A Cookbook (or lack there of) Review!

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 Title - Italy on a Plate: Travels, Memories, Menus

Author - Susan Gravely & Frances Mayes (foreword) 






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stars ⭐ - 3






 

*I won this Kindle version in a giveaway*


When I started this review I gave it 4 stars - as I wrote this review I lowered it to 3 because part of this cookbook really grinds my gears. 


To start off with the good things about this cookbook 

1. It is VERY aesthetically pleasing. The photos are great and the layout is consistent, yet differentiated enough that you don't get bored. However, I wish the publisher would have given away hard copies and not Kindle editions because I think the layout is lost on the Kindle version.

2. The book has a good balance between those classic and well-known Italian staples (gnocchi, meatballs, and tiramisu) to some that will really expand your knowledge and palette of Italian cuisine. 

3. The recipes are very concise and easy to follow. 

4. Every recipe has a photo attached on the following page (so helpful to know if your finished product looks like it should be on the show Nailed It! or not.) 


Now the not-so-good things about this cookbook

1. I think this book should be marketed as a memoir just as much as it is a cookbook. I know it says travels, memories, AND menus, but the travels and memories are by far the dominating element of this book. 

2. There are simply not enough recipes in this book given the number of pages. As I was going through this book I was feeling like the ratio of writing/pictures to the recipes was greatly skewed towards the writing/photo end but I didn't want to harp on the book without something to back it up, so I did some quick math. (I want you all to know how much this book had to annoy me to get me to do the following math) 

There are 52 recipes in this book (that's quite a few recipes!).

However, there are 243 pages in this book.

One of those recipes was 2 pages long (add another page to the recipes side!) 

If you take the recipe pages (53) and divide that by the total pages (243) you get 22%. 

ONLY 22% OF THIS COOKBOOK IS ACTUAL COOKBOOK. The rest is a collection of stories and photos, and while I appreciate the hard work of collecting all those stories I think that only 22% of this book being what it is marketing as is CRAZY. This hardcover book is $48 on Amazon & B&N. If I spent nearly $50 on a cookbook to have less than a quarter of it be recipes I'd be pissed. 

Even if you take the photos dedicated to said recipes you only get 43%. Still less than 50% of the book. 


To conclude I will not be recommending this cookbook to my friends/family purely because I don't think it's worth the money as a cookbook. If you are looking for a memoir of Susan Gravely with a side of recipes this book is all about that. However, if you are looking for a cookbook on Italian recipes I'm sure there are better options out there. 

❤ Les


View my review on Goodreads here

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