As we did in 2021 and 2023, we're attempting to again increase book coverage in the community. After a review posts, we try to do a discussion with the reviewer. This go round, we're talking to Mike about his "THE FIVE-INGREDIENT COOKBOOK FOR MEN." Mike's mom is Trina and her website is TRINA'S KITCHEN. So tell us about the book.
Mike: Sure. Benjamin Kelly is the author, THE FIVE-INGREDIENT COOKBOOK FOR MEN is the title. I read it on KINDLE UNLIMITED. The goal of the book is to teach cooking to men who are new to cooking. And it's a failure.
You detail that in your review. You note, among other things, that ingredients are not basics that the average novice male cook is going to know.
Mike: Right. An example? A recipe calls for two tablespoons of sambal oelek. There is no explanation of what that is. It's an Indonesian sauce/paste. But reading the recipe, it's something most American men are not going to have ever heard of and without even knowing it's a sauce, they're not going to know how to find it at the grocery store. Over and over, things like that pop up that are just going to give a guy uncomfortable with or wary of cooking an excuse to put the book down.
So the book's failure?
Mike: I'd say so. He does something good early on in the intro. He noted that telling a male who doesn't cook to use a medium onion is self-defeating. Instead, say an onion the size of a baseball or an onion the size of a softball for a large onion. And you think he's going to carry that through. He does. Only with onions. He never seems to come across another way to illustrate something for males not familiar with cooking.
And the recipes?
Mike: Out of all the recipes in the book, only the one for hamburger soup and that would interest men because it was a way to use leftover hamburger patties. The rest of it? Porridge? Who the hell wants porridge?
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Previous book discussions:
"Book Talk (Stan, Rebecca, Ava and C.I.)"
"Book Talk (Mike, Ava and C.I.)"
"Book Talk (Ann, Marcia, Trina, Ava and C.I.)"