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Three Many Cooks: One Mom, Two Daughters: Their Shared Stories of Food, Faith & Family
When the women behind the popular blog Three Many Cooks gather in the busiest room in the house, there are never too many cooks in the kitchen. Now acclaimed cookbook author Pam Anderson and her daughters, Maggy Keet and Sharon Damelio, blend compelling reflections and well-loved recipes into one funny, candid, and irresistible book. Together, Pam, Maggy, and Sharon reveal the challenging give-and-take between mothers and daughters, the passionate belief that food nourishes both body and soul, and the simple wonder that arises from good meals shared. Pam chronicles her epicurean journey, beginning at the apron hems of her grandmother and mother, and recounts how a cultural exchange to Provence led to twenty-five years of food and friendship. Firstborn Maggy rebelled against the family’s culinary ways but eventually found her inner chef as a newlywed faced with the terrifying reality of cooking dinner every night. Younger daughter Sharon fell in love with food by helping her mother work, lending her searing opinions and elbow grease to the grueling process of testing recipes for Pam’s bestselling cookbooks. Three Many Cooks ladles out the highs and lows, the kitchen disasters and culinary triumphs, the bitter fights and lasting love. Of course, these stories would not be complete without a selection of treasured recipes that nurtured relationships, ended feuds, and expanded repertoires, recipes that evoke forgiveness, memory, passion, and Pumpkin-Walnut Scones, baked by dueling sisters; Grilled Lemon Chicken, made legendary by Pam’s father at every backyard cookout; Chicken Vindaloo that Maggy whipped up in a boat galley in the Caribbean; Carrot Cake obsessively perfected by Sharon for the wedding of friends; and many more. Sometimes irreverent, often moving, always honest, this collection illustrates three women’s individual and shared search for a faith that confirms what they know to be The divine is often found hovering not over an altar but around the stove and kitchen table. So hop on a bar stool at the kitchen island and join them to commiserate, laugh, and, of course, eat!Praise for Three Many Cooks “This beautiful book is a stirring, candid, powerful celebration of mothers, daughters, and sisters, and of family, food, and faith. The stories are relatable and real, and are woven perfectly with the time-tested, mouthwatering recipes. I loved every page, every word, and am adding this to the very small pile of books in my life that I know I’ll pick up and read again and again.”—Ree Drummond, New York Times bestselling author of The Pioneer Woman Cooks
336 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 7, 2015
34 people are currently reading
782 people want to read
About the author
Pam Anderson
31 books13 followersPAM ANDERSON is the author of the best-selling The Perfect Recipe, Perfect Recipes for Having People Over, and the New York Times bestseller The Perfect Recipe for Losing Weight and Eating Great. She has been the food columnist for USA Weekend for the last eight years, is a contributing chef to Fine Cooking and Runners World, and writes a weekly blog for the Asheville (North Carolina) Citizen-Times.
For more about Pam, please visit www.threemanycooks.com."
For more about Pam, please visit www.threemanycooks.com."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 64 reviews
February 26, 2015
I was a little bit hesitant to get this book, for the simple reason that the "faith" was potentially a large part of this book. I am not a religious person, but I *do* love to cook. However, it was so tastefully done within the book and not pushy or overwhelming at all. And the story of how Three Many Cooks (the blog) came to be, and the history of the family love of cooking, was so well written that I felt almost a member of the family. I really liked the way they chose to use all three voices as separate chapters. Their voices were definitely different, and yet it still felt very cohesive.
This isn't a cookbook, per se. There are a few recipes, mostly of foods that were meaningful to the authors. I have not tried any of them as of yet, mostly because I felt the book stood on its own even without them. However, I do have a few of them tabbed and ready to try! But really, it's a story of a family, one who has grown apart and grown together, using food to do both.
This isn't a cookbook, per se. There are a few recipes, mostly of foods that were meaningful to the authors. I have not tried any of them as of yet, mostly because I felt the book stood on its own even without them. However, I do have a few of them tabbed and ready to try! But really, it's a story of a family, one who has grown apart and grown together, using food to do both.
April 18, 2021
The first sentence struck a chord: Some people plan what they are going to do when they get together; our family plans what we are going to eat.
I've been a Pam Anderson fan for years. Several of her cookbooks on the shelf above my desk. The culinary memoir is one of my favorite genres. Pam and her daughters Maggy and Sharon are talented writers as well as creative cooks. They write about growing up in the Episcopal church, sibling struggles, admiration of their mom, tensions with their fundamentalist grandparents, weight loss, weddings, funerals, drinking. There is a fair share of salty language.
Clever chapter titles: Cents and Sensibility, The Gift of Thrift, Refrigerator Resurrection, Thighs that Bind, and Raising the Bar.
Pam's motto when putting on a meal is: Care deeply without caring at all. My wise friend Lisa taught me to always let guests pitch in, even find something they can do when they offer to help. My favorite story of Pam and her daughters involves a dinner party and two young girls who begged to be part of the preparations. Pam got out a big bowl, some wooden spoons, and told her daughters to grab some ingredients and make something. Sharon thinks they made cookies out of shredded coconut and rainbow sprinkles. Pam served the cookies at the party. I. love. it.
3.5 stars
I've been a Pam Anderson fan for years. Several of her cookbooks on the shelf above my desk. The culinary memoir is one of my favorite genres. Pam and her daughters Maggy and Sharon are talented writers as well as creative cooks. They write about growing up in the Episcopal church, sibling struggles, admiration of their mom, tensions with their fundamentalist grandparents, weight loss, weddings, funerals, drinking. There is a fair share of salty language.
Clever chapter titles: Cents and Sensibility, The Gift of Thrift, Refrigerator Resurrection, Thighs that Bind, and Raising the Bar.
Pam's motto when putting on a meal is: Care deeply without caring at all. My wise friend Lisa taught me to always let guests pitch in, even find something they can do when they offer to help. My favorite story of Pam and her daughters involves a dinner party and two young girls who begged to be part of the preparations. Pam got out a big bowl, some wooden spoons, and told her daughters to grab some ingredients and make something. Sharon thinks they made cookies out of shredded coconut and rainbow sprinkles. Pam served the cookies at the party. I. love. it.
3.5 stars
January 29, 2015
Family, Food, and Love
Pam Anderson is a cookbook author and writes the Blog, Three Many Cooks. Her daughters join her on the Blog and in this book providing different types of recipes. Pam started as a Southern cook. Her daughters, Maggy and Sharon, have branched out into different types of cuisine, but the family's love of food and using meal-times as a time of connection flows through all three women.
The book is a series of vignettes telling the stories of the three women both their love of and difficulties with family and their experiments in a variety of cooking techniques. I love the chapter on Pam's father and his desire to make perfect lemon chicken. Another favorite was Sharon's chapter on sisters. It's almost paradigmatic that sisters will be rivals, but this chapter showed how beneath the conflict there's a great deal of love.
My favorite chapters, as a woman who has always watched her weight, were the chapters on how Pam lost 40 pounds and Sharon's chapter on wishing her thighs didn't touch, but realizing that with her DNA and love of food it was probably a vain hope.
Each story is followed by a recipe featured in that chapter. The recipes sound wonderful. I loved reading them, but since I'm not much of a cook, I will probably not try many of them.
If you love food and family, you'll love this book. Meeting Pan and her daughters was like meeting new friends. I was sad when the book ended.
I reviewed this book for the Amazon Vine Program.
Pam Anderson is a cookbook author and writes the Blog, Three Many Cooks. Her daughters join her on the Blog and in this book providing different types of recipes. Pam started as a Southern cook. Her daughters, Maggy and Sharon, have branched out into different types of cuisine, but the family's love of food and using meal-times as a time of connection flows through all three women.
The book is a series of vignettes telling the stories of the three women both their love of and difficulties with family and their experiments in a variety of cooking techniques. I love the chapter on Pam's father and his desire to make perfect lemon chicken. Another favorite was Sharon's chapter on sisters. It's almost paradigmatic that sisters will be rivals, but this chapter showed how beneath the conflict there's a great deal of love.
My favorite chapters, as a woman who has always watched her weight, were the chapters on how Pam lost 40 pounds and Sharon's chapter on wishing her thighs didn't touch, but realizing that with her DNA and love of food it was probably a vain hope.
Each story is followed by a recipe featured in that chapter. The recipes sound wonderful. I loved reading them, but since I'm not much of a cook, I will probably not try many of them.
If you love food and family, you'll love this book. Meeting Pan and her daughters was like meeting new friends. I was sad when the book ended.
I reviewed this book for the Amazon Vine Program.
April 18, 2015
I've known the Three Many Cooks for 20+ years. I love them not only as people, but also as food writers so I pre-ordered this book last fall and looked forward to its arrival. The book was even better than I imagined (I read it in 2 days). It is a wonderfully written account of food, faith and family but offers the reader so much more than just anecdotes and recipes. Three Many Cooks is more memoir than cookbook, more what cooking means than how to cook. With a similar feel to the blog, each chapter is written by one of the Cooks and capped off with a related recipe. It was fun to read pieces that covered times and places that I know, but perhaps even more interesting to read those that filled in the blanks or offered a different perspective. While each Cook has a distinct voice, all three are warm, honest, introspective, fun and funny. I laughed, cried and genuinely enjoyed every minute of Three Many Cooks -- I bet you will too!
February 23, 2015
I enjoyed the stories and the love and warmth of this book. As one who loves to cook with my daughter, daughters-in-law and granddaughters, I really felt connected.
May 15, 2022
you get drinky daddy's signature dish he made hundreds of times for the family
Grilled Lemon Chicken
two four pound chickens
six cloves of garlic
olive oil - lemon juice
salt - black pepper
optional is the 90 minute brining of the chicken
it's plopped on a hot barbeque for 15-20 minutes
coated with the sauce
and then cooked 5-10 minutes at a lower temp
I would compare this lemon chicken with Rao's Restaurant in New York City
and try both actually
November 24, 2020
This was a beautiful Multi-Generational book filled with family memories and favorite recipes. Told from mother, Pam, daughters, Maggy and Sharon’s POVs, and an awesome narrator, I was captivated and a part of the family from page 1.
Read
October 13, 2018Review to come.
June 14, 2018
It’s a risk to grab a book from Dollar Tree. Or maybe gamble is a better word. The payout is great every now and then. But most of the time, you’re gonna lose.
I had a long feeling that Three Many Cooks was going to be one of my once-in-a-blue-moons. I loved the anecdotes that strung together the recipes, the connections between a mom and her two daughters, the emphasis on engaging and loving around a table.
They had me at the first sentence: “Some people plan what they are going to do when they get together; our family plans what we are going to eat.”
Pam is a veteran cookbook author. Her daughters Maggy and Sharon learned their love of flavor and the power of food in her kitchen but took different routes to becoming accomplished cooks themselves. The three alternate writing chapters, which I liked.
If I had to summarize the book in a phrase, I’d pick this, from one of Maggy’s chapters: “home-cooked meals and relationship-building are inextricably linked.”
But that idea is pushed without the crushing expectation of perfection. Sharon wrote about how her mom – a professional – lets others help in her kitchen. “I’ve always wondered how Mom’s incredible kitchen savvy can be paired with such abounding culinary mercy. This seemingly impossible combination makes people around her want to cook and – better yet – believe they can.”
Pam herself talks about having written five cookbooks with the word “perfect” in the title. These days “I reserve the word ‘perfect’ to describe the connection that frequently occurs when good food is shared,” she said. Her chapter The Perfect Recipe was one of my favorites.
But, and you probably heard that coming, somewhere past the middle of the book, I started to disconnect.
The chapter Eating is Believing wasn’t the start of it, but it definitely exacerbated the feeling. Sharon describes her faith struggle growing up in the Episcopal church, with a father who’s a priest. She walked away as soon as she was old enough to make the choice, but eventually made her way back, finding the divine, she said, not in communion but around real hunks of bread and bottles of wine, not at the altar but at the dining table. “I felt the rush of the Spirit in steam rising from a pasta pot rather than echoing in the arches of a sanctuary.”
Pam’s parents were conservative, Baptist, teetotalers – none of which describes Pam and her girls. But that’s not what bothered me. It’s the sort of mystical make-your-own-faith that I struggled with, and maybe a sense that the gifts were the focus, not the Giver. (If you want to think more about how we are intended to savor the gifts of this world – I needed to – I’d recommend Robert Farrar Capon’s Supper of the Lamb.)
Still, for its main idea, this book is worth reading. And for many of the smaller thoughts that flow from it. Pam’s chapter about struggling with her weight and her relationship with food was especially poignant. “For my sake and for my daughters, I wish I had figured it out sooner, but we always imagine that the best model we can give our children is perfection, when in fact, the most powerful gift is honesty.”
I may not have hit the jackpot here, but it wasn’t a waste of my money or my time.
I had a long feeling that Three Many Cooks was going to be one of my once-in-a-blue-moons. I loved the anecdotes that strung together the recipes, the connections between a mom and her two daughters, the emphasis on engaging and loving around a table.
They had me at the first sentence: “Some people plan what they are going to do when they get together; our family plans what we are going to eat.”
Pam is a veteran cookbook author. Her daughters Maggy and Sharon learned their love of flavor and the power of food in her kitchen but took different routes to becoming accomplished cooks themselves. The three alternate writing chapters, which I liked.
If I had to summarize the book in a phrase, I’d pick this, from one of Maggy’s chapters: “home-cooked meals and relationship-building are inextricably linked.”
But that idea is pushed without the crushing expectation of perfection. Sharon wrote about how her mom – a professional – lets others help in her kitchen. “I’ve always wondered how Mom’s incredible kitchen savvy can be paired with such abounding culinary mercy. This seemingly impossible combination makes people around her want to cook and – better yet – believe they can.”
Pam herself talks about having written five cookbooks with the word “perfect” in the title. These days “I reserve the word ‘perfect’ to describe the connection that frequently occurs when good food is shared,” she said. Her chapter The Perfect Recipe was one of my favorites.
But, and you probably heard that coming, somewhere past the middle of the book, I started to disconnect.
The chapter Eating is Believing wasn’t the start of it, but it definitely exacerbated the feeling. Sharon describes her faith struggle growing up in the Episcopal church, with a father who’s a priest. She walked away as soon as she was old enough to make the choice, but eventually made her way back, finding the divine, she said, not in communion but around real hunks of bread and bottles of wine, not at the altar but at the dining table. “I felt the rush of the Spirit in steam rising from a pasta pot rather than echoing in the arches of a sanctuary.”
Pam’s parents were conservative, Baptist, teetotalers – none of which describes Pam and her girls. But that’s not what bothered me. It’s the sort of mystical make-your-own-faith that I struggled with, and maybe a sense that the gifts were the focus, not the Giver. (If you want to think more about how we are intended to savor the gifts of this world – I needed to – I’d recommend Robert Farrar Capon’s Supper of the Lamb.)
Still, for its main idea, this book is worth reading. And for many of the smaller thoughts that flow from it. Pam’s chapter about struggling with her weight and her relationship with food was especially poignant. “For my sake and for my daughters, I wish I had figured it out sooner, but we always imagine that the best model we can give our children is perfection, when in fact, the most powerful gift is honesty.”
I may not have hit the jackpot here, but it wasn’t a waste of my money or my time.
February 5, 2015
I like reading about cooking and I like biographies and memoirs, so this book should have worked for me. And I did find it somewhat interesting, but not as much as I'd hoped.
A mother and her two daughters write of their lives and how they have been influenced by food and cooking. There relationships are not always smooth, especially those of the two sisters. Having a sister I love dearly but can and have butted heads with, I can relate to that, although even at our most childish, I don't think we ever drew blood, unlike the authors!
There are recipes interspersed, and some of these sound good but I didn't get this book for the recipes and have not tried them.
What I absolutely hated was the description of cooking lobsters:
“Mom tried freezing the creatures before boiling them to disorient their little brains and relax their muscles. She tried stabbing them in the head to make the kill quick and merciful before cooking. She even tried putting them in the pot and slowly raising the heat, but the scratching inside was pretty unbearable. To prevent their tails from curling up during cooking, my dear mother rammed a stabilizing chopstick up their ass, all along the tail and into the body.”
I will never understand how someone can treat an animal that is going to be eaten in a way that would have them arrested for animal abuse if they did it to a non-food animal. Especially women who are supposed to be of faith, and therefore, one would think , compassionate. Not if you are a lobster!
While this is “their shared stories of food, faith & family,” the faith part didn't proselytize, which I appreciated. Their view of male/female roles in the family was a little too traditional for me, but that's okay too.
What I didn't like about the book, aside from the lobster-cooking, was that on occasion, a little too much hubris showed through, and that sometimes the book just plain bored me.
I was given an advance reader's copy of this book for review. The quote may have changed in the published edition.
A mother and her two daughters write of their lives and how they have been influenced by food and cooking. There relationships are not always smooth, especially those of the two sisters. Having a sister I love dearly but can and have butted heads with, I can relate to that, although even at our most childish, I don't think we ever drew blood, unlike the authors!
There are recipes interspersed, and some of these sound good but I didn't get this book for the recipes and have not tried them.
What I absolutely hated was the description of cooking lobsters:
“Mom tried freezing the creatures before boiling them to disorient their little brains and relax their muscles. She tried stabbing them in the head to make the kill quick and merciful before cooking. She even tried putting them in the pot and slowly raising the heat, but the scratching inside was pretty unbearable. To prevent their tails from curling up during cooking, my dear mother rammed a stabilizing chopstick up their ass, all along the tail and into the body.”
I will never understand how someone can treat an animal that is going to be eaten in a way that would have them arrested for animal abuse if they did it to a non-food animal. Especially women who are supposed to be of faith, and therefore, one would think , compassionate. Not if you are a lobster!
While this is “their shared stories of food, faith & family,” the faith part didn't proselytize, which I appreciated. Their view of male/female roles in the family was a little too traditional for me, but that's okay too.
What I didn't like about the book, aside from the lobster-cooking, was that on occasion, a little too much hubris showed through, and that sometimes the book just plain bored me.
I was given an advance reader's copy of this book for review. The quote may have changed in the published edition.
March 1, 2015
What a treasure this ARC was! I wasn't expecting much, but the idea of a cookbook with some new recipes prompted me to enter.
The first page in, I read the editor's note about how she changed the book proposal - from recipes with some stories to stories with some recipes. I was approaching the read with a bit of trepidation. However, her instincts were brilliant! Like the editor, I wanted to move from one story to the next. In fact, I too skimmed over the recipes even though that had been my main reason for entering. (I will go back later - the Mushroom Risotto and Pasta Carbonara call to me. Yum.)
There were stories that made me smile, laugh out loud and yes, cry. Well crafted. The authors describe through their narratives that food is not simply a vehicle to nourish the body. It is so much more than that - it's family, love, togetherness, warmth, humor, pain, acceptance ...
The only bummer is that in the ARC copy the page numbers weren't run for the table of contents, so finding the recipes will require me to delve back in, and get caught up in re-reading sections rather than cook. :) Small thing - I suppose that's what sticky notes are for!
The first page in, I read the editor's note about how she changed the book proposal - from recipes with some stories to stories with some recipes. I was approaching the read with a bit of trepidation. However, her instincts were brilliant! Like the editor, I wanted to move from one story to the next. In fact, I too skimmed over the recipes even though that had been my main reason for entering. (I will go back later - the Mushroom Risotto and Pasta Carbonara call to me. Yum.)
There were stories that made me smile, laugh out loud and yes, cry. Well crafted. The authors describe through their narratives that food is not simply a vehicle to nourish the body. It is so much more than that - it's family, love, togetherness, warmth, humor, pain, acceptance ...
The only bummer is that in the ARC copy the page numbers weren't run for the table of contents, so finding the recipes will require me to delve back in, and get caught up in re-reading sections rather than cook. :) Small thing - I suppose that's what sticky notes are for!
March 9, 2015
I'm a fan of Pam Anderson's Cook Without A Book and I've gotten great recipes from the authors' blog, Three Many Cooks. So I was disappointed to discover that I was really not getting into the book. I really want to like these guys! So I gave up on the book and will stick to the blog. I think I prefer the musing and reminiscing in smaller doses.
The earnestness that works in the Three Many Cooks blog posts doesn't translate that well to book form. Those are more bite-size entries, punctuated with a recipe and notes to break things up. In the book, their earnestness is not only exhausting, it makes the writing noticeably overwrought and labored.
It was also repetitive. With three family members alternating chapters, they frequently recapped events or facts that had already been featured in an earlier section. By the time I was halfway through the book, I was well into "YES, I KNOW" territory, encountering restatement after restatement.
I highly recommend the Three Many Cooks blog - the recipes are great, and the posts add personality in better proportion than in the book.
The earnestness that works in the Three Many Cooks blog posts doesn't translate that well to book form. Those are more bite-size entries, punctuated with a recipe and notes to break things up. In the book, their earnestness is not only exhausting, it makes the writing noticeably overwrought and labored.
It was also repetitive. With three family members alternating chapters, they frequently recapped events or facts that had already been featured in an earlier section. By the time I was halfway through the book, I was well into "YES, I KNOW" territory, encountering restatement after restatement.
I highly recommend the Three Many Cooks blog - the recipes are great, and the posts add personality in better proportion than in the book.
February 19, 2015
I love cooking and reading anything I can get my hands on that deals with any aspect of cooking. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. Pam Anderson and her daughters allow us a glimpse into not only their cooking but also their lives. They allow us to see a personal side to them that enhances their cooking and togetherness.
I enjoyed reading their journey through life and learning through life's trials and experiences. I enjoyed the recipes scattered throughout the book as well. It adds to the joy of reading this book and there are a bunch that I would love to try out with my friends and family.
I enjoyed reading their journey through life and learning through life's trials and experiences. I enjoyed the recipes scattered throughout the book as well. It adds to the joy of reading this book and there are a bunch that I would love to try out with my friends and family.
April 2, 2015
I was a Goodreads winner of this book. As you can tell from the title, it's about three woman, a mother and her two daughters, who cook together. It was very interesting as it delved into their lives. There were some recipes, but they weren’t the focus; they complemented the stories. The most intriguing story revolved around one of the daughter’s trip to Africa. My only complaint, if I had to pick something, was at times it was a little preachy, especially when it was about the mother’s fundamentalist Christian upbringing.
March 27, 2015
I received this ARC from GoodReads First Reads giveaway and was so excited to read it. I was not disappointed! I enjoyed each of the anecdotes written by Maggy, Sharon, and their mother Pam, and could not wait to get to the end of each chapter in order to see what recipe they had included to go along. Once finished with the book, I was so excited to get started on making a few of the recipes into a memorable meal of my own.
May 1, 2015
I have followed their blog for a few years and everything I have made from it, was delicious. I have always wondered about their relationships, so I was very
excited when I got this ARC. I thought it was well written, I loved their humor, realism, grit, determination and their recipe origins. I have a new respect for them as cooks, family and in general just good humans. I can't wait to try all the recipes!
excited when I got this ARC. I thought it was well written, I loved their humor, realism, grit, determination and their recipe origins. I have a new respect for them as cooks, family and in general just good humans. I can't wait to try all the recipes!
February 9, 2015
The recipes look divine.
The autobiographical stories about the authors have relevant themes in today's world.
The story shows that food can bring a sense of community and long lasting relationships.
Has principles that you may have been taught by parents, etc. Book shows how these principles pass on from generation to generation. Also shows that we are all part of a larger community.
The autobiographical stories about the authors have relevant themes in today's world.
The story shows that food can bring a sense of community and long lasting relationships.
Has principles that you may have been taught by parents, etc. Book shows how these principles pass on from generation to generation. Also shows that we are all part of a larger community.
February 26, 2015
Such a fun little book! I received it as a ARC and was disappointed as I thought it was a cookbook. It is actually a a series of events from their family lives written by the three women (mom, two daughters). Each chapter has a recipe to follow. They write a blog called threemanycooks and I will check that out as well!
April 17, 2015
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This book was very creative and sweet.
I have never heard of Pam (or Maggy and Sharon). My love of family and food is reinforced by their words and shared recipes.
This book was very creative and sweet.
I have never heard of Pam (or Maggy and Sharon). My love of family and food is reinforced by their words and shared recipes.
February 13, 2015
I received a free copy of this book from the GoodReads First Reads giveaways in exchange for an honest review. A charming book with interesting stories and yummy recipes, enjoyed reading it.
March 26, 2020
My favorite thing about this book was it's honesty. It's honesty about difficulty in their familial relationships, faith, careers, and marriages. Pam was a real trailblazer when it came to being the first test kitchen entrepreneur and she accomplished this before the internet came to light. Her daughters inherited her strong DNA for cooking and came to be foodies in their own right. This book traces the three very different journeys of Pam (Mom) and her daughters Maggy and Sharon. Food is the tie that binds. I gave this book four stars. I didn't find the recipes all that appealing.
February 2, 2026
Three Many Cooks is more than a cookbook it’s a heartfelt celebration of family, faith, and the way food weaves stories across generations. Pam Anderson, Maggy Keet, and Sharon Damelio share not just recipes, but the memories, struggles, laughter, and love that shaped them in and out of the kitchen. The blend of candid storytelling and deeply personal dishes makes this feel intimate and real, like pulling up a chair at their family table. It’s comforting, honest, and full of soul a beautiful reminder that food feeds more than hunger.
February 29, 2020
I am all in for a food memoir, and this one delivered three many times. Sorry. That was bad.
But, I loved the interwoven chapters of varying narration by Pam Anderson and her two daughters, Maggy and Sharon. All three were honest in their struggle and joy with life, identity, family, food, and personal relationships. I found this immensely readable and immensely engaging. Plus, it added several recipes to my "to be tried" list.
And, I loved the last chapter!
But, I loved the interwoven chapters of varying narration by Pam Anderson and her two daughters, Maggy and Sharon. All three were honest in their struggle and joy with life, identity, family, food, and personal relationships. I found this immensely readable and immensely engaging. Plus, it added several recipes to my "to be tried" list.
And, I loved the last chapter!
February 7, 2020
While some of the stories have a bit of interest, I was hoping for some spiritual inspiration and fun food preparation hints. There spiritual side was sadly empty but I will try a couple of their inspired recipes. Overall, the book tended to drag on. I'm glad for them they they captured their relationship in memoir but it is probably most enjoyed by those who lived it out.
January 31, 2018
I'm probably not going to make many (if any) of theses recipes but I did enjoy the story of how these 3 women developed as cooks and their roles as mother, daughters, wives, entrepanaurs, businesswomen - all the different roles a modern woman plays in her life.
July 31, 2017
Interesting book of family, life struggles, and food with at least one recipe in each chapter. Written by a mother and her two daughters.
February 15, 2018
An enjoyable read. It acts as an encouragement to get back in the kitchen and cook.
August 14, 2019
Short and sweet essays with plenty of yummy recipes to try...the quick Italian wedding soup was an A+ and I have the Maple Pecan Scones on my fall to-bake list!
August 18, 2022
The Grilled Lemon Chicken is a go-to recipe. Simple and delicious.
March 23, 2016
“Three Many Cooks” is a food memoir based on a blog of the same name (which I had never heard of before reading this book). It follows the lives, meals, and loves of cookbook author Pam Anderson and her daughters, Maggy Keet and Sharon Damelio. Each chapter in the book is told from the point-of-view of one of the three women and is accompanied by one or more recipes connected to the story told in each vignette. I enjoyed being in the kitchen with these women, and I especially liked when the episodes overlapped and I got to hear the same story from different points-of-view. I have not yet tried making any of the recipes, but many of them sounded delicious; I will surely make some in the near future.
That being said, there are a couple of issues I would like to address:
1. The first thing I noticed when I started reading is the strange mixture of first and third person voice in the introduction. While the rest of the book is told in first person by one of the three authors, the introduction starts off with a plural first person narrative using “we” and “our.” That seemed okay until the narrator started including sentences about the three women written in the third person. It was odd and distracting. Although this was my first reaction to the book, I quite forgot about it amidst the first person narratives of Pam, Maggy, and Sharon. Unfortunately, the epilogue (titled “A Second Helping”) returned to this odd first/third voice. I was disappointed by this choice, especially since it is the reader’s first and last impression of the narrative voice.
2. As a good Portuguese girl, I cannot let these women get away with calling the book’s version of Portuguese soup “caldo verde.” When I first skimmed the recipes and came across caldo verde, I immediately turned to that page in the book to check out the recipe. I was disappointed to see that what Sharon calls caldo verde is not caldo verde at all. Caldo verde is a traditional Portuguese soup made with mashed potatoes and julienned collard greens and red Portuguese sausage. The soup recipe included in this book sounds good, but it is more of a peasant vegetable soup than a caldo verde. And the Portuguese never substitute kale for collard greens; caldo verde and Portuguese soup is usually made with couve galega, Spanish collard greens. That’s my Portuguese two centimos!
** This is a review of the advance reader's edition.
That being said, there are a couple of issues I would like to address:
1. The first thing I noticed when I started reading is the strange mixture of first and third person voice in the introduction. While the rest of the book is told in first person by one of the three authors, the introduction starts off with a plural first person narrative using “we” and “our.” That seemed okay until the narrator started including sentences about the three women written in the third person. It was odd and distracting. Although this was my first reaction to the book, I quite forgot about it amidst the first person narratives of Pam, Maggy, and Sharon. Unfortunately, the epilogue (titled “A Second Helping”) returned to this odd first/third voice. I was disappointed by this choice, especially since it is the reader’s first and last impression of the narrative voice.
2. As a good Portuguese girl, I cannot let these women get away with calling the book’s version of Portuguese soup “caldo verde.” When I first skimmed the recipes and came across caldo verde, I immediately turned to that page in the book to check out the recipe. I was disappointed to see that what Sharon calls caldo verde is not caldo verde at all. Caldo verde is a traditional Portuguese soup made with mashed potatoes and julienned collard greens and red Portuguese sausage. The soup recipe included in this book sounds good, but it is more of a peasant vegetable soup than a caldo verde. And the Portuguese never substitute kale for collard greens; caldo verde and Portuguese soup is usually made with couve galega, Spanish collard greens. That’s my Portuguese two centimos!
** This is a review of the advance reader's edition.
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