If traveling to New York City to take a culinary class isn't possible, picking up The Haven's Kitchen Cooking School: Recipes and Inspiration to Build a Lifetime of Confidence in the Kitchen by Alison Cayne is the next best thing. Cayne, owner of the wildly popular cooking school, has written a "modern-day equivalent of how people have learned to cook for centuries... watching, practicing, and making (and correcting) mistakes."
The cookbook opens with the basics, including knife skills, necessary tools and equipment, and must-haves in the pantry and refrigerator. From there, it's arranged around key concepts (like mise en place) taught through recipes. Cayne clearly and succinctly explains each concept, highlighting necessary tools before moving into a teaching recipe. In the chapter on soups, she uses the recipe for a ribollita--built from a basic foundation and gradually adding ingredients to create layers of flavor. More complex recipes follow; Cayne's philosophy is that "anyone can cook, they just need to build confidence through practice." The chapter on eggs is "a lesson in timing and temperature." From a simple omelet all the way to a soufflé, she calmly leads the home cook toward self-assurance.
Ample color photographs are included, and the layout is clean and minimalist, with room on each page for making notes. Cayne's voice is calm, cheerful and pragmatic. She doesn't demand one standard practice, instead teaching the fundamentals and then encouraging exploration and creativity. --Cindy Pauldine, bookseller, the river's end bookstore