Review: My Perfect Pantry

My Perfect Pantry: 150 Easy Recipes from 50 Essential Ingredients by Geoffrey Zakarian


Any Chopped fans out there? That's my personal tie to Geoffrey Zakarian. GZ created this cookbook with Amy Stevenson and Margaret Zakarian with photographs by Sara Remington. He dedicated it to Madeline, Anna, and George - "May your pantry always be full."

Zakarian offers a unique look at the pantry. He pares down the essentials to 50 items which does not include spices. If you add spices, it jumps to sixty-nine essentials. It all depends on how you feel about math, spices, and food.

My Perfect Pantry is a beautiful book. The jacket offers photographs for each item listed in the book as well as the cover shot of GZ next to a pantry. It's clean cut and concise. The jacket's theme carries through to the book. Each essential is photographed with a small introduction and a few tips followed by a couple recipes featuring the essential.

Zakarian's essentials might not suite everyone. (I personally do not purchase a couple of his listed essentials.) But that's one of the joys of cooking - trying new things or customizing a recipe to your taste. I might not be ready to chuck out all my purchased goods and start over again with 50 essentials and 19 spices, but it's definitely food for thought.

Thank you, Blogging for Books for this review copy! I enjoyed this beautiful book.

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.