Review Title: Are You Hungry? (review of The No Recipe Cookbook by Dr. Samantha Pillay)

Reviewer: Janice S. Garey

***** 5 Stars

If you have a good appetite for a variety of healthy foods, and you desire to learn to cook from scratch for yourself and others, this is the book for you. It entertained me and made me feel cared for which is logical since a wise Australian medical doctor wrote the book. It serves as a crash course in cooking which is an essential life skill. It has all one needs to learn to put good food on the table day after day and lose the unhealthy habit of junk food and fast food consumption.

Many people today seem compelled to satisfy their hunger with whatever appears most convenient. Dr. Samantha Pillay teaches that if you learn the basics of cooking you can prepare ahead and make your own quick to go food that won’t bust the budget or your waistband. She gives so many excellent tips that would take years to learn by trial and error. This book fills the need of young people with no cooking experience as well as the need for those like myself who at an older age are trying to downsize the kitchen by getting rid of unnecessary equipment and tools that no longer fit a former lifestyle.

This lovely book, which contains no photos because there are no recipes, has great charm for those unfamiliar with some terms used in Australian. Biscuits are cookies; peanut paste is peanut butter; and it took me a bit of head scratching to understand that “slices” are like what we in the States know as bar cookies only they are in much greater choices including savory.

I believe most people would benefit from reading this book either for basic cooking knowledge or to streamline processes and get rid of kitchen clutter. Rather than in the format of recipes, these pages give the reader flexible instructions which list a variety of ingredients and ways to prepare them for meals. If one feels the need for more information, a quick search of the internet should provide additional helps to create the meal to your individual specifications.

I received an ebook copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for giving an honest review. I have read the book and find it to be worthy of a high recommendation to anyone who wishes to learn to cook or to enhance their enjoyment of time spent in the kitchen.