Friday, September 5, 2008

Cooking with Forgotten Classics - podcast review

Mostly Forgotten Classics is about fiction; Julie reads a novel to you. Here is an episode that is about cooking though. The major part of this, rather long, podcast consists of Julie reading from John Thorne's Mouth Wide Open.

I found it the most interesting part where Julie reacted to the content and told how she deals with recipes and how others she knows do. She sees two types of people: those who roughly follow recipes, and make their variations as they go and those who either improvise while cooking, or follow recipes and then follow them rather strictly. In theory there would be people who only cook by recipes and then follow, but nobody seems to know them.

John Thorne explains, among others, in the sections that Julie reads out loud, why he hardly ever cooks from recipes and when he does, he allows himself vast freedom to alternate. His way of dealing with cookbooks, is read them. The recipes are not to be tried, but to be learned from, to give ideas. In addition there are thoughts about traditional cooking, theme cookbooks, cooking magazines and on and on. The reading section is actually too long, I think. And the whole subject, is much more alive when Julie discusses it. I think she could have summarized Thorne's view and made more of a free-style podcast. But hers is a podcast in which she reads to the listener. And this she does very, very well.

More:
Forgotten Classics - podcast review,
Podcast history of cooking,
Anne is a Man - recipes.

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2 comments:

Julie D. said...

Thank you Anne! You are very kind (and I KNOW that to be true!) :-)

Anne the Man said...

OK, you're welcome. I am a bit baffled though, you know. I wrote you a rather critical review and you thank me for being so kind... I wonder what will happen if I get really appreciative. Or works this phenomenon in opposite ways and is the ticker parade due when...
Anyway, enough with the joking, I am glad you take the criticism well - it surely becomes you.
And I'll keep writing what I really think about the podcasts I listen to.