An Everlasting Meal is Emily’s most gifted (and treasured) book. It’s wrap-yourself-in-a-blanket-and-finish-it-in-a-day good. Get-in-your-kitchen-immediately-after-reading-and-cook good. Bolt-out-of-your-cooking-rut good. Its author, Tamar Adler (a Prune and Chez Panisse alum), has been likened to a modern day MFK Fisher.
An Everlasting Meal
“We all have potionlike liquids around already. I would like to smartly advise you to label and date your potions well, so that you know their vintages and contents. But while I am very good at saving and storing things, I am terrible at labeling them. The best I can say is that it is worth trying to do. Then, if you fail, you can resign yourself to felicitous discoveries when it is artichoke broth you sip in order to make a fair identification, and infelicitous ones when it’s pickle brine you gulp just before mistakenly pouring it into a soup.”
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Adler’s book reads like a novel with recipes interspersed. Her approach to food — earthy, nurturing, sometimes rambunctious — makes you fall in love with her. Most importantly, it makes you eager to do what she does: cook with economy and grace (which is the book’s subtitle).
The best part is that she makes it entirely possible to do so. Adler’s cooking feels effortless, open-ended and need-based. In her kitchen, nothing goes to waste, and after reading her book, we too changed the way we treated vegetable stems (stock!), overcooked rice and lentils (pancakes!) and broken aioli (deliciously rich pasta sauce!).
We hope you’ll find as much pleasure in reading it as we have.
Find a link to buy the book in our shop.
