★ 09/06/2021
Perry, of the kitchens of Bon Appétit and Real Simple magazines, offers home cooks an outstanding guide to quick, appetizing meals through clever utilization of one’s pantry. “If you’re worried you picked up a food-planning manifesto, that’s not what this is,” Perry prefaces. Indeed, these are not gourmet meals but practical ones that nourish without requiring oodles of time. Many home cooks are likely to already have the many pantry go-tos Perry lists—including oils, vinegars, pasta, and dried spices. She categorizes these staples by location (cupboard, fridge, freezer) with helpful pointers on organizing or, in Perry speak, “keeping one’s head out of one’s ass.” She also includes a short list of must-have equipment (not “a ton of stuff. Just the right stuff,” such as a good serrated knife and heavy-bottomed pot). A chapter on homemade staples—what she refers to as her Pantry+—offers flavorsome and frugal enhancements for homemade croutons, spice blends, and vinaigrettes, such as Dijon and sesame-ginger, that taste better than store-bought options. Recipes are unassuming but inspiring and adaptable for any occasion—from scallion corn cakes to vegetable fritters to miso ramen with mushrooms and greens. Perry’s tutelage is a culinary windfall that will pay big dividends for busy home cooks. Agent: Kristin van Ogtrop, InkWell Management. (Nov.)
"An outstanding guide to quick, appetizing meals through clever utilization of one’s pantry...Perry’s tutelage is a culinary windfall that will pay big dividends for busy home cooks." —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (Starred Review)
"I've had the privilege of working with Dawn and am so excited to learn more about her cooking philosophy in this wonderful book. If you're starting out, this is the ultimate guide to literally everything you want to and should be making. If you're already a pro, she teaches you how to be a more efficient cook.” —ANTONI POROWSKI, television personality and home cook
"I wish I had Ready, Set, Cook when I was just becoming serious about cooking and needed a friend like Dawn Perry to tell me — gently but assuredly, never dogmatically — what to do, what not to do, and how to be the best cook I could be. Dawn knows what makes food look and taste great, but she also knows from experience how kids, schedules, moods, and a lack of ingredients often get in the way. So regardless of your family size, kitchen setup, or appetite for spending time at the stove, Ready, Set, Cook offers you myriad solutions and real talk. Dawn is charming, unpretentious, funny, and — best of all — skilled at combining a pro chef’s knowledge with a busy home cook’s need for speed and ease. Through the pages, she stands by your side and cheers you on." —CLAIRE SAFFITZ, New York Times bestselling author of Dessert Person
"In Ready, Set, Cook, Dawn Perry speaks to just the type of simple, straight-to-pleasure cooking that, thankfully, is also easy to pull off no matter your skill level. Her advice reads like your best friend coming over to get your life in order, but in this case, it’s to help you get prepared so you can always have an easy delicious dinner in less time than it takes to wait for delivery. Her recipes make the food work with your life and not the other way around." —BEN MIMS, cooking columnist for The Los Angeles Times
“Having READY, SET, COOK in your kitchen is like having your best, most knowledgeable friend on a 24-7 personal hotline. Yes, Dawn Perry has cooked in fancy restaurant kitchens and created recipes for major food media brands, but her genius lies in knowing how to spin gold from the most basic ingredients to create unfussy, delicious, extremely satisfying dishes for her family. Perhaps most appealing? She also seems to have the most fun doing it.” —JENNY ROSENSTRACH, New York Times bestselling author of Dinner: A Love Story and The Weekday Vegetarians
"In this gorgeous book simple prep yields complex flavor, something only a cook as talented as Dawn Perry can pull off. She replaces stress with strategy, serving up dinner-ready recipes you’ll return to again and again." —ADEENA SUSSMAN, author of Sababa: Fresh, Sunny Flavors from My Israeli Kitchen
"I wish I had Ready, Set, Cook when I was just becoming serious about cooking and needed a friend like Dawn Perry to tell me — gently but assuredly, never dogmatically — what to do, what not to do, and how to be the best cook I could be. Dawn knows what makes food look and taste great, but she also knows from experience how kids, schedules, moods, and a lack of ingredients often get in the way. So regardless of your family size, kitchen setup, or appetite for spending time at the stove, Ready, Set, Cook offers you myriad solutions and real talk. Dawn is charming, unpretentious, funny, and — best of all — skilled at combining a pro chef’s knowledge with a busy home cook’s need for speed and ease. Through the pages, she stands by your side and cheers you on."
"In this gorgeous book simple prep yields complex flavor, something only a cook as talented as Dawn Perry can pull off. She replaces stress with strategy, serving up dinner-ready recipes you’ll return to again and again."
Having READY, SET, COOK in your kitchen is like having your best, most knowledgeable friend on a 24-7 personal hotline. Yes, Dawn Perry has cooked in fancy restaurant kitchens and created recipes for major food media brands, but her genius lies in knowing how to spin gold from the most basic ingredients to create unfussy, delicious, extremely satisfying dishes for her family. Perhaps most appealing? She also seems to have the most fun doing it.
"In Ready, Set, Cook, Dawn Perry speaks to just the type of simple, straight-to-pleasure cooking that, thankfully, is also easy to pull off no matter your skill level. Her advice reads like your best friend coming over to get your life in order, but in this case, it’s to help you get prepared so you can always have an easy delicious dinner in less time than it takes to wait for delivery. Her recipes make the food work with your life and not the other way around."
"I've had the privilege of working with Dawn and am so excited to learn more about her cooking philosophy in this wonderful book. If you're starting out, this is the ultimate guide to literally everything you want to and should be making. If you're already a pro, she teaches you how to be a more efficient cook.
12/01/2021
Perry's book of standard American recipes is perfectly designed to help the beginning cook learn the basics. Starting with setting up a pantry, refrigerator, and freezer, Perry guides a first-time cook through the steps of outfitting a kitchen before covering the basics of cooking. The beginner foodie gets a critical foundation from Perry's information about choosing ingredients, how ingredients should be stored, and how long ingredients last if stored properly. The book's foundation is its instructions for preparing soups, sauces, and pie dough; safely storing them in the refrigerator or freezer; and adapting these basic recipes to full meals. Meals are then organized into familiar categories, and the recipes in the last half of the book rely upon the sauces, doughs, and spice mixes that were introduced in the first half. VERDICT While the book lacks instructions for measurement conversion, Perry's approachable guidance and beautiful photographs offer enough basic info to be of interest to beginner cooks.—Danielle Williams, Univ. of Evansville
