Cooking is a roller coaster of highs and lows – a perfect embodiment of the saying, “hurry up and wait.” One moment you’re sweating over quickly sautéing garlic and the next, you’re twiddling your thumbs waiting for a sauce to reduce down. One moment you’re covered in flour, vigorously kneading a ball of dough and the next, you’re staring at that same dough, imploring it to hurry up and rise. Cooking is, to put it poetically, a microcosm of the human experience.
What better way to use those moments waiting for the oven timer to go off than to reconnect with what it means to be human? To laugh, learn, discover and question. This summer, while you’re upping your bread game, perfecting your chocolate chip cookie recipe or tending to a low and slow BBQ for hours on end, why not take the time to listen?
At Audible, you’ll find a buffet of – from cooking titles to entertaining podcasts, thrilling audiobooks and more. In this post, we’re offering up five of our favourite titles for a stint in the kitchen or backyard. Bon appétit!
Get Back to the Basics with Samin Nosrat
The brilliance of Samin Nosrat’s Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat is that it breaks down all of cookery into four fundamental elements. Salt enhances flavour. Fat adds texture and richness. Acid balances. And heat is there at every turn to transform the food into something new.
This isn’t a recipe book. Rather, it’s a breakdown of the fundamentals of cooking, meant to encourage your confidence as a home cook and empower you to make the right culinary decisions. Is your rich risotto missing something? Add a splash of acidity with some lemon juice. Does that blanched kale taste a little bland? Dress it with soy sauce and sesame oil to add salt and fat.
With a breezy approach to kitchen science, and a cool, cheerful tone, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat gives you the tools you need to succeed as a cook. If you lack a little confidence, bring Nosrat with you next time you’re in the kitchen!
Go Behind the Scenes with Anthony Bourdain
The late, great, Anthony Bourdain is perhaps best known now for his jet-setting food shows, in which he earnestly sought to connect cultures and people through food. But before his days as a globetrotting foodie, Bourdain worked in the steamy, smoky back kitchens of New York’s fine dining restaurants.
In Kitchen Confidential, Bourdain relates in vivid detail the camaraderie, the chaos and the “sex, drugs and rock n’ roll” of those kitchens, offering listeners an unprecedented backstage pass to a part of the restaurant typically shielded from public view.
It’s an incredible audiobook. As both creator and narrator, Bourdain’s wit, attitude and passion coat every passage like cream sauce on a rare steak. If you want the restaurant kitchen experience at home, sharpen your knives, crank up the heat and listen to .
