Cover Image: The Reporter's Kitchen

The Reporter's Kitchen

Pub Date:   |   Archive Date:

Member Reviews

I deeply appreciated the opportunity to read and review this book. I'll be using it's contents in my teaching and will make sure to keep an eye out for more works from this author and publisher.

Was this review helpful?

I'm such a sucker for food memoirs. When I started this book, I hadn't realized that it was a collection of essays. And while not every one personally appealed to me, I enjoyed the book overall.

Was this review helpful?

Jane Kramer’s collection of New Yorker pieces, The Reporter’s Kitchen: Essays, is more overcooked white meat than juicy dark

I wanted to like travel and food writer Jane Kramer’s The Reporter’s Kitchen: Essays more than I did–long-form pieces about chefs, restaurants, recipes, cookbooks, rituals, celebrations, Thanksgiving (!), normally turn me right on–but between the stuffy language, constant barrage of foreign vocab, and semi-inappropriate references (Coolie? a thirteen-rear-old Berber girl bride presented without comment?), reading was more a job than a joy.

Wendy Ward
http://wendyrward.tumblr.com/

Was this review helpful?

I don't think I had read any of Kramer's articles prior to reading this book, but I would definitely take a look at them in the future. I enjoyed about 80% of the essays in this collection - I LOVED the one on Yotam Ottolenghi but found the ones on Kramer personally a bit lacking. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys food memoirs!

Was this review helpful?

A collection of Kramer's articles from The New Yorker, this collection is, as I would expect, absolutely delightful. It's wonderfully written full of reflection, philosophy, insightful portraits, and interesting tales. You'll find stories as varied as the tale of the author's relation to her kitchen and her writing to a story about foraging in several locations in Europe.

I loved it!

Was this review helpful?

I'm not sure I'd read any of Jane Kramer's articles before reading this book but I love food memoirs and I figured someone who writes for the New Yorker was worth gambling on. It was an uneven reading experience. I greatly enjoyed her chef profiles, particularly the one on Yotam Ottolenghi, and I loved her essay contrasting the lack of storage in her NYC kitchen and the roomy spaciousness of her kitchen in Italy. I haven't spent much time considering kitchen storage but the essay really resonated with me and made me think about the kitchen gadgets I rarely use but feel the need to hold on to. I wish all the essays had been so thoughtful but they often seemed crammed with esoteric recollections and copious name dropping and I wasn't always sure about Kramer's larger point or theme. I'm sure people who are familiar with Kramer's work will find much to admire, however.

Was this review helpful?

I read a lot of culinary-related books. I didn't love this book, but I didn't hate it either. It reminded me somewhat of Ruth Reichl's books, of which I am a big fan.

This book is a collection of Jane Kramer's previously-published articles from The New Yorker. Many were about her life in her home New York state, and her home in Umbria, Italy. She references a lot of the same people in her articles, particularly Yotam Ottolenghi, and to a lesser extent, Naomi Duguid.

The article I enjoyed the most, interestingly enough, was the one about foraging for wild food, "The Food at Our Feet." I would never trust myself to forage for my own food, so this was strangely fascinating to me.

Jane Kramer has a light, easy-to-read style of writing which makes it a breeze to read multiple articles in one sitting. I'm not sure if I'd read more of her writing, however, in book form, as my to-read list is so long. Still, I did enjoy this book, which I received as an ARC from the publisher and NetGalley.

Was this review helpful?

Jane Kramer started cooking when she started writing. Fantastic essays for The New Yorker written from all over the world from Umbria to the Sahara to the Nordic Coast. Fun read!

Was this review helpful?

A great adventure/memoir in food and life! Very interesting and deep.

Was this review helpful?