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Everything I Want to Eat: Sqirl and the New California Cooking
The debut cookbook from Jessica Koslow, award-winning chef of LA’s popular restaurant Sqirl, featuring more than 100 fresh, market-driven, healthy, and flavorful recipes.
Jessica Koslow and her restaurant, Sqirl, are at the forefront of the California cooking renaissance, which is all about food that surprises us and engages all of our senses—it looks good, tastes vibrant, and feels fortifying yet refreshing. In Everything I Want to Eat, Koslow shares 100 of her favorite recipes for health-conscious but delicious dishes, all of which always use real foods—no fake meat or fake sugar here—that also happen to be suitable for vegetarians, vegans, or whomever you’re sharing your meal with.
The book is organized into seven chapters, each featuring a collection of recipes centered on a key ingredient or theme. Expect to find recipes for dishes Sqirl has become known for, as well as brand-new seasonal flavor combinations, including:
Raspberry and vanilla bean jam Sorrel-pesto rice bowl Burnt brioche toast with house ricotta and seasonal jam Butternut squash latkes with crème fraîche and applesauce Lamb merguez, cranberry beans, roasted tomato, and yogurt cheese Valrhona chocolate fleur de sel cookies Almond hazelnut milk
Koslow lives in LA, where everyone is known to be obsessively health-conscious and where dietary restrictions are the norm. People come into Sqirl and order dishes with all sorts of substitutions and modifications—hold the feta, please, add extra kale. They are looking to make their own healthy adventures. Others may tack breakfast sausage, cured bacon, or Olli’s prosciutto on to their order. So Koslow has had to constantly think about ways to modify dishes for certain diets, which in a way has made her a better, more adaptable cook.
Throughout this book, Koslow provides notes and thought bubbles that show how just about any dish can be modified for specific tastes and dietary needs, whether it needs to be gluten-free or vegan.
Everything I Want to Eat captures the excitement of the food at Sqirl—think of a classic BLT sandwich turned playful with the substitution of chicken skin “bacon”—while also offering accessible recipes, like tangerine and rosewater semolina cake, that can be easily made in the home kitchen. Moreover, it’s an entirely new kind of cookbook and approach to how we are all starting to think about food, allowing readers to play with the recipes, combining and shaping them to be nothing short of everything you want to eat.
Praise for Jessica Koslow and Sqirl:
“Koslow’s dishes managed to galvanize the very narrow crossover of food writers and L.A. salad obsessives. Turns out that in her hands, breakfast and lunch are what people want to eat all day long.” —Bon Appétit
“I would say that Koslow and I are culinary soul mates, but given the popularity of the place, it’s clear that I’m not the only one. This is food whose time has come.” —Mark Bittman
Jessica Koslow and her restaurant, Sqirl, are at the forefront of the California cooking renaissance, which is all about food that surprises us and engages all of our senses—it looks good, tastes vibrant, and feels fortifying yet refreshing. In Everything I Want to Eat, Koslow shares 100 of her favorite recipes for health-conscious but delicious dishes, all of which always use real foods—no fake meat or fake sugar here—that also happen to be suitable for vegetarians, vegans, or whomever you’re sharing your meal with.
The book is organized into seven chapters, each featuring a collection of recipes centered on a key ingredient or theme. Expect to find recipes for dishes Sqirl has become known for, as well as brand-new seasonal flavor combinations, including:
Raspberry and vanilla bean jam Sorrel-pesto rice bowl Burnt brioche toast with house ricotta and seasonal jam Butternut squash latkes with crème fraîche and applesauce Lamb merguez, cranberry beans, roasted tomato, and yogurt cheese Valrhona chocolate fleur de sel cookies Almond hazelnut milk
Koslow lives in LA, where everyone is known to be obsessively health-conscious and where dietary restrictions are the norm. People come into Sqirl and order dishes with all sorts of substitutions and modifications—hold the feta, please, add extra kale. They are looking to make their own healthy adventures. Others may tack breakfast sausage, cured bacon, or Olli’s prosciutto on to their order. So Koslow has had to constantly think about ways to modify dishes for certain diets, which in a way has made her a better, more adaptable cook.
Throughout this book, Koslow provides notes and thought bubbles that show how just about any dish can be modified for specific tastes and dietary needs, whether it needs to be gluten-free or vegan.
Everything I Want to Eat captures the excitement of the food at Sqirl—think of a classic BLT sandwich turned playful with the substitution of chicken skin “bacon”—while also offering accessible recipes, like tangerine and rosewater semolina cake, that can be easily made in the home kitchen. Moreover, it’s an entirely new kind of cookbook and approach to how we are all starting to think about food, allowing readers to play with the recipes, combining and shaping them to be nothing short of everything you want to eat.
Praise for Jessica Koslow and Sqirl:
“Koslow’s dishes managed to galvanize the very narrow crossover of food writers and L.A. salad obsessives. Turns out that in her hands, breakfast and lunch are what people want to eat all day long.” —Bon Appétit
“I would say that Koslow and I are culinary soul mates, but given the popularity of the place, it’s clear that I’m not the only one. This is food whose time has come.” —Mark Bittman
496 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 4, 2016
75 people are currently reading
435 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
February 3, 2017
This is a beautiful book. The photos are works of art, the layout is stunning.
And if I lived in the area I would have already made dinner reservations at Sqirl. The dishes look tasty and innovative.
But? As a cook book... it is rare that there isn't a single recipe I want to try out. If you want a coffee table book to admire rather than a splattered cookbook in the kitchen you may find Sqirl enough as it is. But for me this book is the equivalent of those fancy hand towels some people have in their bathrooms that are for appearance and not to actually dry your hands with.
(Two stars for being so visually, if not culinarily, attractive)
And if I lived in the area I would have already made dinner reservations at Sqirl. The dishes look tasty and innovative.
But? As a cook book... it is rare that there isn't a single recipe I want to try out. If you want a coffee table book to admire rather than a splattered cookbook in the kitchen you may find Sqirl enough as it is. But for me this book is the equivalent of those fancy hand towels some people have in their bathrooms that are for appearance and not to actually dry your hands with.
(Two stars for being so visually, if not culinarily, attractive)
October 14, 2016
I received this book as an advance reader copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Since my nutritionist has been challenging me to incorporate more lower fat foods into my diet, I thought that this book of “100 fresh, market-driven, healthy, and flavorful recipes” would help me achieve that goal. But there was nothing in the description on NetGalley to indicate that this would be a purely breakfast and lunch cookbook, just that it contained “recipes for dishes that Sqirl had become known for.” Being from the East Coast and not having cable television, I had never heard of Sqirl or Jennifer Koslow. So I had no reason to know what the restaurant offered.
I love the fact that this book has two Tables of Contents at the beginning. The first Table of Contents contains the chapter titles and the beginning pages for those chapters. The second Table of Contents details all the recipes in each chapter. And there is also a full easy to use index at the back of the book as well.
Each recipe has a headnote, that gives a little more insight into the ingredients or the recipe steps. Yield is clearly noted, as is whether the recipe is vegetarian, vegan or gluten free. At least one recipe that was marked as vegetarian contained butter, so it might be worth looking at the ingredients list to double check. The ingredients are listed in order of use in both American and metric measurements. The vast majority of the ingredients are readily available in the local supermarket, but there are some unusual ingredients like cactus flour, buckwheat flour, ground sumac, Aleppo pepper, sorrel, spigarello, stinging nettles, purslane, chayote, rose geranium, and tumeric root. The recipe steps are written in paragraph form, but there are bold headings within the text that give succinct summaries of what the paragraphs are about. Information about storage and reheating is sometimes included in the recipe steps. There is a lot of good humor in the recipe steps. For example, one recipe tells you to “look for a good balance of sweet and tart, like a pianist and bass player rocking out in unison.” Another recipe recommends using red jams because everyone “responds with more excitement to red jams.” In describing the doneness of a chocolate pudding, the recipe states that “big, glossy bubbles should wink lazily at you.” Yet other recipes require brushing “a friendly amount” of melted butter on bread. The word “schmear” is used quite often because the author likes the sound of it. Some of the recipes require specialized equipment, like a smoker, a dehydrator or a masticating juicer. After the recipe steps, there are extra paragraphs that provide additional information about the recipe and variations on the recipe. For example, in the quiche recipe, there were extra paragraphs about how not to overcook the quiche and how to play around with fillings. Options to make a recipe savory, vegetarian, vegan or gluten free also follow the recipe steps, if such options are feasible.
Having been recently introduced to making and water process canning my own preserves, the Jams chapter was of particular interest. The Tools section of the chapter recommended some items that were different that the recommendations in the past two books which featured canning jams (Canning for a New Generation and Butter & Scotch). Most unusual was the adamant recommendation of a copper pot jam making pot and heatproof gloves with which to handle said copper pot. The other books were not as adamant about the use of a copper pot. The other odd thing about the equipment was the recommendation for an instant read digital thermometer rather than a candy thermometer. The recommendation made some sense as the author stated that she measured the heat of the pot – because the contents of the pot could not be hotter than the pot itself. The process for canning was different because it was based on the use of jars with lug lids rather than the traditional Ball jars with flat lids and screw rings.
The recipe selection is very interesting, even for a breakfast and lunch cookbook. Of course, there are recipes for making traditional eggs and for curing (not smoking) bacon. And there are recipes for homemade jams. The meat recipes range from chicken kofte and beef ravioli to braised duck legs and rabbit ballotine. The fish recipes include a beet cured salmon, as an alternative to the traditional lox.
The photography is quirky. At the beginning, there are a lot of photographs of customers. However, within the chapters, there are photographs of finished food, as well as of the customers and the farms that Sqirl’s food comes from. The photographs of finished food were especially helpful in the eggs section, as I always have difficulty in judging a finished cooked egg. There is also a great series of photographs illustrating how to debone a rabbit. The photographs in the Desserts section and the Drinks section were more like modern art than food photography; sometimes it was hard to get an idea of what the finished dish should look like based on these photographs. Almost all of the photographs are labeled in small print so that there is no doubt as to what (or who) they are.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this cookbook. The combinations were interesting. The recipe steps seemed easy to follow and down to earth. Yet it doesn’t speak to me as a must add to my collection or as a must gift to a particular person. Perhaps I’ll change my mind when I prepare one of the many marked recipes in the volume.
I have yet to prepare any of the recipes from this cookbook. When I do, I will update my review.
Since my nutritionist has been challenging me to incorporate more lower fat foods into my diet, I thought that this book of “100 fresh, market-driven, healthy, and flavorful recipes” would help me achieve that goal. But there was nothing in the description on NetGalley to indicate that this would be a purely breakfast and lunch cookbook, just that it contained “recipes for dishes that Sqirl had become known for.” Being from the East Coast and not having cable television, I had never heard of Sqirl or Jennifer Koslow. So I had no reason to know what the restaurant offered.
I love the fact that this book has two Tables of Contents at the beginning. The first Table of Contents contains the chapter titles and the beginning pages for those chapters. The second Table of Contents details all the recipes in each chapter. And there is also a full easy to use index at the back of the book as well.
Each recipe has a headnote, that gives a little more insight into the ingredients or the recipe steps. Yield is clearly noted, as is whether the recipe is vegetarian, vegan or gluten free. At least one recipe that was marked as vegetarian contained butter, so it might be worth looking at the ingredients list to double check. The ingredients are listed in order of use in both American and metric measurements. The vast majority of the ingredients are readily available in the local supermarket, but there are some unusual ingredients like cactus flour, buckwheat flour, ground sumac, Aleppo pepper, sorrel, spigarello, stinging nettles, purslane, chayote, rose geranium, and tumeric root. The recipe steps are written in paragraph form, but there are bold headings within the text that give succinct summaries of what the paragraphs are about. Information about storage and reheating is sometimes included in the recipe steps. There is a lot of good humor in the recipe steps. For example, one recipe tells you to “look for a good balance of sweet and tart, like a pianist and bass player rocking out in unison.” Another recipe recommends using red jams because everyone “responds with more excitement to red jams.” In describing the doneness of a chocolate pudding, the recipe states that “big, glossy bubbles should wink lazily at you.” Yet other recipes require brushing “a friendly amount” of melted butter on bread. The word “schmear” is used quite often because the author likes the sound of it. Some of the recipes require specialized equipment, like a smoker, a dehydrator or a masticating juicer. After the recipe steps, there are extra paragraphs that provide additional information about the recipe and variations on the recipe. For example, in the quiche recipe, there were extra paragraphs about how not to overcook the quiche and how to play around with fillings. Options to make a recipe savory, vegetarian, vegan or gluten free also follow the recipe steps, if such options are feasible.
Having been recently introduced to making and water process canning my own preserves, the Jams chapter was of particular interest. The Tools section of the chapter recommended some items that were different that the recommendations in the past two books which featured canning jams (Canning for a New Generation and Butter & Scotch). Most unusual was the adamant recommendation of a copper pot jam making pot and heatproof gloves with which to handle said copper pot. The other books were not as adamant about the use of a copper pot. The other odd thing about the equipment was the recommendation for an instant read digital thermometer rather than a candy thermometer. The recommendation made some sense as the author stated that she measured the heat of the pot – because the contents of the pot could not be hotter than the pot itself. The process for canning was different because it was based on the use of jars with lug lids rather than the traditional Ball jars with flat lids and screw rings.
The recipe selection is very interesting, even for a breakfast and lunch cookbook. Of course, there are recipes for making traditional eggs and for curing (not smoking) bacon. And there are recipes for homemade jams. The meat recipes range from chicken kofte and beef ravioli to braised duck legs and rabbit ballotine. The fish recipes include a beet cured salmon, as an alternative to the traditional lox.
The photography is quirky. At the beginning, there are a lot of photographs of customers. However, within the chapters, there are photographs of finished food, as well as of the customers and the farms that Sqirl’s food comes from. The photographs of finished food were especially helpful in the eggs section, as I always have difficulty in judging a finished cooked egg. There is also a great series of photographs illustrating how to debone a rabbit. The photographs in the Desserts section and the Drinks section were more like modern art than food photography; sometimes it was hard to get an idea of what the finished dish should look like based on these photographs. Almost all of the photographs are labeled in small print so that there is no doubt as to what (or who) they are.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this cookbook. The combinations were interesting. The recipe steps seemed easy to follow and down to earth. Yet it doesn’t speak to me as a must add to my collection or as a must gift to a particular person. Perhaps I’ll change my mind when I prepare one of the many marked recipes in the volume.
I have yet to prepare any of the recipes from this cookbook. When I do, I will update my review.
reference
April 23, 2017This is a placeholder, because I haven't had a chance to cook from the book yet - once I make a few dishes, I'll come back.
In the meantime, some preliminary thoughts:
- Someone either here or on Amazon said that this book is basically a Snapchat of Southern California cuisine in 2016, and flipping through it, it's hard to disagree.
- Bearing that in mind, it's really tough to find some of the ingredients Koslow relies on elsewhere in the country. Most of the recipes that use rice call for Kokuho Rose brown rice, preferably the variety grown by Koda Farms. I can't get this variety anywhere I live. On the East Coast, it's only carried in a few specialty markets, none of them near me.
- Koslow says in the intro to the Meat section that most of what they serve at Sqirl is "vegetable or vegetable-focused," but meat and fish recipes take up a huge portion of the book.
- Brioche is used for almost all of the toast recipes - and a huge slab of toasted brioche is front and center on the cover - but there's no brioche recipe included in the book!
Update 4/26/17: Made the potato-shishito hash this weekend. It was predictably delicious, but the directions were somewhat exasperating because it's a variant on the seasonal hash. Koslow has you substitute leek for red onion, but the way the directions were written, it was impossible to discern if the leek needed to roast with the potatoes, or be sautéed. I sautéed it. It was delicious that way, so I'm fine with the outcome, even if the recipe itself left a bit to be desired.
Recipes I want to try:
- Potato-shishito hash with tomatillo sauce
- Brussels sprouts two ways
- Cardamom doughnut-ish tea cakes
- Powerballs
- Upside-down cake
In the meantime, some preliminary thoughts:
- Someone either here or on Amazon said that this book is basically a Snapchat of Southern California cuisine in 2016, and flipping through it, it's hard to disagree.
- Bearing that in mind, it's really tough to find some of the ingredients Koslow relies on elsewhere in the country. Most of the recipes that use rice call for Kokuho Rose brown rice, preferably the variety grown by Koda Farms. I can't get this variety anywhere I live. On the East Coast, it's only carried in a few specialty markets, none of them near me.
- Koslow says in the intro to the Meat section that most of what they serve at Sqirl is "vegetable or vegetable-focused," but meat and fish recipes take up a huge portion of the book.
- Brioche is used for almost all of the toast recipes - and a huge slab of toasted brioche is front and center on the cover - but there's no brioche recipe included in the book!
Update 4/26/17: Made the potato-shishito hash this weekend. It was predictably delicious, but the directions were somewhat exasperating because it's a variant on the seasonal hash. Koslow has you substitute leek for red onion, but the way the directions were written, it was impossible to discern if the leek needed to roast with the potatoes, or be sautéed. I sautéed it. It was delicious that way, so I'm fine with the outcome, even if the recipe itself left a bit to be desired.
Recipes I want to try:
- Potato-shishito hash with tomatillo sauce
- Brussels sprouts two ways
- Cardamom doughnut-ish tea cakes
- Powerballs
- Upside-down cake
December 27, 2016
There should be something between 2 stars, okay, and 3 stars, liked it, because I didn't particularly like it, but it was more than okay. Thought the pictures were mostly just filler. Didn't like the overly hipster vibe, including the pages of artisanal toast (whoever promulgated that trend should be up against the wall "when the revolution comes"). A lot of this really is food I would want to eat, or the kind I would want to cook if I had a ton of time to make several different components for each dish, and in fact I do shop for and cook the kinds of things that might not be available in other parts of the country (so depending on where you live, reading the recipes might be an even bigger source of annoyance for you than for me). So I can't really say why I didn't like it more; it just rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe partly because I know that I wouldn't want to stand in that legendary line with the hipper-than-thou to overpay for their precious, overly hyped items? And partly because I don't like it when someone (like Alice Waters) becomes "the face of" an entire way of cooking (my grandma did it first), or region. Don't claim "California" in the title like you own it. Don't tell them to go to your restaurant for apples that you got from a longtime local apple ranch in my county, not your county. And wtf was that thing in the middle about being a teenage thug who beat people up? That's not my jam.
August 8, 2016
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley for an honest review.
Interesting recipes but frankly much too new age/hippie/foodie for me. I like interesting recipes but they have to use readily available ingredients and not take all day to make.
One of the egg and toast recipes actually uses something called "pickled beet powder" that you can make yourself with a dehydrator. Who knows? Maybe I would really like it but frankly I would rather have a restaurant make it for me. It just seems like way too much work.
Interesting recipes but frankly much too new age/hippie/foodie for me. I like interesting recipes but they have to use readily available ingredients and not take all day to make.
One of the egg and toast recipes actually uses something called "pickled beet powder" that you can make yourself with a dehydrator. Who knows? Maybe I would really like it but frankly I would rather have a restaurant make it for me. It just seems like way too much work.
February 13, 2018
I'm very much not the target audience for this type of restaurant/cuisine, so take this review with a grain of salt. This is a beautifully photographed book but....that's pretty much all the value I took from it. The writing is cutesy and pretentious, the recipes needlessly complicated (she even says so in the introduction) - I only bookmarked, like, three, which is a fraction of what I usually would! If I tried to cook a brunch from this book I have a feeling I would spend $300 and two weeks on prep and my guests would still leave hungry after.
December 7, 2016
This book is hipster like whoa. I can't handle it.
August 25, 2021
So many mixed feelings about this book.
First of all, the recipes are amazing! Props to the men and women at Sqirl for making inventive recipes. I've heard good things about the sorrel pesto bowl so I might riff on that recipe using ingredients in my neck of the woods. If I were to gauge, this is for experienced home cooks who'd like something out of their comfort zone.
However, I think this is best suited as a coffee table book? It's almost a photo book of the California food scene and the yuppies who love brunch. The food styling, while captivating, is TOO MUCH. There's a picture of a flat paper bag and a single tomato... in the jam section. Lots of photos with ingredients being photographed with an unbothered-but-not-really aesthetic. The drinks section was just a masterclass on style over substance. Love the Memphis style of it all, but the drinks look like an afterthought in those photos.
This book just breathes Californian pomposity but hey at least the food's good.
First of all, the recipes are amazing! Props to the men and women at Sqirl for making inventive recipes. I've heard good things about the sorrel pesto bowl so I might riff on that recipe using ingredients in my neck of the woods. If I were to gauge, this is for experienced home cooks who'd like something out of their comfort zone.
However, I think this is best suited as a coffee table book? It's almost a photo book of the California food scene and the yuppies who love brunch. The food styling, while captivating, is TOO MUCH. There's a picture of a flat paper bag and a single tomato... in the jam section. Lots of photos with ingredients being photographed with an unbothered-but-not-really aesthetic. The drinks section was just a masterclass on style over substance. Love the Memphis style of it all, but the drinks look like an afterthought in those photos.
This book just breathes Californian pomposity but hey at least the food's good.
July 19, 2019
Wish I’d gone to this restaurant on a recent trip to LA, the food looks pretty delicious. The food photos are quite artistic in a good way. Some of the people photos are also quite artistic but not in a good way. The people in most of the posed shots look irritated and/or hungover, just weird.
As for the recipes, I’ve marked one, hazelnut financiers. It’s not that there aren’t any others that look good they just weren’t for things I don’t already make or am interested to try. The jam section will turn off any new jam makers. Making jam is so easy and the author makes it seem like rocket science!
I recommend not buying the book but checking it out from your library to see for yourself.
As for the recipes, I’ve marked one, hazelnut financiers. It’s not that there aren’t any others that look good they just weren’t for things I don’t already make or am interested to try. The jam section will turn off any new jam makers. Making jam is so easy and the author makes it seem like rocket science!
I recommend not buying the book but checking it out from your library to see for yourself.
April 8, 2019
I checked this book out from the library to learn the secret of the vanilla limeade I drank last year at Sqirl. It's literally just sugar, limes, and a vanilla bean.
This book was a delight to read and has me planning another trip to Los Angeles to eat but these recipes are far too involved for me to make any of them. I'm past my project cooking phase.
The jam technique will definitely come in handy though!
This book was a delight to read and has me planning another trip to Los Angeles to eat but these recipes are far too involved for me to make any of them. I'm past my project cooking phase.
The jam technique will definitely come in handy though!
August 27, 2020
Jessica Koslow’s cooking is always in tune with the seasons and I admire her approach to food that is pure and beautiful. Everything I Want to Eat is a delightful cookbook that truly lives up to its title!
Alice Waters
I love Jessica, I love Sqirl, and I love this book.
Mark Bittman, author of How to Cook Everything
---
a grilled cheese with bizarro tomato-coriander jam
or a blood orange upside-down cake
Alice Waters
I love Jessica, I love Sqirl, and I love this book.
Mark Bittman, author of How to Cook Everything
---
a grilled cheese with bizarro tomato-coriander jam
or a blood orange upside-down cake
April 25, 2018
I love the story of this chef. It was fun reading about her evolution. The recipes look intriguing and are a little cheffy. The photos are a little avant-garde which is nice in a cookbook. I also liked how the customers are featured in some of the photos. This is a good cookbook for those who want to stretch themselves a little.
Read
March 14, 2020Not bad! A few good cooking tips and techniques to take away. I like that the recipes are broken down into components so you can pick and choose pieces of any of them. Also nothing too crazy in terms of ingredients or appliances needed, just the best ingredients you can get your hands on. Overall, not a go-to cookbook.
June 28, 2017
I would probably be happy to try most of these at the restaurant (though I might not like the $$), but I just can't get behind making recipes with so MANY components for every dish. Very millenial in a mostly endearing way.
August 29, 2017
A lot of the recipes seem like they're going. To be really labor intensive because they have so many "components," but they're actually super simple and/or easy! Honestly the frittata recipe alone is worth its weight in gold.
December 4, 2024
A fun, luxurious and quirky cookbook. The book is very Californian meaning that it highlights the diverse and dynamic food culture in the state and emphasizes a mix of healthy and indulgent recipes.
October 11, 2017
okay. Nothing too exciting. Vegan and vegetarian options.
November 22, 2017
i cooked one thing from this! cinnamon donut things! the rest i will just enjoy at sqirl
May 24, 2018
The recipes were too ingredient laden and complicated for this home cook.
Also, I'm a bit past seeing hipsters at restaurants photos.
The photographs in the Desserts chapter were beautiful.
Also, I'm a bit past seeing hipsters at restaurants photos.
The photographs in the Desserts chapter were beautiful.
July 31, 2019
So so yummy.
Read
August 30, 2019641.59794 K864e 2016
April 17, 2020
I have been to Sqirl twice and the food is sooooo goooood. So, not coincidentally, this cookbook is also everything *I* want to eat. Nom nom.
July 15, 2020
Buyer beware, her track record on food safety, specifically mold, should scare you away.
https://laist.com/2020/07/13/sqirl_co...
https://laist.com/2020/07/13/sqirl_co...
May 15, 2023
Not as many recipes in this book as I was interested in.
October 19, 2023
This chef has TALENT!!!!! These are complex recipes done in a very approachable way. This book is also just a great read in general. Challenging recipes, and great photos.
September 22, 2016
Hipster to the max. If Kinfolk made a cookbook, this would be it. And the uber-hip, every-hipster-stereotype-ever photography was cringe-inducing, but the recipes...oh man, these recipes are legit. The 'famed ricotta toast' had me drooling. The avocado toast - an item that's been done and done over again - was reinvented and refreshed, with savory elements I would have never though to add. And I am SO excited to make some brown rice porridge when the weather gets cooler.
The recipes are beautifully straightforward and uncomplicated. Each recipe is essentially one page, broken up into simple steps. The ingredients are none too exotic; most are easily attainable (or at least, easily attainable in suburban Southern California, or anywhere a Whole Foods or health/specialty foods store could be found). And when an ingredient may be hard to find, an alternative is often presented (one recipe, for example, called for stinging nettles, and it was noted it could be replaced with spinach).
I LOVE that a lot of the recipes have little additions or alterations you can add to mix it up, make it vegan, or change depending on the season. It helps me learn more about experimenting with cooking, and what might work or not work as I venture further into my own in the kitchen.
I think the ultra-hipster formatting and photos for this book may turn off a lot of people. But there are already a lot of cookbooks out there to please those people. This cookbook may, in turn, invite others to venture into the cookbook realm where before it may have felt too 'family' or 'Betty Crocker' to them. And those lucky people are going to discover some really interesting recipes.
Now excuse me, because I'm going to go make EVERYTHING in this cookbook. I'm so excited for so many of these recipes! I'm excited to COOK. That's awesome.
The recipes are beautifully straightforward and uncomplicated. Each recipe is essentially one page, broken up into simple steps. The ingredients are none too exotic; most are easily attainable (or at least, easily attainable in suburban Southern California, or anywhere a Whole Foods or health/specialty foods store could be found). And when an ingredient may be hard to find, an alternative is often presented (one recipe, for example, called for stinging nettles, and it was noted it could be replaced with spinach).
I LOVE that a lot of the recipes have little additions or alterations you can add to mix it up, make it vegan, or change depending on the season. It helps me learn more about experimenting with cooking, and what might work or not work as I venture further into my own in the kitchen.
I think the ultra-hipster formatting and photos for this book may turn off a lot of people. But there are already a lot of cookbooks out there to please those people. This cookbook may, in turn, invite others to venture into the cookbook realm where before it may have felt too 'family' or 'Betty Crocker' to them. And those lucky people are going to discover some really interesting recipes.
Now excuse me, because I'm going to go make EVERYTHING in this cookbook. I'm so excited for so many of these recipes! I'm excited to COOK. That's awesome.
August 22, 2016
I was unable to finish this cookbook, it completely did not appeal to me.
The washed out photos give a 70s vibe, and seem like attempts to make dishes look as flat as possible. Guessing, from the tone of the cookbook, the photographs were probably meant to be artistic, though they did not work. There were many off-balance shots of people who were not smiling, indeed often they looked irritated, bored, or just way too intense for a cookbook. Seriously, why are they all so angry and / or uncomfortable? And why so many photographs of people?
There. Is. An. Entire. Section About. Toast.
Great, for those who love the on-trend (waning now, I think) craze. Not so great for me. There are pieces of toast that look the size of a person's head.
The recipes, reading like menu items, (Socca with your choice of zucchini, carrot or winter squash) looked lackadaisically thrown together, and just seemed like they were trying to be unusual. 'Beets on fish on beets on fish' for example. Strawberry rose geranium jam? Why?
**eARC Netgalley**
The washed out photos give a 70s vibe, and seem like attempts to make dishes look as flat as possible. Guessing, from the tone of the cookbook, the photographs were probably meant to be artistic, though they did not work. There were many off-balance shots of people who were not smiling, indeed often they looked irritated, bored, or just way too intense for a cookbook. Seriously, why are they all so angry and / or uncomfortable? And why so many photographs of people?
There. Is. An. Entire. Section About. Toast.
Great, for those who love the on-trend (waning now, I think) craze. Not so great for me. There are pieces of toast that look the size of a person's head.
The recipes, reading like menu items, (Socca with your choice of zucchini, carrot or winter squash) looked lackadaisically thrown together, and just seemed like they were trying to be unusual. 'Beets on fish on beets on fish' for example. Strawberry rose geranium jam? Why?
**eARC Netgalley**
January 2, 2017
I will attempt very few of the recipes in this book, but it's very handsomely assembled (the shape, the font, the heft) and I truly admire chef Jessica Koslow's ethos of treating meat like a special and rare ingredient, and using fresh produce as lovingly and fully as possible. I also enjoyed the loving tribute to the Koda family rice farm, glammy shots of lucky patrons, and lengthy description of the chef's criminal past, including fights that involved food and incarceration, which led to a fruit epiphany. That said, living in the upper midwest, very close to Canada, I think, if you're not a groundbreaking chef living in the garden of Eden that is California, you are probably . . . kind of daft. I would really like to see Koslow have a food epiphany in my northern town, where green things from the market perish the day after you bring them home, and it's squash squash squash all winter. Then again, we do have Brenda at Spoon River, whose cookbooks I should revisit. Oh food. (That will be the name of my cookbook).
August 27, 2021
The few recipes I have tried have turned out beautifully and were extremely delicious. My only complaint is the lack of accessibility of most of the ingredients. I do appreciate how approachable and well explained the recipes are, and this cookbook is one of my favorites to reference when cooking for guests!
February 5, 2017
This book has the perfect title - I do want to eat almost everything in here, but I'm very glad I don't have to cook it. The book is beautifully photographed, and there is at least one photo per recipe. However, they lost me where they make their own beet powder. I love beets, but that's a level of cooking I'm not at right now.
The jam and dessert chapters are probably the most accessible (and their toast - they have a TON of creative toast ideas that you can totally make your own); the Valrhona fleur de sel cookies are amazing and no one will believe how easy they are to make.
I would love to eat here, and this is a great book for inspiration. But I don't think I'd actually cook from most of these recipes.
The jam and dessert chapters are probably the most accessible (and their toast - they have a TON of creative toast ideas that you can totally make your own); the Valrhona fleur de sel cookies are amazing and no one will believe how easy they are to make.
I would love to eat here, and this is a great book for inspiration. But I don't think I'd actually cook from most of these recipes.
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