Food52 Your Do-Anything Kitchen: The Trusty Guide to a Smarter, Tidier, Happier Space

by Food52

The ultimate guide to the kitchen from Food52--the award-winning kitchen and home destination--filled with ideas for creating, organizing, and enjoying everyone's favorite room in the house.

The first step to better, happier cooking? Setting up a tip-top kitchen. We're talking one that's stocked with essential tools and ingredients, organized so everything you need is close at hand, and sparkling-clean from floor to ceiling. Food52 is here to make it happen. Your Do-Anything Kitchen gathers the smartest ideas and savviest tricks from the Food52 community and test kitchen to help you transform your space into its very best self.

If you're ready for a top-to-bottom kitchen revamp, this handbook's got you covered--but it's packed with small-but-mighty upgrades, too. Stick with us, and you'll get to know which cooking tools are must-haves, discover new pantry staples for on-a-whim meals, and learn tons of tips to make your fridge (freezer, too!) work even harder for you. You'll find strategies for tidying storage-container clutter and arranging all your cooking gadgets--and while you're at it, maximizing precious drawer and counter space. Once you've gotten your kitchen in order, you can start cooking with a new spring in your step, thanks to a handy how-to on knife skills and a mini-guide to mise en place. A chapter chock-full of cleaning advice will keep your kitchen at its spiffiest.

Throughout, you'll get tours of real-life, super-functional home kitchens from cookbook authors, chefs, bakers, and more. Armed with a choose-your-own-adventure meal-prep planner, helpful charts on the art of speedy, streamlined dinners, and a game-changing cleaning checklist, you'll whiz through your routine like the efficiency expert you now are. So whether you're putting together your very first kitchen or looking to spruce up a well-loved space, Your Do-Anything Kitchen will turn it into the greatest-possible place to cook--and spend time.

Genres: Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Self Help, Cooking, Food, Reference

176 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2020

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Food52 has put out several cookbooks, but this book explores how having an organized and stocked kitchen helps you cook better and enjoy it more. The book is divided into 5 chapters - setting up, stocking up, storing & organizing, cooking, and cleaning up. Each chapter has lots of illustrations and photos to help visualize the tips. I really liked that with appliances and kitchen accessories they divided lists into "must-haves" and "nice-to-haves." The chapter on cooking wasn't recipes, but more tips on food sanitation tips, prep tips, knife skills, etc. Overall, it was a really well done look at the kitchen as a whole and the best ways to set up your workspace to make cooking easier and better. This would make a great gift for a housewarming or newlyweds.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

tl;dr There are some good kitchen tips in here, but about half of the book is for wealthy yuppies who don’t believe in using real disinfectants—in other words, not me.

Longer review:
I was not the target audience for this book. I’m not sure who was—people doing kitchen renovations? Chefs who want to see drawings of the kitchens of other chefs? Park Slope residents who happen to be blessed with both high ceilings and broom closets?

I read this wanting advice for improving my kitchen—I wanted to create the “smarter, tidier, happier space” mentioned on the cover. To their credit, the authors have a lot of solid suggestions about creating a kitchen that works for you, and avoiding having too much stuff. The book starts to go off the rails, however, when it moves on to food shopping and then cleaning. The suggestions become less relatable (I don’t know anyone who brings their own resealable glass containers to the bins at Whole Foods, and I am not going to start myself) and less realistic (I will not clean my stove hood every day). The authors eschew “chemicals,” which include bleach, so they use essential oils as an antibacterial agent. This is nonsense. (Essential oils have not demonstrated meaningful antibacterial properties outside of laboratory conditions. I am uninterested in comments regarding this topic.) The term “chemicals” is meaningless and it remains so here: it’s just any substance the authors think is icky.

Occasionally, there are attempts to acknowledge varying income levels: for example, early on, the authors list what a bare-minimum kitchen requires, as well as useful tips on finding things for cheap. Then they ruin it by insisting that the reader shop for higher-quality (more expensive) ingredients more frequently, assuming that in doing so, they will waste less and ultimately save money. As a USian who has been poor (a lot), I am absolutely sure this is not going to work for the vast majority of people in this country. (I also feel pretty sure that Whole Foods has never saved anyone money, but I digress.) Built in to their plan is that the reader will be cooking at home very often, which isn’t true for me and may not be true for many other readers. I just wanted to have a better organized, more reasonable kitchen.

And disinfect it with bleach solution.

[Rhiannon Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.



This book is absolutely perfect for the beginner cook and/or a new homeowner interested in setting up their kitchen for optimal efficiency. Learn what tools and ingredients to have on hand and how to clean everything in your kitchen from top to bottom. Full of tips, tricks, and ideas, this slim handbook is equally a straightforward reference guide and inspirational collection of menus, photos, and more.


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[kerrigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This would be a good gift for someone living on their own for their first time! As an adult with an already organized kitchen, I didn’t find much useful here but most of what was listed seemed reasonable, organized by needs and nice-to-haves, and even touched on the importance of cleanliness. Not to mention, this book was just attractive; clear photos, simple illustrations, and don’t get me started on the built in bookmark.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the food blogs I read occasionally is Food52. This is their complete guide to the kitchen: setting it up, stocking and organizing, with cooking tips and cleaning tips. This would be perfect for someone just starting out or who wants a kitchen reset.

[Jennie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love how the book is bound like a small note book you would write it. It has space in the back for notes which is a great idea.

Simple, great pictures, portable and packed this great tips.

Highly recommended.

[Matthew Willis · Rating 5 out of 5]

That is a fantastic book for learning all about your kitchen, how to handle it, clean, and cook in it. Its a pretty fantastic book to get someone who is interested in a kitchen that might be new at it.

[Darlene Messenger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whether you're new to the kitchen, unsure of what to purchase for your first home, or downsizing from a larger home and unsure what is actually necessary for you to pack and move; this book has it all. Pantry list, useful tools, storage ideas and basic ingredients for cooking are beneficial. It would make an excellent house warming gift.

[Mariko · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun, breezy read. Great for beginning cooks, good reminders for intermediate cooks.

[Aasinathena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book of kitchen organizing !

[Dariann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives great tips for cooking, storage, and cleaning in the kitchen. I highly recommend to anyone that is moving into a new home or wants to reorganize their kitchen.

[Никола Валентина · Rating 5 out of 5]

T and send the invoice and

[Eva B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great reference book. I didn't read every word but I read most of them.

[Joy Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my absolute favorite books and books to gift. Full of practical ideas- many we have implemented in our home!

[Beka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sadly no recipes, but this might be helpful for someone learning to set up their own kitchen for the first time.

[Dani · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fun illustrations. Basic info - it’s hard to tell if this would have been helpful to me as a new cook, but maybe?