I've been having a culinary cull.
Any book with fewer than a dozen well loved recipes,
which I have photocopied, hits the charity shop pile.
Gone.
Gone.
Particularly irritating that one with its cast of thousands ingredients list
and unhygenic painted wooden serving platters.
Gone.
With a little sigh of regret because really I want to go and eat there
not cook from her book, but owning it was the closest I am likely to get
to this iconic restaurant.
Gone.
Gone.
This one was a present.
A lifestyle book (the lifestyle now defunct as they no longer run
their 'boutique guest-house')
Gone.
And then, in the midst of this pleasurable exercise -
I heard a small pop and a fizz from the worktop behind me.
Nothing untoward met my first glance.
The food processor was sitting there.
I had chopped some onion and celery in it earlier.
The fizzing sound seemed to be coming from it.
So too did the curling wisps of smoke.
I unplugged it and ran to the front door,
holding it by the spindle at arm's length.
Was that foolish?
I don't know. I just wanted it out of the house.
Gone after 30 years.
My Kenwood Cuisine food processor Model A537.
R.I.P
I have just had a cookbook clear out too - I have perhaps half a dozen left - my favourite that I have had since the 70's is a Good Housekeeping one - so old and battered full of stains and no covers left - but I wouldn't be without it. Sorry to hear about your Kenwood - mine went the same way - I have replaced it but the new one hardly ever gets used).
ReplyDeleteYes I'm wondering whether to replace it. I have a liquidiser permanently out on the counter which I use a lot. Maybe I don't need another machine.
DeleteYes , we all tend to hang on to cookery books way too long but it's the recipes clipped from ancient newspapers and magazines that drive me mad
ReplyDeleteI've still got a pile of Sheila Hutchins ( ? ) clippings , just in case I want to make things like Toad in the Hole or Parkin ... not that I ever have , mind you ..
I agree, there is a separate section of readable or inspiring recipe books evolving that would not necessarily pass the dozen recipes or fewer I now realise as I embark on stage two of the cull.
ReplyDeleteThirty years is a very long food processor's life. Poor Nigella cookbooks, they are neither useful nor beautiful. I wandered in from your link at SouleMama. Nice place!
ReplyDeleteLucille, I learned a lot from this post. I've never owned any of the books that you've tossed, but have borrowed some of them from the library to get "my fill" of what they offered. Alice Waters is an interesting person, whom I had the opportunity to chat with. When she visits NYC, she usually makes a stop or two at the same farmers market I love. Yes...her restaurant is very expensive.
ReplyDeleteI've never owned a food processor, and last month did a bit of research about which might be a good investment. The research was inconclusive and actually got me off my enthusiasm for such a purchase.
That said...I'd welcome any comments folks who have bought, used, loved, or not-quite-loved particular models. If anyone wants to add such a comment here that would be great. If they want to do so over at my site or via an email to me, that would also be great.
Thank you again for this post. Glad that nothing really caught on fire in your kitchen. xo
30 years is a very good time to have a machine. I have a tiny processor, it is also a stick blender. I use it so seldom that it takes some time to locate it.
ReplyDeleteI haven't culled many food books but I have a very large pile of indifferent books to go to charity but, being carless for a while, they might remain for some time.