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Cookbooks: Lots of choice beyond recipe collections
Photo: Tetra Images / Tetra images RF / Getty Images
Beyond the usual recipe collections, there are lots of interesting books in the area of cooking and enjoyment. Three current publications particularly caught our eye: the diary of a philosophizing star chef, a non-fiction book about the state of non-alcoholic drinks in the catering industry and an article on inclusion: tips and tricks for everyone who cooks temporarily or permanently with just one arm.
Vincent Klink: »Diary 2018-2024«
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Photo: Edition Vincent Klink
Vincent Klink, head chef, patron and good soul of the noble restaurant Wielandshöhe with a royal view over Stuttgart for decades, is probably the only star chef in Germany with the intellectual basics to write his own books. In addition to various works such as "A Belly Walks Through Paris" and the culinary combat publication "Häuptling Own Herd", which was published quarterly from 1999 to 2013, the classically educated high culture oddball is known to a wider audience through humorous TV appearances ("ARD Buffet"; "real good! Klink & Nett« on SWR). As head chef in his first restaurant, “Postillion,” he won a Michelin star in 1978, which he has held without interruption for more than 40 years.
His current book was published by his own restaurant's small publishing house, personally illustrated by the author with small watercolors and would be called a blog if published online for the first time. Klink gives us insights into his personal diary from 2018 to 2023 - with a quick crystal ball wink to 2024. He also doesn't leave out the biggest possible life events such as the death of his wife of decades and co-patron Elisabeth in 2022.
Otherwise, the book shows on 340 pages (with only 40 short cooking recipes) the intellectual and moral range of this deeply Swabian exceptional all-round talent, who also gives jazz concerts on the transverse flute and bass flugelhorn.
Klink's recipes, often embedded in private experiences of coarse tenderness, resemble his unaffected output at Wielandshöhe. They are radically based on the product and the season in which it tastes best. You can't go wrong with radish soup, Easter lamb, pepperpotthast and Viennese juice goulash. Or German ratatouille, i.e. without eggplant or garlic, but with local vegetables such as celeriac, carrots, potatoes, onions, kohlrabi, turnips and radishes - all steamed at low heat.
The recipes can be easily prepared in any reasonably equipped kitchen. Klink only expects sensitive cooks to cook a little of the internal stuff (tripe in light tomato sauce, sliced liver). He prefers to rail against colleagues who "sacrifice regional dishes on the altar of the zeitgeist."
Klink has been there far too long to pay any attention. He doesn't just like his potato salad fluffy - he prepares it with completely over-seasoned instant vegetable broth. An outrage for a star chef? Oh dear, the main thing is that the salad is not mixed with cutlery, but with both hands. At one point the gnarled chef even comes up with a purchase recommendation: the Stur cast iron pans, which attentive readers of this column have long since discovered.
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Vincent Klink
Diary 2018-2024
Publisher: Vincent Klink
Number of pages: 340
Publisher: Vincent Klink
Number of pages: 340
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Of course, Klink also knows where the antagonist stands: he showers his main enemy Nestlé with wild insults, titles the 2019 Pentecost sermon "Nestlé will burn in hell" and rattles off the well-known accusations against the Swiss leader of the culinary-industrial complex (child food scandal, animal testing , palm oil rainforest destruction, global water theft, etc.) like an anti-capitalist assault rifle. He ends his suada with the sentence: "Someone described the Nestlé Group as a criminal organization and so far I haven't found anyone who has contradicted them."
Somewhere between politics and polemics, you even find out what Mr. Klink cooks when he has a day off but doesn't feel like eating much nonsense: Krautschnitzel. Press gently seasoned minced lamb between two layers of blanched cabbage leaves - and into the pan. A horizontal cabbage wrap, so to speak.
And no, it's not just old white men who love this bacchanalian Renaissance man and his education-affirming, long-term view far outside the box.
Who needs that?
Anyone who wants to think a little while cooking.
Typical recipe?
“Oven slips according to Aunt Agathe”
What does this cost?
25 euros
Nicole Klauß: “Alcohol-free – basics, recipes, pairings”
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Photo: at PUBLISHER
Yes, of course, the smarter person gives more. But even beyond dry Januarys, people are increasingly toasting with drinks that don't taste as boring as water - and yet contain no alcohol. The gastro consultant, certified sommelier and drinks book author Nicole Klauß personally cannot tolerate alcohol at all, but knows a lot about wine, schnapps and beer. This connection makes her the perfect supervisor for supervised drinking in the zero alcohol range.
Your current book primarily addresses so-called food and beverage managers in restaurants and hotels, sommeliers, restaurateurs and wine sellers. But the interested anti-alcoholic will also find out on the 336 pages everything they need to know in order to treat themselves, their family and their circle of friends to a deliciously aromatic meal without alcohol.
After years of research, Klauß has systematized the basics of this drinking world clearly, but also in a depth that has never been read anywhere before. We not only find out which drinks go with which dishes, but also why. In addition to the central chapter on all types of tea, there is also valuable information on many international drink trends that are only likely to become widespread in restaurants and retailers in this country in the coming months or years.
The corresponding drinks can already serve as perfect non-alcoholic food accompaniments: Shrubs (acetic fruit syrups), molasses-ginger-based switchels, honey-sweet Oxymels, fermentos (kombucha, kefir, etc.), dealcoholized beer and - in countless modernist three-star restaurants between Denmark and the Basque Country and New York the hottest shit right now – proxies. These wine alternatives have a similar variety of flavors and are blended from vinegar, kombucha, kvass (Russian bread drink), fermented grape juices, spices, teas and other aromatic ingredients.
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Nicole Klauss
non-alcoholic
Photography: Jule Felice Frommelt
Publisher: AT
Number of pages: 336
Photography: Jule Felice Frommelt
Publisher: AT
Number of pages: 336
Buy for €36.00
Price inquiry time
February 17, 2024 7:43 a.m
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Non-alcoholic wines, on the other hand, are not yet an issue for Klauss; she covers this tragedy in just four pages. This is understandable, because in 2023 we tasted over 40 dealcoholized wines in white, rosé and red from the most important producing countries for a test that should appear in this department. Well, not a single one impressed us. As an alcohol-free, low-sugar ingredient in sparkling cocktails of all kinds, many zero-percent sparkling wines performed well in our test. (More on this soon.) Not recognizing this is perhaps the only small drawback of this new standard work for sustainable and enjoyment-oriented adult drinking.
Who needs that?
Demanding anti-alcoholics (also part-time).
Typical recipe?
»Beetroot pepper scrub with coriander«.
What does this cost?
36 euros
Martina and Nick Tschirner: “Easy one-handed kitchen”
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Photo: edition slow hand
Even the simplest cooking recipes at first glance remain a challenge for them: people who can only prepare their food with one hand. Be it temporary, such as after shoulder surgery or a broken wrist, or lifelong because of a stroke or a bad accident. The latter is the fate of Nick Tschirner. Before this change, the son of the food journalist and long-time editor-in-chief of the German “Slow Food Magazine”, Martina Tschirner, was an enthusiastic 16-year-old who enjoyed cooking as a hobby. Since then he has had to try to get by in the kitchen with his left hand.
The mother-son team quickly realized that there were no sensible cooking instructions for people with this handicap - neither on the Internet nor in bookstores. With “Easy One-Handed Kitchen,” the third volume is now being published, following the two “One-Handed Cookbooks” in 2014 and 2018. On 84 pages in a spiral binding that is easy to use with one hand, the duo's focus is now on sustainable kitchen work with a view to avoiding waste and meal prepping - many of the recipes work according to the formula: cook once, eat three times.
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Martina Tschirner, Nick Tschirner
Easy one-lever kitchen
Publisher: edition slow hand
Number of pages: 84
Publisher: edition slow hand
Number of pages: 84
Buy for €14.90
Price inquiry time
February 17, 2024 7:43 a.m
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Based on ten basic ingredients and components such as potatoes, rice, chicken, beans, pumpkin, tomato sauce, eggs or bread, the Tschirners develop a remarkable range of different appetizing dishes: from pumpkin soup with ginger and coconut milk to white bean salad with tuna and bananas -Peanut caramel split. Always with lots of tips and tricks for one-handed kitchen work and the special kitchen aids required for this, such as work stations, a garlic hose as a peeling aid, saucepans, egg separators and onion dicers.
A worthy sequel to the first two one-hand cookbooks, the purchase of which makes culinary life much easier for some people.
Who needs that?
Anyone who can generally or temporarily only cook with one hand.
Typical recipe?
»Greek Bread Salad with Feta«
What does this cost?
14.90 euros
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