It’s rather a Clintonian dilemma. It all comes down to the meaning of the word “we”. On the dust jacket blurb, editor Ruth Reichl states that we aren’t cooking and eating in the ways we used to. As such, she says, we need the all new Gourmet Today cookbook. A collection of more than 1,000 recipes, spanning fully 1,008 pages, Gourmet Today seeks to be today’s version of the appetizer to desserts, always ready reference sort of cookbook which every kitchen needs at least one of. And depending on your tastes, preferences and budget Gourmet Today could be the one for you.
If you do all of your shopping at Whole Foods (which is to say if your budget is at least three times what mine is), if you love both vegetarian and Thai food and if you genuinely lament the passing of the printed Gourmet magazine, Gourmet Today may be just what you’re looking for. Well organized chapters begin with Drinks and range through Hors D’Oeuvres, Soups, Salads, Pastas go on to Grains, Meats, Seafood and Vegetables and fully Six chapters of sweets from Cookies to Puddings to Frozen Desserts. Some of them even appealed to me, although mostly the dishes seemed overly labor-intensive and far too skewed to an emphasis on Thai, Vietnamese and vegetarian dishes for my tastes.
As always, my test for a cookbook that includes recipes for classic Louisiana dishes is how well those recipes stand up. The recipe for Louisiana Seafood Boil on page 383 is workable, although no Louisianian would ever omit celery from the pot, and Old Bay seasoning is a Maryland and east coast thing and not something used in Louisiana cooking. The recipe for crawfish etouffee on page 387 honestly struck me as the sort of thing someone who has only read about Cajun cooking might think up, not knowing how the dish is actually prepared. (Hint– there is no roux in etouffee.) If you are as described above a wealthy Whole Foods shopper and a fan of Gourmet magazine, Gourmet Today is mildly recommended. Folks from Louisiana and those who wish they could still shop at Schwegmann’s would best look elsewhere.
