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  B. Marold

  5 out of 5 stars

  Superb Meditations on Classic Recipes. Buy it NOW!

  Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2008

  Format: Hardcover

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  `Mouth Wide Open' is John Thorne's fourth book, each volume being a collection of articles from his self-published journal `Simple Cooking'. I cannot be more delighted in seeing this book, as I was just recently wondering whether we would ever see any more from the good Mr. Thorne and his distaff collaborator and wife, Matt Lewis Thorne.

  Even more than in all his previous books, Mr. Thorne validates exactly my approach to reading and reporting on cookbooks. At one point, he states that the most interesting kind of writing a professional chef can do is to describe how they cook at home. This fits exactly my feelings about books such as Jacques Pepin's `Chez Jacque' and `Fast Food My Way', Alice Waters' `The Art of Simple Food', and Eric Rippert's `A Return to Cooking'.

  Thorne's own food writing embraces an approach to recipes which matches my own reading and writing, and which probably drives some of my readers to distraction, when I don't get around to actually cooking the recipes. This approach may be compared to Biblical textual criticism, where scholars adjudicate the authenticity of many different versions and fragments of versions for the canonical works in scripture. My favorite Thorne exercise of this sort is his essay on New England clam chowder in an earlier book, `Serious Pig'. If there is any lesson to be learned from his many exercises in this form, it is that one may never find the `genuine' version of any traditional recipe, but it is certainly fun to make the journey. You come out the other end with an enormously improved understanding of a cuisine and the needs of the people who created it. Thorne's essays in this genre in this book start with that rather unfamiliar sauce native to the Piedmont in Italy, bagna cauda. Among his researches are `depositions' from twelve different modern recipes for the sauce, including such notables as Elizabeth David, Faith Willinger, and Jeffrey Steingarten. And, lo and behold, each one is different from one another, and different from Thorne's eyewitness of a preparation in Piedmont.

  It is no surprise that Thorne cites David and Steingarten, as his work owes much to David's style of writing, as is also allied to the writings of Patience Gray and Richard Olney. As the title of his newsletter attests, Thorne is a great proponent of `simple cooking', which, however, is different from either fast or easy cooking. Thorne presents an excellent exercise in `simple cooking' when he describes his first exposure to making homemade mayonnaise. Like an omelet, it is utterly simple, involving nothing more than an egg, oil, some lemon juice, and some dexterity.

  Another evidence of Thorne's great orthodoxy is that his conception of good cooking is to make the best with what you have. This is virtually identical to Tom Colicchio's elegant description of cooking creativity in his `How to Think Like a Chef'.

  In the course of my rambling, I have not taken the time to point out that Thorne's books are definitely meant to be read from cover to cover and enjoyed in their own right, and not from the incidental recipe one may glean from it, as you might do from a celebrity chef cookbook. In doing so, we may discover that Thorne may actually have some opinions with which we may rightfully disagree. Thorne takes issue with the replacing of books (and TV cooking shows) by cooks with books (and TV shows) by `entertainers' such as Rachael Ray. I am sympathetic with his primary point that the TV Network approach to food has tended to drive out the kind of writing done by Thorne and Steingarten and (formerly) by Gray and Grigson and David. I disagree on two counts. First, Thorne and Steingarten and Nigel Slater and Amanda Hesser are still going strong in this kind of writing. Second, people like Rachael Ray address a particular audience who has no time for a contemplative approach to cooking, and Miss Rachael does have some reasonably serious credentials as a food professional. She is NOT just an engaging talker who fronts culinary staff who do the real work.

  In spite of those little quibbles, I am enthusiastically in Thorne's camp when he talks about a meditative approach, as profound in its own way as Alton Brown's metaphor of culinary teaching which replaces the directions of the recipe with the explanations comparable to a map of the whole city. While Brown gives us a map, Thorne gives us a history, seen from a very personal point of view.

  Thorne includes in this book some reviews of notable books on culinary subjects. Most notable are reviews of Eric Schlosser's `Fast Food Nation', `Amanda Hesser's `The Cook and the Gardener', and Raymond Sokolow's `The Cook's Canon: 100 Classic Recipes Everyone Should Know'. I'm delighted less by Mr. Thorne's opinions of the books, all of which I reviewed, than by the fact that approaches each review in a manner very similar to `The New Yorker' style, which I often consciously emulate.

  The book does contain many recipes, and Mr. Thorne does us the great service of listing them all at the beginning of the book. And, unlike recipes in other culinary memoirs, these are integral to the story and need to be read; however, they are `examples', almost footnotes to the main line of narrative. One reads the book for how John Thorne got there, not for a description of the destination.

  A really, really great read for foodies.

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• 

  S. C JUMEL

  4 out of 5 stars

  Very good used copy.

  Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2014

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  Have it at last! I love John Thorne and enjoy his descriptions of cooking and studying recipes, but since I will probably spill stuff on it anyhow why buy a new copy?

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  B. Budra

  5 out of 5 stars

  Hits just the right note

  Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2009

  Format: Paperback

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  This is my favorite John Thorne collection yet. He strikes just the right notes of crank and passionate investigator. Of cooking and thinking about food. If, as he says, he's out of step with the current food-mania culture, it's in a good way. He has always been an independent thinker. His cooking has always been about manipulating simple ingredients, not buying fancy ones. (Wasn't it Julia Child who sniveled about the difference between cooking and shopping?) Of working with what you have. Of reinterpreting recipes to please yourself. His approach is very cerebral and literary: he includes more reading recommendations at the end of each chapter. And his enthusiasm is contagious--I've gathered a big reading list from just my favorite few chapters.

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  2 people found this helpful

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• 

  Roman Melnyk

  3 out of 5 stars

  Was really disappointed in it's contents

  Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2015

  Format: Paperback

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  Unfortunately just a so..so book. Was really disappointed in it's contents.

  RM

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• 

  Lso

  5 out of 5 stars

  More than just a collection of recipes

  Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2015

  Format: Paperback

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  Always enjoyable, each chapter is a take on a different food.l If you're needing a fresh idea or inspiration, sit down with John Thorpe. He never disappoints. His discourse on making marmalade is like being in his kitchen with him chatting about the different steps and possible variations. Learn about bagna caoda, pasta with anchovies, bone marrow. He takes time explaining why he likes these foods and soon you're wanting to try them, too. Lots of great recipes here.

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  Aville HR

  5 out of 5 stars

  A delightful read.

  Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2026

  Format: Hardcover

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  Underrated writer, just a joy to read. Not just for foodies!

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  Roya H

  4 out of 5 stars

  Another great book from the Thornes

  Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2009

  Format: Paperback

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  I've been a big John Thorne fan since reading Outlaw Cook, and if you like his prior work, you'll enjoy this one too. It's more interesting food discoveries and observations, with tried and true recipes.

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  One person found this helpful

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  H. Wood

  5 out of 5 stars

  An ongoing conversation

  Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2008

  Format: Hardcover

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  What a truly pleasurable book. John Thorne continues his ongoing conversation about cooking, food, and life, and the rest of us are privileged to listen in. His intellectual rigor is notable, but there is no element of pretention in it. Rather, he tuns his attention to good things and gives a great deal of careful thought to their history and how best to do them justice. It is also a very funny book, and the best antidote I've found to the current depressing parade of egomaniacal chefs'compendiums and "smile big and get your cooking over with in a hurry" non-cookbooks. Highly recommended for any serious cook and for anyone who likes to think about food. Lovers of good essays will like it too.

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  11 people found this helpful

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