"Fall Cookbook Round-up: A question I get a lot is: okay, I have learned the basics. I can boil pasta and cut an onion and make a salad. What book will get me to the next level? And there are a few I recommend regularly (chief among them Martha Stewart’s Cooking School) BUT most of them are kind of stuffy and kind of boring. (Serious) New Cook by sisters Leah Su Quiroga and Cammie Kim Lin, on the other hand, is aimed at a younger audience and takes inspiration from around the world. Get this one for your cousin who just moved into her first apartment." —STAINED PAGE NEWSLETTER
“Inexperienced cooks are often faced with choosing between beginner books teaching mundane recipes or standard cookbooks that are more enticing but also overwhelming for newcomers. Into the mix comes this book written by chefs who are sisters, based on the food they learned to cook in their mother’s multicultural kitchen, with recipes designed to teach and inspire. The opening chapter is a cooking class in itself. It offers definitions of ingredients, processes, and equipment with excellent informative pictures illustrating things like stiff peaks vs. soft peaks in egg whites, colors and kinds of Asian hot sauces, and types of salt. The recipes themselves are grouped in threes: a core recipe and two variations with invitations for making versions of one’s own. The content is not overwhelming, and starters, mains, and sweets cover the standard meal. The cookbook has a definite Asian influence, but the dishes are wide-ranging: chicken potpie sits next to a sushi party; arepas coexist with egg drop soup and vinaigrettes. VERDICT Sure to be a winner, with lovely pictures, clear and cheerful prose, and the promise of tasty food.” LIBRARY JOURNAL
“25 Great Gifts for Foodies. Parade's food editors pick the top gifts for foodies. (Serious) New Cook by Leah Su Quiroga and Cammie Kim Lin takes a global-cuisine approach to teaching kitchen newbies the basics with recipes for arepas, sushi and egg drop soup alongside old-school standards like waffles and pot pie.” —PARADE MAGAZINE
“The chefs at Chez Panisse are known for doing beautiful things with seasonal ingredients, but by now the restaurant’s former chefs should be also known for something else—putting out phenomenal cookbooks (see Cal Peternell and Samin Nosrat, for example). This book is no exception. Former head chef Leah Su Quiroga and her sister, writer and teacher Cammie Kim Lin, have created a book that is both gorgeous and informative. The book is designed for beginner cooks who want to improve their skills without getting stuck making only basic, boring recipes, and their format makes learning easy. The instructions are clear—many recipes have beautiful step-by-step photos—there are tons of helpful tips, and when you see an underlined term, you know you can flip to the Extra Credit section of the book to get extra info. (This last part is just genius.) To my mind, the best part of this book is, of course, that the food looks amazing. While I don’t need a beginner book for myself, I’m definitely still going to cook these recipes, especially things like the crispy smashed potatoes with fried herbs, green tortilla soup, pie crust-topped salteña pot pie, and the flash-fried cutlet sandwich with pickled onions and a fried egg. (Hopefully the budding cook in my house will also start to use this book to make these things, too!)” –THE CALIFORNIA TABLE
“NPR’s Best Books of the Year. Sisters Leah Su Quiroga (ex-head chef at Chez Panisse) and Cammie Kim Lin (Brooklyn-based food writer) have some serious kitchen chops, but this book was written for the next generation: one that loves cooking, but not always cookbooks. These recipes attend to texture and flavor with chef-like finesse and eclecticism (Bulgogi meatballs! Handmade arepas! Biscuit-topped chicken pot pie!) while also including painstaking process photos and taking no skills or steps for granted. It’s a delicate balance to pull off cringe-free. This one’s well worth gifting to your 20-something, along with their first good knife.” –National Public Radio
“(Serious) New Cook is a great pick for those looking for a variety of easy, yet flavor-packed recipes perfect for both beginner and more experienced cooks (especially older teens who have aged out of kids’ cookbooks). The instructions are incredibly well-written to help take your skills to the next level." –Tara’s Multicultural Table
“When I hear ‘new cook’ I imagine some pretty basic stuff, like how to boil pasta or roast chicken. But the authors of this book don’t undersell the novice and instead choose a robust catalog of recipes include sushi, fish sandwiches, steamed pork dumplings, and chocolate cake. A lot of the dishes are the sort of thing one might order out at a restaurant, but not make at home. And here they are, broken down in easy-to-follow recipes!” –Amanda Kay Oakes, blogger and writer
“Leah is the chef, and Cammie is the educator and writer, and together, you couldn’t put two greater talents... They’re just the perfect pair for this cookbook!” –Ann Haigh, food writer and co-host of the podcast On the Menu
