The no-recipe recipes themselves certainly echo the ‘cooking is fun’ mentality. Cooking without recipes is a valuable kitchen skill, we are told: ‘It’s a proficiency to develop, a way to improve your confidence in the kitchen and makes the act of cooking fun when it sometimes seems like a chore’. The book’s brief introductory section convincingly champions Sifton’s approach. Thankfully, Sifton’s bright and engaging writing – he clearly loves being in the kitchen almost as much as he loves food – enables the reader to confidently join him on his quest.
How annoyingly vague are the recipes? The entire book is annoyingly vague recipes. This is a book that can be taken to bed and flicked through with hungry eyes as you picture yourself breezily moving around the kitchen – a splash of fish sauce here, a generous pinch of oregano there. On the other hand, though, the recipes read so conversationally that they become a genuine pleasure to read in their own right. Is it good bedtime reading? On the one hand, there isn’t an awful lot to read besides the short and enthusiastic introduction to each recipe. His weekly What To Cook This Week column on the site has, since 2015, always featured a No-Recipe Recipe of his own – an easy to throw together sort of a dish that might have been influenced by something he’s eaten in a restaurant, or the passing comment of a chef friend, or simply the desire to combine two flavours and gleefully eat them. Who wrote it? Sam Sifton, the founding editor of The New York Times’ cookery website.
Every dish here is described in loose and accessible terms so that the home chef can amble carefree through the cooking process. What’s the USP? Sometimes food doesn’t need to be put together using precise measurements and exact times – No-Recipe Recipes is all about the big, flavourful ideas and less fussy about what you need to do and when.
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