Christopher Kimball and his famous Milk Street team of cooks and editors want to change your mind about home cooking. Specifically, they wish you’d quit thinking of your recipe choices as traditional American—if that truly exists any longer—versus ethnic dishes (i.e. not American). The crumbling of borders hasn’t been smooth in all cases, but it shines in the kitchen. The array of once exotic ingredients and different techniques, especially with recent market accessibility and a return to authentic dishes, that are available to the average person will not only change the way you think about food, but it will expand and elevate your palate in intriguing new ways.

To wrap your head around this approach, Milk Street: The New Home Cooking is organized by the way we go about meal preparation (i.e. dinners, desserts, etc.), yet also by the way we actually eat (i.e. breads, small sweets, etc.). The recipes tend toward an exciting way to cook a main ingredient, while prepared with easy to follow techniques and global seasonings. The palette is the entire world, and there are many fusion moments contained within, further demonstrating the modern kitchen as holding no boundaries.

The book begins with a brief discussion of pantry staples (i.e. fats, acids, spices, etc.), while taking the time to discuss specific choices within in each category. One of the most crippling aspects of attempting new meals is not having a prepared pantry. This forces you into an unlikely impromptu shopping trip, while probably resulting in falling back on routine recipes. Having even half of Kimball’s suggested pantry exposes you to a wide array of new recipes. And there is simply no excuse, if you consider yourself even a journeyman home chef, to not have a decent set of basic implements. The author touches on those with his legendary aplomb.

Throughout its pages, Milk Street brings a high-end presentation with gorgeous photographs of each finished recipe and stout single-page organization. Who doesn't initially browse a cookbook by the picture, while hoping to recreate something similar? This book gives you the confidence that you can. Whether it’s as simple as the Skirt Steak Salad or Skillet-Charred Brussels Sprouts—this reviewer already won the day with that recipe—or as scrumptious as the Sticky Toffee Pudding or Curry Braised Eggs, you won’t be intimidated to stretch your muscles. And that’s a lot of what Kimble does; he brings foreign seasonings into familiar stead.

If you’ve ever listened to Kimball’s weekly Milk Street radio program on NPR, you’ll be taken in by his charm, sincerity, and understated wit. The show presents an array of ingredients, techniques, and recipes, as well as the overarching discussion of what’s on the menu tonight. It makes you hungry and more importantly changes your mind. This cookbook does the same. The recipes are patiently explained, with the same important tips you receive during his broadcast.

Surprisingly, this is Milk Street’s first cookbook. It should be shelved at the ready beside The Joy of Cooking, the more perfunctory but essential bible for the novice in the kitchen. Instead, Kimball’s offering brings home cooking into, not only the modern world, but the whole world. We’re glad he and his team had the requisite time and patience to make this important statement about the contemporary kitchen.

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