a panel. That would be interesting, though! Maybe they’ll do that next.
Lidia Bastianich is such a splendid cook, and this post reminds me to look up Madhur Jaffrey, who is world famous, but I have not tried to make any of her dishes.
I have a Madhur Jaffrey cookbook and Deb Perelman’s cookbook, but none by the other cooks.