David Frenkiel

This is a rather unusual cookbook. I really like the fact that things are basically whole food, although I do find it a bit heavy on the vegan and gluten-free side. Lets face it. I am never going to use cabbage leaves instead of tortillas in a taco. I like tortillas and don't like cabbage. Besides, if you don't use the tortillas, why call it a taco? but every now and again, between the weird stuff, there is a recipe that looks brilliant.

On the plus side, the whole book encourages experimentation. It also reminds you that you can replace exotic ingredients with more normal ones (or vice versa) most places where they are used.

On the negative side, it reinforces the rather peculiar idea that healthy food is also weird. Everything in here is healthy, some if it is probably very good, but a lot of is is just plain weird. I also found some of the fruit recipes peculiar because they mix seasons up. I have a garden with both pears and rhubarb, but I don't cook them together. Rhubarb is spring. Pears are fall. Using them together ignores the local aspect of food, which is usually is part of whole food thinking.

BTW, the photography is spectacular.… (meer)