Photo by Julia Turshen
One of the essential duties of the foodwriter, I feel, is to write reliable recipes that teach you not only how to make the dish in question, but also help you understand something of the nature of cooking itself. The magnificent Julia Turshen has made this the very starting point of her latest book (and you can read about two of her previous titles here) which works to demythologise the recipe, and graphically shows how skills, processes and ingredients are infinitely transferable. “While I believe in the scaffolding that recipes provide,” she writes in her manifesto of an introduction, “I’m always concerned that that they can seem inflexible, like there’s only one way to get it right.” This is a long-felt concern of mine, too, one that I’ve fretted away at, and I cheer at this book that commits itself to showing the freedom of flexibility. What Goes With What certainly includes recipes, but it’s also jam-packed with easy-to-understand tables and lists through which Turshen shares what she comfortingly terms “learned kitchen wisdom”. It’s a generous book, a liberating book, and one that truly offers the keys to the kitchen. It’s the perfect present not just for the nervous novice but anyone who cooks.
No one recipe from it could show you the book's impressive scope, but I’ve certainly chosen one that illustrates her simple, flavour-filled approach: I give you, with gratitude, her Caesar Spaghetti!
What Goes With What by Julia Turshen, published by Flatiron Books.
Photos by Julia Turshen.
