Book Reviews

You Are Human and You Need Cake

Chef Eats:

By Julie Van Rosendaal, Dinner with Julie

By Alison MacNeil CCC, FriesenPress, Ebook, Paperback, Hardcover $17-58

Over the holidays, my extended family was able to get together here and there for some much needed – and much missed - time to connect. While getting together often means food is part of the equation, whether it’s an afternoon affair or a full-blown dinner event, we often talk about cooking, recipes, and yes – cookbooks.

Julie Van Rosendaal has been a consistent, and stalwart fixture in Calgary’s culinary scene for some time, and has been publishing timely, relevant and often delectable dishes and observations for readers, listeners, and otherwise food enthusiasts for quite a few years. You

Are Human and You Need Cake was borne out of some hateful comments, but Van Rosendaal turned some of those comments around and made it about why we “need” cake. Maybe we don’t “need” cake, but we certainly at times “need” to have a cake-appropriate occasion – and that time can and should be happening more often.

Accompanied by as always excellent images of all the recipes, the book is divided into five very broad and sometimes overlapping categories, such as chocolate cakes, or cakes with fruits, even fancy-ish cakes and morning cakes, but if one were to feel the need to enjoy a good cake, you might as well make or serve a cake you like.

Ranging from a pumpkin torte with maple cookie crust (p.84) which has some surprising connections, but might skirt the definition of cake too. Baked Alaska (p.73) which always seems too tricky to pull off, and what seems like possibly the best carrot cake you never knew you needed (p.63), A Jos Louis cake (p.53)!, plus Bundt cakes, chocolate cakes, shortcakes and so many more.

We might not all need yet another cookbook, or even one dedicated to cakes, but if your roster of cakes or special occasion recipes is some tatty pages printed out or culled from old family books, you might want to check this one out and find a few more opportunities to let your friends or family - eat cake. TF

Recipes and Techniques

Have you ever wanted to cook

chef-quality food but not work in a restaurant kitchen? I’m always excited to see cookbooks from local people, and after reading Chef Eats, Calgary Chef Alison MacNeil (in collaboration with her chef husband John MacNeil), has me believing that I can elevate my cooking skills to make these dishes too. She breaks down the steps so simply, that you’ll feel confident making your own salted butter (p.11) and curing your own bresaola (p.29) and think “I can do that!”

MacNeil starts with a glossary of specialty equipment and ingredients, and explains what they are and why we need them, and splits the recipes into four chapters – the stations she worked to master in professional kitchens. She sensibly includes lined blank pages for notes, so you don’t have to scribble on the recipe pages, and each dish is accompanied by her stunning photography, with small inset photographs too showing how it looks at different stages. I can almost taste the Bison Lasagne (p.66) from looking at the mouth-watering photo.

Home-style cooking and comfort food are MacNeil’s speciality (John’s is more fine dining), and both are here. She takes us through elemental skills of professional pastry making, pasta making, and stocks, and then uses those recipes as a base for the more ‘chef-fy’ dishes. Her Steelhead Trout en Papillote (p.84) and Chicken Pot Pie (p. 94) look to be real winners, and there’s a recipe for Faux Apple Pie (p.121) that doesn’t contain apples, (it’s made with a vegetable, and I’ll let you read the book to find out which) - evidently you’d never know!

There are several steps in the Strawberry and Cream Terrarium (p.127), but I can imagine your guest’s faces when you serve it at your next dinner party. MacNeil even includes her recipe from their Black Pig restaurant for the delicious Pumpkin Sticky Toffee Pudding (p.131), a must-try!

The book ends with a few drink recipes - some simple, like Vermouth (p.135) and some more daunting, such as Chanterelle Mushroom-infused Vodka Caesar (p.141) - and she still makes us believe we can make them too. LG